The Dominican Government is in its final week of preparations for the opening at the National Theater on Friday, 16 April at 7 pm of the II Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Association of Caribbean States. The closing of the regional event will take place at the auditorium of the new Diplomacy School built on the refurbished headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Relations on the Malec?n. President Leonel Fern?ndez himself inspected the new areas on Saturday. Confirmed for the event are: Ernesto Zedillo, Mexico who will come earlier, on 14 April for an official visit; Andr?s Pastrana, Colombia; Hugo Chavez, Venezuela; Fidel Castro, Cuba; Rene Preval, Haiti; Arnoldo Alem?n, Nicaragua; Alvaro Arz?, Guatemala; Ernesto P?rez Balladares, Panam?; Carlos Flores, Honduras. Miguel A. Rodr?guez, Costa Rica; Armando Calder?n Sol, El Salvador; Jules Wijdenbosch, Surinam; Basdeo Panday, Trinidad & Tobago; Percival Patterson, Jamaica; Manuel Esquivel; Belize; Lester B. Bird, Antigua; Janet Jagan, Guyana; Denzil Douglas, St. Kitts and Nevis and Edison C. James, Dominica. Some 6,000 persons will participate in the event, including hotel employees special security, military personnel and logistics and international and national press. During the two-day event, the statesmen will review important happenings in the region from when a first meeting was held in Port of Spain in 1995 and the positioning of the region for the new millennium.
