Establishing a SICA Office in Belize
Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington
According to Aleman and Elrington, establishing a regional SICA office in Belize will make certain that the political and security issues facing the nation will be addressed in a timely manner.
Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington, Minister of Foreign Affairs
“It’s an initiative to set up two sub regional offices here in Belize to strengthen the work of SICA as it relates to CARICOM. I’ll let the Secretary General elaborate on that as well.”
Juan Daniel Aleman Gurdian
Juan Daniel Aleman Gurdian
“What we are looking at is a capacity to act upon or promote and to implement the decisions made by the countries at the SICA system. So if we have a representative here in each country, of course in Belize, we are going to have a traction. We are going to have a very fast implementation and not only in the political affairs but in the security affairs. So I think this will be very helpful for the whole system and the perspective to account with the subsidiaries here in Belize the performance will be in that shape. Thank you.”
Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington
“So basically we will have somebody being paid by SICA, two persons really, living and operating in Belize; one to deal with the political initiatives, to make sure that all the mandates that are taken by SICA are implemented and of course in the area of security as well, some person who will be on the ground here to ensure that all the security initiatives are implemented.”
Honduras is currently the president pro tempore of SICA. The presidency rotates every six months.
Belize stands to gain more from a sica initiative and integration more than from caricom even if our politicians are naive or do not want to accept it. We share our north, south and west borders with them. Geogrpahically it makes more sense and in terms of commerce, competition and productivity it all makes sense. I have seen nothing that benefits belize from our caricom integration. However, its good to be part of both.
Tanya, you are very right. We are the bridge that connects the Caribbean Community and Central America. We should taking advantage of this fact. Tons of Central American (more than now) students should be enrolling at the RLC…to learn English as a second language. That should be our target. We are the only English speaking country in Central America. We should be running things.