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Costa Rica's president Oscar Arias appointed president of SICA...after Ortega tries a hand-off
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As of July 1, 2009, Oscar Arias, the President of Costa Rica, is the newly appointed president of the Central American Integration System (SICA). SICA is an international organization created by El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Panama. Its purpose is to realize the integration of Central America in order to promote peace, freedom, democracy and development. The SICA presidency is rotated every six months between the presidents of Central America.
According to the Nicaraguan Post, Daniel Ortega, the Nicaraguan president and the former SICA president, planned to hand the presidency to the Guatemalan president, Alvaro Colom, instead of Oscar Arias. Nicaragua, according to Manuel Coronel Kautz, the Nicaraguan vice-chancellor, explained that there were conflicting positions between Costa Rica and the rest of Central America on the issue of free mobility of Central America (known as the Central American Border Control Agreement or CA-4) and on visa agreements for Central America. Costa Rica is not a part of any such visa agreement for Central America. The vice-chancellor also stated that Costa Rica is not part of dialogue and cooperation with the EU, unlike other Central American governments.
However, Guatemala refused the SICA presidency.
SICA protocol consists of a rotation of the presidency, however, former Sandinistan Daniel Ortega had decided to by-pass the rotation and hand the presidency over to Alavaro Colom, the Guatemalan president. The action by Ortega has been deemed disrespectful and hostile by Costa Rica.
According to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists, Daniel Ortega: lashes out at critics, lashes out at the media, keeps himself isolated, does not share his political agenda, his government officials are inaccessible, and his government centralizes communication to avoid disagreement. Also according to the report, international donors, including the US and the EU, have seen the deterioration of civil institutions and systematic fraud in municipal elections as indications that the government is not committed to democracy.
The report states that his autocratic tendencies are an obstacle to the struggle for democracy in Nicaragua.
It seems that his autocratic tendency kicked in again in his break from SICA protocol while attempting to hand the presidency to Guatemala.
While the SICA president, Ortega made the issue of US immigration a priority. According to a May 20th Tico Times article, as the issue of US immigration is a major concern for Central America, Daniel Ortega, said the following during a political rally on May 18th, “All of us (members of SICA) are bothered, and rightly so, when the United States grabs Central Americans, pursues them, grabs them and throws them on a plane to send them back to their own countries, as if they were animals being chased in the United States. “This is not just, it's not humane, it's not Christian, and it's not democratic. They are discriminating against us like they did against the blacks in the United States in the 1960s.” He added that rights issues for Central Americans living in the US is “always first place” on the SICA agenda.
According to the Nica Times, Ortega, seen as an “integrationist,” was sworn in as SICA president in January 2009. During his SICA presidency, Ortega spoke of strengthening trade between Central American countries. Prior to his presidency, he addressed SICA in Honduras and confused members when it appeared that his ideological enthusiasm for the Venezuelan-inspired Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) was influencing his calls for integration. Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala are not interested in the ALBA leftist cooperation accord. Apparently, he was more careful while he was the SICA president.
As the new SICA president, Arias may uphold rights issues as a priority, however only time will tell what his priorities will be. At the moment, he is calling for more political and economic sanctions against the recently installed Honduran government and a stronger stance by the US to return the ousted Zelaya back to power.
According to a July 1st Tico Times article, Arias released this statement on Monday, “What happened in Honduras is a setback for democracy in Central America and Latin America. We thought we had turned the page on coups in the last century. But (it is evident) that we did not.”
While Arias was the SICA president in July 2006, in response to the EU’s demands that the Corte Centraomericana de Justicia (CCJ) be used to resolve trade disputes and EU insistence on an expanded role for the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), he questioned the jurisdiction and formation of the CCJ and was fed up with the performance of the PARLACEN.
At that time, Costa Rica called for the creation of a new regional arbitrator for trade disputes. Costa Rica is not a member of PARLACEN, while Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama are. Costa Rica is not a member of the CCJ.
In a February 27th article in Nacion.com, Manuel Coronel, the Nicaraguan Deputy Foreign Minister, said that "the refusal by Costa Rica, reiterated this week by Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno, to integrate regional institutions such as PARLACEN (the regional parliament) or the Central American Court of Justice has thrown a 'bucket of cold water' on the aspirations of completing the negotiations with Europe." While Roberto Echandi, chief negotiator for Costa Rica, said, "Those are not the subjects of the negotiation. I do not see how Costa Rica can throw a 'bucket of cold water' on something that the EU itself is not requesting."
True. According to a January 29th article published in elfinancierocr.com, the EU gave in on its desire that Central American representation would be exclusively by the PARLACEN. The EU accepted that a member of its Legislative Assembly would represent Costa Rica. Other Central American countries will be represented by PARLACEN.
The new president of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli, upon assuming power this month, announced that he intends to take the necessary steps to withdraw from PARLACEN. He also intends to withdraw from the CCJ.
