Editor's Note: We missed this one! Karla Jacobs was ahead of the game when she wrote her analysis of the SICA meeting and Joe Biden's visit to Central American presidents prior to the all-important Summit of the Americas - about which so much has been published in the week past. Karla's backdrop for the summit clarifies what went on prior to and behind the scenes.

- Les Blough, Editor

Two high level meetings involving Central American leaders took place last week. On March 25th an extraordinary SICA (Central American Integration System) Presidential meeting took place in Managua, Nicaragua. This meeting was organized by Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega who currently holds SICA's rotating presidency.

The main objective of the meeting was to consolidate a united regional position prior to the Summit of the Americas which will take place in Trinidad and Tobago in mid-April. Costa Rica, which has always had a supercilious attitude to the Central American integration process, chose not to send a representative to the meeting.

Five days later on March 30th US Vice-President Joe Biden met with the Presidents of most of the Central American nations in San José, Costa Rica. This meeting was called by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias at Biden's request. For Vice-President Biden, San José was the second and last stop of a trip aimed at getting a feel for Latin America's leaders' concerns and opinions going into the Americas summit at which President Barack Obama will encounter the continent's leaders for the first time.

If, as he claims, one of Biden's aims was that his trip would mark the beginning of a new phase of US-Latin American relations based on mutual respect, he was unable to deliver. In protest at what was considered the disrespectful decisions not to take into account the SICA framework for the organization of the second meeting and not to bother inviting the President of an important associate member of SICA - the Dominican Republic - neither Ortega nor Honduran President Manuel Zelaya attended the event, sending government representatives instead.
 
The Managua meeting provided clear evidence that the process of Central American integration is rapidly advancing towards its aim: the consolidation of an effective regional bloc with a view to countering intimidation of individual countries by rich nations during bilateral negotiations or at international forums. What is more, the positions to come out of the meeting put significant ideological distance between Central America and the US.

In the declaration signed at the Presidential meeting participants confirmed their "firm intention" of facilitating regional integration and unity given that it is considered "the ideal channel through which to overcome our peoples' problems."

According to the declaration the aim of agreeing on a united Central American position going to take to the Americas summit was achieved. The details of this regional position were not given but prior to the meeting, President Ortega had confirmed that one of the most important issues would be an insistence that Cuba be invited to future Americas' summits and that the US bring an end to its embargo on the Caribbean nation.

One of the important issues discussed at the Managua meeting was migration. In the declaration the Central American leaders were very critical of current US policy and practice:

• Migration issues should be removed from the US security policy and considered within the US' development agenda. ...
  
  
• [Policy surrounding migration] should prioritize family unification. ...
  
  
• The practices of mass deportation and persecution [of migrants] within the US amount to a violation of migrants' human rights.

In anticipation of the meeting with Biden in Costa Rica the SICA Presidents expressed their thoughts and positions on certain issues:

1. Diplomatic exchange and the regional organizations are the legitimate channels through which bilateral and multilateral agendas between [Central America and the US] should be discussed and analyzed.
   
   
2. The principle of mutual respect between democratically elected governments should be put into practice.
   
   
3. All interventionist practices including the use of under cover operations, parallel diplomacy and media campaigns that go against the interests of our peoples and our governments must be eliminated. ...

One of the most surprising things about the meeting was outgoing Salvadoran President Elias Saca's attitude during the press conference. Saca, who has acted as a US proxy in the region during his soon to be completed term, could easily have presented himself as an amiable dissident but chose instead to express his satisfaction with the meeting's conclusions and his enthusiasm about SICA's integration strategy.

As for the San José, Costa Rica meeting with Biden, analysts and commentators seem generally to agree that the outcome was significantly insignificant. Biden did not commit to providing any of the financial assistance requested as part of the different proposals and requests presented by the Central American leaders. The only concrete proposal he brought to the meeting was to increase the funds destined to Central America as part of the Merida Initiative from US$65 million to US$110 million.

For many analysts the most important message to come out of the meeting was that the US is unwilling (or, if Biden's statements are to be taken at face value, unable) to help the region cope with the effects of the global financial crisis.

During both the "Progressive Leaders Summit" in Chile and the meeting with the Central American leaders in Costa Rica Biden iterated and reiterated the Obama Administration's desire to "renew" relations with Latin America, to interact with the region's leaders "as equals."

It seems more than evident, however, that many if not the majority of Latin American leaders expect to see this verbal commitment played out in terms of the practical consequences of the foreign policy the US administration applies to the region before defining the conditions of their engagement with the government of President Barack Obama.

Unless Obama is able to demonstrate the political will to take a bold and unconditional move such as bringing an end to the embargo on Cuba, or implementing a humane migration law in the US, it is hard to imagine his administration's expressed desire to turn over a new leaf in terms of its relations with Latin America will come to fruition.

Karla Jacobs first visited Nicaragua in 2001. Her work with a local women's group in a severely impoverished barrio of Managua changed her life and inspired two further visits prior to moving to Nicaragua in 2003. Karla has since collaborated as a teacher, education promoter, project administrator, translator and writer with diverse Nicaraguan and international grass roots organizations. Currently she lives and works in a rural community in northern Nicaragua with her family.

Source: Tortillia con sal