Foreign ministers from Mexico, Colombia, Dominican Republic, and select Central American countries are meeting today in the Mexican town of San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas to discuss security, narcotrafficking, bilateral trade, and agricultural production. The meeting is a follow-up to the commitments made at the December 5, 2011, Tuxtla Summit as well as the February 20, 2013, summit in Costa Rica that included Mexico and the Sistema de Integración Centroamericana (The Central American Integration System—SICA).
Mexican Foreign Secretary José Antonio Mead is leading the meeting that also includes representatives from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica (Central American Bank for Economic Integration—BCIE), and the Sistema de Integración Centroamericana (The Central American Integration System—SICA), among others.
The border discussion includes a focus on security and information sharing as well as the improvement of border posts and crossings. The head of Mexico’s Sistema de Administratcion Tributaria (Tax Administration Service—SATY), Aristóteles Núñez Sánchez, is presenting ongoing infrastructure projects being developed along the Mexican border.
On the agriculture front, the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture is expected to highlight threats to the region’s agricultural development, including an epidemic of coffee leaf rust caused by a fungus that threatens the cultivation and harvest of coffee across Central America.
