President Danilo Medina left for Costa Rica this morning, Friday 3 May to participate in the Central American Integration System (SICA) meeting on Saturday, 4 May. He will be meeting with Central American presidents and United States President Barack Obama who is attending as an observer.
Obama’s meeting with the SICA member countries heads of state and government provides “a good opportunity to discuss our collective efforts to promote economic growth and development in Central America and our cooperation on security matters,” a US Department of State release says.
Medina is also scheduled to meet with regional business representatives at an event organized by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The SICA member countries are Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic. The DR has a free trade agreement with Central America, with which it also shares the DR-CAFTA agreement.
Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla says she hopes the summit will provide an opportunity to discuss cooperation in combating drug trafficking, economic development and use of alternative energy sources.
On Sunday, Medina is scheduled to visit Venezuela, accepting an invitation from his colleague Nicolas Maduro for a Sunday, 5 May meeting in Isla Margarita along with heads of state of other 15 regional countries that benefit from the PetroCaribe oil agreement. The invitation comes at a time when opposition leader Henrique Capriles is disputing Maduro’s election victory, and has called for a recount.
Interestingly, the private plane that departed from La Isabela International Airport in northern Santo Domingo was delayed by half an hour when the CDEEE vice president Ruben Jimenez Bichara realized he had left his passport at home.
Medina is traveling with Administrative Minister of the Presidency Jose Ramon Peralta, Minister of Industry and Commerce Jose del Castillo, Minister of Interior and Police Jose Ramon Fadul, Prosecutor General Francisco Dominguez Brito, and CDEEE vice president Ruben Jimenez Bichara, his chief of the military corps Major General Adan Caceres and his personal assistant Carlos Pared Perez. He will be joined in Venezuela by Minister of Hacienda Simon Lizardo Mezquita.