This week the Costa Rican government will assume the pro tempore presidency of the Central American Integration System (SICA) for a period of six months.
Nicaragua will hand over the presidency to Costa Rica. The government announced that the vice president, Helio Fallas, and the deputy foreign minister, Alejandro Solano, will go to Managua on Monday to the summit of heads of state of this regional organization.
Starting in January, the government intends to reform several aspects of SICA to improve its effectiveness in the isthmus. Since the previous year, Costa Rica has insisted with great vehemence on the changes required by SICA, especially as a result of the migratory crisis that the country faced at the end of 2015, when President Solís demanded greater support from the other member countries.
Costa Rica will advocate, among other things, that Partner States value extending the time by which each country exercises the pro tempore presidency.
For Costa Rica, the current 6 months prevent the agreements from being monitored, a situation that is exacerbated when each country changes the agenda upon its arrival to the presidency.
In turn, it will propose reforms in the legislation of countries so that they can invest public resources in other territories, so that coordinated programs can be promoted as a whole, such as cross-border health campaigns.
The government hopes that these changes will move forward since January, as its members believe the reforms were stuck during the current presidency of Nicaragua.