CENTRAL AMERICA-POLITICS: Unity on Independence Day

By Thelma Mejía Reprint | | Print |

Thelma Mejia

TEGUCIGALPA, Sep 14 1997 (IPS) - Central American nations will commemorate Monday the 176th anniversary of their independence from Spain with their sights set on integrating their economic, political and social life in the next century.

At a meeting last week in Managua, heads of state of the isthmus announced their intention of promoting gradual political integration so as to consolidate their position in the face of globalization – but also to fulfill the old dream of the independence hero, Honduran Francisco Morazan.

Morazan was the main force behind regional unity, and while a Confederation of Central American States was created in the middle of the 19th century, this dream died when Morazan was shot for “treason” in Costa Rica, 21 years before independence.

The death of the Central American hero truncated in part the dream of unity and, although but other independence leaders took up the cause, it wasn’t until the 1960’s that the first process of economic integration began. It failed due to conflicts of interest and internal wars in the regioon prevented this project from moving forward.

The signing of peace agreements in 1987, has strengthened the dream of achieving integration in the 1990s.

For now, regional unity is characterized more by the signing of documents than by concrete actions. However, everything seems to indicate that this time, the process will be irreversible.

Driven by the dynamics of the international economic system, the Central American countries have developed a platform of institutional integration, and they have already established the Central American Court of Justice and a legislative forum, the Central American Parliament (Parlacen).

The president of Honduras, Carlos Reina, says it is absolutely necessary to revise these institutions, strengthen the process of integration, and “progress rapidly in establishing political unity, not as an ideal, but as something more practical.”

“If we continue on our own, only speaking about economic integration, we will falter, and we will have lost precious time,” says Reina, a position shared by his counterpart in El Salvador, Armando Calderon Sol.

“Without political integration, the economic union may continue in perpetuity but it will not achieve substantive gains. I believe that by the end of this year we will have achieved political unity, which will fulfill the old dream of Morazan,” says Reina, whose admiration for the Central American independence hero is well known.

The Honduran president’s optimism is a marked contrast from the cautious adherence of the Costa Rican government, and the frontal opposition of some political sectors, who have harshly criticized the Costa Rican president, Jose Maria Figueres, for subscribing to the declaration of political unity.

Costa Rica has endorsed the political union on the condition that the processes of demilitarization are consolidated, and that there is more progress in promoting sustainable development and in combatting poverty.

Reina admits that the Costa Rican position made sense, but he warns that the dynamism of the globalization process “suggests that the time of each country being on its own is disappearing, and there is little time to waste.”

“Those sectors who oppose integration have very particular interests. We must struggle to convince them of the importance of political unity, in which the independence of each country will be respected. We will act as a single State when we negotiate with different international blocs,” he says.

Roberto Herrera, former secretary of the Central American Integration System, says that the legal tools for achieving regional political unity are in place, and that a “referendum” and the approval of “civil society” is the final requirement for it to become a reality.

“The institutional mechanisms of integration must be highly rational and efficient, and their objective should be to recognize the value of the participation of all the countries of the isthmus,” says Herrera.

Organizations of Central American civil society expressed in July that, despite the theoretical progress made, “there is no clearly defined project of (regional) integration.”

What does exists, according to a declaration emitted by these organizations, is a huge number of presidential mandates, agreements, resolutions, and programs which have not been fulfilled due to the weaknesses of the institutional mechanisms of integration.

In the face of these criticisms, as well as the pressures of regional organizations such as the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA), the Central American presidents agreed to review the integration system at their last summit meeting in Panama.

While the agreement was criticized, it was nonetheless endorsed by the majority of Central American countries, who are attempting to streamline the financial costs of the integration process.