Central American Integration System

History

First Central American Court of Justice

Between 14 November and 20 December 1907, after a proposal by Mexico and the United States, five Central American nations (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua) took part in the Central American Peace Conference in Washington, D.C. sponsored by United States Secretary of State Elihu Root. The five nations, all former Spanish colonies, had previously tried to form a political alliance. Their first attempt was the Federal Republic of Central America, and the most recent effort was the founding of the Republic of Central America 11 years earlier.

The participants concluded the conference with an agreement creating the Central American Court of Justice (Corte de Justicia Centroamericana). The court would remain in effect for ten years from the final ratification, and communication would be through the government of Costa Rica. It was composed of five judges, one from each member state. The court heard ten cases, five of which were brought by private individuals (and declared inadmissible) and three begun by the court. The court operated until April 1918 from its headquarters in Costa Rica; despite efforts beginning in March 1917 (when Nicaragua submitted a notice of termination of the agreement), it then dissolved.

Reasons for the agreement's failure include:

• No effective system of judicial procedure
• Judges were not independent of their respective governments.
• Jurisdiction was too broad to satisfy its member states.

Organization of Central American States

At the end of World War II, interest in integrating the Central American governments began. On 14 October 1951 (33 years after the CACJ was dissolved) the governments of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua signed a treaty creating the Organization of Central American States (Organización de Estados Centroamericanos, or ODECA) to promote regional cooperation and unity. The following year (12 December 1952), ODECA's charter was amended to create a new Central American Court of Justice (Corte Centroamericana de Justicia, or CCJ) without the time limit of its previous incarnation.

The Charter of San Salvador was ratified by all Central American governments, and on 18 August 1955 their foreign ministers attended its first meeting in Antigua Guatemala. The Declaration of Antigua Guatemala authorized subordinate organizations of ODECA to facilitate economic cooperation, better sanitation and progress in the "integral union" of the Central American nations.{{cite web | access-date=2006-05-22 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061005003041/http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1969/mar-apr/smithl.html | archive-date=2006-10-05 | url-status=dead

The Central American Common Market, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE) and the Secretariat for Central American Economic Integration (SIECA) were established by the five Central American nations on 13 December 1960 at a conference in Managua. All nations ratified the membership treaties the following year. Costa Rica joined the CACM in 1963, but Panama had not yet joined. The organization froze during the 1969 war between Honduras and El Salvador; in 1973 ODECA was suspended, and progress toward regional integration ground to a halt.

Revival

In 1991 the integration agenda advanced with the creation of the SICA, which provided a legal framework to resolve disputes between member states. SICA was supported by the United Nations General Assembly in a resolution of 20 December 1993. SICA includes seven Central America nations and the Dominican Republic, which is part of the Caribbean. Central America has several supranational institutions, such as the Central American Parliament, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration and the Central American Common Market. The Central America trade bloc is governed by the General Treaty for Economical Integration (the Guatemala Protocol), which was signed on 29 October 1993. The CACM has removed duties on most products throughout the member countries, and has unified external tariffs and increased trade within its members. The bank has five non-regional members: Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, the Republic of China and Spain.

All SICA members are also part of the Mesoamerica Project, which includes Mexico and Colombia. Haiti admitted to join SICA in 2013 as a regional observer and the Dominican Republic became a full member on 27 June 2013.

Expulsions and rejections

Guatemala, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica appealed SICA to expel Nicaragua from SICA membership and reject admission of Russia as a SICA extra-regional observer due to Daniel Ortega regime's support for Russia during the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war since 2014.

Members and observers

Member states

Regional observers

• Argentina
• Bolivia
• Brazil
• Canada
• Chile
• Colombia
• Ecuador
• Haiti
• Mexico
• Peru
• United States
• Uruguay

Extra-regional observers

• Australia
• Egypt
• European Union
• France
• Georgia
• Germany
• Greece
• Holy See
• Italy
• Japan
• South Korea
• Morocco
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Sovereign Military Order of Malta
• Qatar
• Russia
• Serbia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Taiwan
• Turkey
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom

Economic integration

{{anchor|Prospects for a Central American Currency Union}}Unified Central American currency

The Central American Bank for Economic Integration has not introduced its own common currency, and dollarization is possible. However, for formal purposes the US Dollar is sometimes referred to as "Central American Peso" pegged 1:1 to the Dollar. There are no coins or notes in this currency and it is little known outside of legal circles. Central America is increasing its regional economic development, accelerating its social, political and economic integration. The region has diversified output and price and wage flexibility; however, there is a lack of business-cycle synchronization, dissimilar levels of public-sector debt, diverging inflation rates and low levels of intra-regional trade.

{{anchor|Policy Integration}}Policy integration

In the parliamentary body are proposals to consider regional air travel as domestic travel, to eliminate roaming fees on telephone calls and to create a regional penitentiary (affiliated with the Central American Court of Justice) to address regional trafficking and international crimes.

Headquarters

SICA's administrative centre is located in San Salvador, El Salvador.

Institutions

Central American Parliament

Main article: Central American Parliament

Parlacen was born as a parliamentary body emulating the Federal Republic of Central America, with Costa Rica an observer. It evolved from the Contadora Group, a project launched during the 1980s to deal with civil wars in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Although the Contadora Group was dissolved in 1986, the concept of Central American integration is implicitly referenced in several countries' constitutions. The Esquipulas Peace Agreement (among other acts) agreed to the creation of a Central American Parliament composed of 20–22 directly-elected deputies from each country. Costa Rica has not ratified the agreement, and is not represented in the Parlacen. Parlacen is seen by some (including former President of Honduras Ricardo Maduro) as a white elephant.

Central American Court of Justice

The CCJ's mission is to promote peace in the region and the unity of its member states. The Court has jurisdiction to hear cases:

• Between member states
• Between a member state and a non-member state accepting the court's jurisdiction
• Between states and a resident of a member state
• Concerning the integration process between SICA and member states (or persons)

The court may offer consultation to the region's supreme courts. In 2005, it ruled that Nicaraguan congressional reforms (which removed control of water, energy and telecommunications from President Enrique Bolaños) were "legally inapplicable". As of July 2005, the CCJ had made 70 resolutions since hearing its first case in 1994.

{{anchor|System bodies}}Organizations

• Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica, BCIE)
• Central American Common Market (CACM; Mercado Común Centroamericano, MCCA)
• Central American Court of Justice (CCJ)
• Central American Armed Forces Conference (Conferencia de las Fuerzas Armadas Centroamericanas, CFAC)
• Central American Parliament (Parlamento Centroamericano, PARLACEN)
  • Plenum
  • Board of Parliament
  • Secretariat
• President's Summit
  • Comité Consultivo (CC-SICA)
  • Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs
  • Executive Committee (CE-SICA)
  • Vice President's Summit
  • Secretariat General (SG-SICA) cite web |access-date=2006-06-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060622023032/http://ec.europa.eu/comm/external_relations/ca/index.htm |archive-date=2006-06-22
• Central American Educational and Cultural Cooperation (CECC)

Notes

References

Bibliography

• Ishmael, Odeen (July 2007). Guyana Journal (2007-07): Advancing Integration Between Caricom and Central America
• Kimitch, Rebecca (15 July 2005). Commission Studies Impeachment, Tico Times.

References

1. "<span lang{{=}}"es">Estados y Organismos observadores".
2. (2024). "Central American Integration System". [[Union of International Associations]].
3. "United Nations list of observing international organizations".
4. "<span lang{{=}}"es">El Sistema De La Integracion Centroamericana - New York".
5. "General Treaty on Central American Economic Integration between Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua signed at Managua, on 13 December 1960".
6. (20 December 1993). "The situation in Central America: Procedures for the establishment of a firm and lasting peace and progress in fashioning a region of peace, freedom, democracy and development". United Nations General Assembly.
7. (2013-06-27). "<span lang{{=}}"es">Jefes de Estado y Gobierno del SICA celebran su 41 Cumbre Ordinaria". Secretaría General del Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana.
8. (3 December 2024). "Four Countries Reject Ortega's Candidate for SICA Secretary General". Confidencial.
9. (24 April 2023). "<span lang{{=}}"es">El SICA, el Caballo de Troya de Ortega para expandir presencia de Rusia en Centroamérica". Expediente Público.
10. Instituto Geográfico Nacional del Registro Nacional. (2 July 2021). "Actualización en el Cálculo de las Áreas Continental e Insular de Costa Rica".
11. Bulmer-Thomas, Victor and A. Douglas Kincaid. Central America 2020: Towards a New Regional Development Model. USAID. EU Commission. 2000
12. Digital, El 19. "<span lang{{=}}"es">El 19 Digital - Portal de Noticias de Nicaragua".
13. European Parliament Directorate General for External Policies. (22 November 2004). "Information Note on Central America".
14. Iustel. (1 January 2018). "<span lang{{=}}"es">Revista General de Derecho Europeo - Sumario N.º 44 ENERO 2018".
15. "Central American Bank for Economic Integration".
16. [http://www.ccj.org.ni/ Official website of the CCJ] {{Webarchive. link. (28 December 2008 (Spanish language))
17. "History of the CACJ from WorldCourts".
18. "CACJ history page from PICT".
19. http://www..resdal.org/ebook/AtlasRESDAL2010-eng/print/page72.pdf (Spanish language)
20. "<span lang{{=}}"es">Conferencia de las Fuerzas Armadas Centroamericanas".
21. "<span lang{{=}}"es">Inicio {{pipe}} Coordinación Educativa y Cultural Centroamericana (CECC SICA)".