San Pedro hosts two summits in one day

It used to be that an international summit meeting in Belize would have the whole country in a panic. But tomorrow on Ambergris, Caye not one, but two heads of government meetings will be taking place. The first involves the Central American grouping SICA and the second adds Mexico and Colombia, constituting the Tuxtla and Plan Puebla mechanisms. We spoke to C.E.O. in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amalia Mai, for a preview.

Amalia Mai, C.E.O., Ministry of Foreign Affairs
“In the morning the president of SICA, which is the Central American movement and the Dominican Republic will be looking at regional security, issues of education, energy issues, and that will conclude with a declaration that will be signed by all of Central America. In the afternoon the agenda is a little bit different because it also includes Mexico and part of the dialogue will also include Colombia, which is a member of the Plan Puebla Panama, which is a part of Tuxtla. They don’t participate in the entire summit; they participate only in issues relevant to Plan Puebla. That agenda will deal with issues very relevant to our region as well in respect of regional security, migration, commercial/economic issues, as well as cooperation issues that are taking place in the Plan Puebla.”

At the SICA meeting Belize will hand over the rotating six month presidency of the group to Guatemala. Mexican President Felipe Calderon will stay over for a state visit on Saturday, with a series of events confined to Belmopan.