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Marty Offline OP
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Mayors and village council leaders from across the country gathered in Belize City today where they discussed practical ways in which autonomy within local government can be bolstered. The workshop, organized by the Central American Integration System (SICA), comes just three weeks after Municipal Elections were held. Among the many issues discussed was crime and violence. According to Enrique Carballo, Belize has been identified as a member state in need of assistance in addressing the growing problem.

 

Enrique Carballo, Executive Secretary, Belize Mayor's Association

"This is a consultation process on municipal autonomy and the strengthening of local governments and we have an extra arm of SICA that is present to give our participants a view on democratic security in Central America."

 

Isani Cayetano

Enrique Carballo

"In terms of the overall objective and your ability to implement what you're learning today what are some of the tangible things that we can look forward to in the months to come?"

 

Enrique Carballo

"Okay, what we are doing firstly, is a process of integration that we want to integrate Belize as part, which is a part geographically, of Central America. And now we are fully trying to integrate Belize in these events of government, local governments and in our national and local securities. So it's something that will benefit Belize in getting more experience, in opening to what can be some of the solutions to our local government's autonomy, to our strengthening of local governments and the security since we are having a lot of violence and a lot of those things here in Belize."

 

Isani Cayetano

"Seeing as though that has been identified as one of the factors or the issues, how do you see this going in terms of strengthening security for either Belize City, for instance, or for any other municipality within the country?"

 

Enrique Carballo

"Well it looks good. I think we are positive on it and we had the director of democratic security present here which he definitely made an effort to be here so that he can make a presentation and he gave us a nice presentation of the strategies that can be used and is being used in certain Central American countries and he said that definitely Belize will need some assistance and he is open to all of this."

 

The initiative promotes national consultations in an effort to better understand local needs that will be included in a draft Municipal Autonomy Charter, to be presented at the upcoming SICA Heads of State and Government Summit. This event was made possible through financial support from the Andalucia International Agency for Development Cooperation.

Channel 5


Joined: Oct 1999
Posts: 84,397
Marty Offline OP
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SICA Will Have Greater Presence In Belize

The Central American Integration System, SICA will be making its presence more pronounced in Belize. That is after SICA Secretary General visited with Belize's foreign minister, Wilfred Elrington.

Elrington explained that he would wish to see SCIA become as well known as CARICOM in Belize:..

Hon. Sedi Elrington
"We think it is exceedingly important that the Belizean public know much more about what is going on between Belize and SICA. It's an integration movement similar to what is happening in Caricom."

"We are very convinced that we can't have a real integration movement unless the people, the ordinary people in the society are fully aware of what is being done at every step of the way."

Dr. Juan Daniel Aleman Gurdian, New Secretary General of SICA
"I think this working visit is oriented to obtain and to read the interest of Belize in the Central American System and of course to make compatible the national interest of Belize with the regional interest of SICA."

Hon. Sedi Elrington
"The initiative is to set up two sub-regional offices here in Belize to strengthen the work of SICA as it relates to Caricom."

Secretary General Gurdian was also pressed to comment on the controversial meeting convened last week in Guatemala by President Otto Perez Molina.

The meeting was not a SICA meeting - though all Central American Countries were invited. That caused a little diplomatic stir, but nothing like the seismic shudder felt when Perez Molina suggested that decriminalization of the use and transshipment of all illicit drugs in central America.

Secretary General Gurdian stumbled a bit on this one, and said he had no comment:..

Dr. Juan Daniel Aleman Gurdian, New Secretary General of SICA
"I am not going to comment because this is a matter for the leadership for Central America. I prefer not to speak further than the initiative. It is totally understandable that one person of SICA system wants to speak about one initiative of course."

SICA will have its own meeting on April 11th and 12th - where security issues including drug trafficking are expected to be discussed. That meeting precedes the summit of the Americas 2012 which will be held on April 14th and 15th in Colombia. The issue of decriminalization of illicit drugs is also expected to come up at that meeting.

Channel 5



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