CARICOM Day 2 In San Pedro

Right now in San Pedro, the CARICOM thirty third intersessional meeting is wrapping up with a press conference. That started at 6:00 pm and the press conference is expected to cover all the major points of discussion.

Jules Vasquez is there and we hope to have a report from that later in the news.

But, his report tonight focusses on tomorrow's summit with SICA, which started taking shape today:

A fast moving convoy announced the arrival of the Vice President of El Salvador, Felix Ulloa - who walked the red carpet on the North End road, not on the Grand Caribe pier. After the formalities, he was ushered into the Grand Caribe lobby, the first dignitary to arrive for the CARICOM-SICA Summit - which started tomorrow with him, two Minister's of Foreign Affairs from Honduras and Panama, and two presidents, Costa Rica's Alvaro Quesada and Guatemala's Alejandro Giamateei - who arrives tomorrow.

And while they will have high level meetings in the "West Room" - out on South San Pedro - it's more like "who dat?":

Jules Vasquez
"Do you know what Caricom is?"

Brian Burke, Tour Agent
"Caribbean communities, something like that. I know a thing or two about it because I had to get a Caricom passport to travel in the past. Other than that I don't really know what's going on. We haven't been properly informed."

Jules Vasquez
"If you had one message to give those Caricom leaders, the SICA leaders are coming - that's Central America, what would be that message?"

Brian Burke, Tour Agent
"The message I would give to these Caricom leaders and all these people: lets really do this, come together and figure out the best way for the people to live and make their money, because Corona really have a lot of people in a lot of bills."

Jules Vasquez
"Do you know anything about this, do you care anything about this?"

"Carvin' Marvin" Vernon, Craft Vendor
"Well yeah its a Caribbean country for us to get our act together, because after covid everybody got loose, so that is good for the island and its good for the country."

Jose Quiroz, Jungle Water Adventures
"No idea boss, no idea. I mean after covid all we do is work. Caricom, cari-gone like you said, we just got to work, no matter who is here. Its all about making the money right now."

Jules Vasquez
"Are you even aware of what the Caricom meeting is about?"

San Pedro Resident
"No, actually I'm not. Actually, there's been a lot of security and restrictions on traffic and things like that for security purposes, but as far as the purpose of the meeting, I'm afraid I'm ignorant of that."

Jules Vasquez
"Do you know what Caricom is?"

San Pedro Resident
"No, I don't."

Jules Vasquez
"Do you even know what Caricom is?"

Leticia Caliz, San Pedro resident
"I think its Caribbean Community."

Jules Vasquez
"If you had one message for all those prime ministers and Central American presidents, if you had one message for them, what would you say to them?"

Leticia Caliz, San Pedro resident
"The foreign ones, I don't have anything to tell them, but for my government, my prime minister, well thank you Mr. Johnny Briceno for doing a great job so far. We have to say thing are expensive, because they are going up, but this covid really knock us out and things are getting better, so for me its good."

Jules Vasquez
"What would be your message to them."

"Carvin' Marvin" Vernon, Craft Vendor
"Well, my real message to them is that when you come to Belize, you come to paradise. Learn from us, because we have a lot to teach you. With the calmness we have a nice country and we have some nice people, because right now everybody don't have their heads on their body. Everyone is living like a loose chicken. What I'm saying to them is just come and enjoy Belize, make sure you take back something positive from us and lets work together to have a better and a better Central American."

The press conference is underway and we'll give you a live look later.

Channel 7

CARICOM - Heads of Government Closing Press Conference.