24 heads of government from the Caribbean area are expected Friday, 16 April to land in the Las Americas International Airport from 2 to 5 pm. They will be received there by President Leonel Fern?ndez and his cabinet. Visiting statesmen coming for the Association of Caribbean States Heads of Government Summit are are Presidents Andr?s Pastrana, Colombia; Hugo Chavez, Venezuela; Ernesto Zedillo, Mexico (who will arrive earlier for an official visit); Miguel Angel Rodr?guez Echavarr?a, Costa Rica; Fidel Castro, Cuba; Armando Calder?n Sol, El Salvador; Alvaro Arz? Yrigoyen, Guatemala; Janet Jagan, Guyana; Rene Preval, Haiti; Carlos Roberto Flores, Honduras; Arnoldo Alem?n, Nicaragua; Ernesto P?rez Balladares, Panam?; Jules Wijdenbosch, Surinam. Also the prime ministers: Hubert A. Ingreham, Bahamas; Said Musa, Belize; Edison C. James, Dominica; Keith Claudius Mitchell, Grenada; Percival Patterson, Jamaica; Kenny Anthony, Santa Lucia and Basdeo Panday, Trinidad & Tobago. According to a update in Hoy newspaper, the countries agreed to issue a joint declaration requesting the banning of nuclear cargo through the Caribbean zone, the declaration of the area as a zone of natural disasters, and a motion in favor of sustainable tourism and the defense of the Caribbean Sea. During the meeting, the Strategic Alliance of the Caribbean, proposed by President Leonel Fern?ndez during the first summit held in Santo Domingo last year, will be discussed. The strategic alliance would create a free trade area of goods, services, between the countries of CARICOM, Central America, Panama, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, a market of more than 60 million consumers, an exercise in intra-regional free trade in preparation for our integration into the Free Trade Area Agreement in 2005 and into the global economy.
