Central American presidents are scheduled to meet on Thursday, but are unlikely to elect SICA’s new secretary

Seven months have passed, and it remains to be seen The dilemma In the Secretariat of the Central American Integration System (SICA) whether it will be resolved or not will be resolved in the coming days. The heads of state that make up the regional organization are scheduled to meet on Thursday, June 27, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

The President of the Central American Parliament (Parlasín), Silvia Garcia Polanco, of Honduras, stated in a press statement that, following the efforts made by Honduran President Chiomara Castro to revitalize and strengthen the institutionalization of SICA, presidents and heads of state and Isthmus will hold a meeting in Honduras.

Read also: Can the election of the Secretary-General of SICA go ahead? These are the possible scenarios

“We wish you every success in this meeting,” Garcia said. Honduras currently holds the interim presidency of the CICA system and must transfer it to Nicaragua by the second half of 2024.

The dictatorship of Daniel Ortega threatened countries not to assume the interim presidency of the organization due to the failure to elect one of its officials to the General Secretariat, but they backed down days later.

The election is unlikely to be addressed

The General Secretariat of SICA has remained vacant since mid-November 2023, when Nicaraguan official Werner Vargas resigned from the position to which he was elected at the suggestion of Nicaragua, during the period 2022-2026.

Vargas came to fill the vacant position of SICA Secretariat 13 months after the first Impasse, After the departure of Vinicio Cerezo, the former Secretary General of the organization, who failed to be re-elected to this position, as proposed at the time by the Ortega dictatorship.

According to experts on regional integration issues, the problem is unlikely to be solved. The dilemma But the SICA system suffers due to the lack of interest on the part of countries in this issue.

Read also: Chiomara Castro will mediate with her counterparts to elect a new Secretary General of SICA

La Prensa newspaper asked Arnoldo Andre Tinoco, Costa Rica’s Foreign Minister, whether this meeting would address the election of SICA’s Secretary General, and he merely responded, “It is an issue in development, (but) nothing has been agreed.” On “.even to my knowledge.”

Carlos Murillo Zamora, an expert in international law and integration issues and professor at the University of Costa Rica (UCR), stated that at the moment within SICA “nothing is happening,” and added that in his opinion “the government is not interested, unfortunately, and nothing is known about the SICA system here.” In Costa Rica.

Honduran President Castro visited Rodrigo Chavez, in Costa Rica, and Bernardo Arévalo, in Guatemala, where the leaders, according to Honduran Foreign Ministry reports, committed to “revitalizing” Cica and in turn participating in a Central American presidential summit, although they did not specify a date.

However, according to Murilo Zamora, “There is no greater interest in SICA, I think it was the commitment of Xiomara Castro that forced Chavez to say yes.”

Regarding what can be expected from the meeting, he said: “Frankly, it is just talk and offers. Unless they have already coordinated something and agreed on something specific, but I have a hard time with that, remember it’s by consensus. But that doesn’t mean it’s not possible.”

The problem lies in the official Ortega wants to impose

Euclid Tapia, professor of international relations at the University of Panama, pointed out that the problem with electing the Secretary-General lies in the official that Ortega wants to impose in the General Secretariat of SICA.

“The official they chose ‘resigned’, there was no problem, it was accepted, even though it was proposed by the Nicaraguan government, and now it turns out that he resigned, which is strange, the problem is that they want to appoint someone.” last. He pointed out, “Who will this new official respond to, before Nicaragua or before the regional organization?”

Two days after Vargas’ resignation, on November 17, 2023, in a letter sent by Ortega’s Foreign Minister Denis Moncada to CICA members, she proposed a dictatorship Waldrack Janicki WhittakerAdvisory Minister for Policy and International Affairs; Violeta Erias Nelson, representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office for the Defense of Human Rights in Balawi; And the representative iris Marina Montenegro Blandon Representing the country during the period corresponding to the General Secretariat of the regional organization.

However, none have yet received the approval of SICA Member States and have therefore not been elected to the position of Secretary-General.

Tapia believes that Nicaragua does not have the necessary support to elect one of these three officials. “Nicaragua has the vote of Honduras, and apparently the vote of Guatemala, because it is not ideological but is interested in not continuing to be paralyzed… the vote of Belize, while Costa Rica may be the country that disagrees with that,” he noted. He noted that in the case of Panama and the Dominican Republic, no We know, and in El Salvador, the character of Mr. Nayib Bukele is unpredictable.

For this reason, he pointed out that “if it is by consensus, and if none of the countries agree to it, there is no way out of the crisis, and for those who oppose, there is no longer consensus.” He added: “This is not moving forward because the official is responding to Ortega and not to the regional organization.”