Today San Pedro Town and northern Ambergris Caye were bustling with activity as the Presidents of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador and contingents from other Central American nations descended on the island.
It's the 36th. Annual Summit for SICA Heads of State and Government. The summit comes as Belize holds the rotating chairmanship of SICA - which it will hand over at year's end.
Jim McFadzean has been on San Pedro since morning and he has this report:….
Jim McFadzean Reporting
Topping the agenda at the 36 Summit of SICA was the border dispute between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Shortly before the official opening ceremonies got under way Guatemala's President Alvaro Colom read a prepared statement to the media expressing his governmnet colaboration with Mexico in facilating dialogue between the two.
Jim Mcfadzean
"Even ahead of today's meeting Salvador's President Mauricio Funes was signaling the use of today's meeting as a opportunity to broker a truce agreement between the two feuding countries."
Prime Minister of Belize Dean Barrow, the outgoing SICA President was ask whether he had an opportunity to meet with Guatemala's President Alvaro Colom to discuss the existing border dispute between Belize and Guatemala.
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"President Colom and I did not had a chance to have any private discussion but you would be interested in knowing that during the course of the ministerial meetings Minister Rojas , the Foreign Minister of Guatemala , during the discussions with the problem with Costa Rica and Nicaragua that the manner in which Belize and Guatemala attempt to live together as good neighbors even as we acknowledge the existence of the dispute, the existence of the problem could and should serve as a model for the way in which states in which with differences them ought to proceed."
Border issues aside there are even more immediate challenges such as human and drug trafficking coupled with illicit trade and organize crime.
Prime Minister Dean Barrow
"The majority of the time during the Summit was spent on the discussion of the regional security situation and that involve looking at all aspects including cross border crime, including human trafficking. There is a need for even closer collaboration among Central American states so that together and with the assistance of the SICA secretariat we might be able craft proposals for the solution for the security problem that would be all encompassing and that could seek to concentrate as much on the need for the social interventions required to deal with this problem as on the interdiction efforts."
Three head of states were absent from this Summit. The President of Panama could not make it because of a flood disaster n his country but no reason is given for the no shows by the Presidents of Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
With four of its member states in broil in long standing border disputes the future and viability of this regional institution remains in doubt.
Prime Minister Dean Barrow is the outgoing Chairman of SICA and at the end of today's summit he passed that post over to Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom - who will hold it for the next six months…..
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