By Wendy Anders

After months of behind the scenes meetings and dialogue, the eight Central American Integration System (SICA, in Spanish) members met last week on Roatán Island, Honduras and welcomed Costa Rica back.

At the June 28-30 meeting, leaders agreed to a forward-looking agenda that convinced Costa Rica the group was ready to act with greater unity on regional issues.

Costa Rica left the union last December in frustration over the body’s inability to come to a consensus over the Cuban immigrant crisis on Costa Rica’s southern border.

Historically reluctant to put much energy into Central American integration efforts, Costa Rica does not participate in the Central American Parliament (Parlacen).

Washington, D.C.-based Migration Policy Institute states in a November 2012 report that Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua have successfully used SICA as a platform for integration. They report that “(In 2006) the Central American Commission of Migration Directors succeeded at developing CA4, a system that permits citizens of any of the four northern Central American states to travel under their own national documentation. This has proven to be one of the most important advances in the region’s efforts toward integration. [The] commission faces the problem that these government positions tend to rotate quickly, limiting their consistency and continuity of effort.”

Costa Rican Vice-President Helio Fallas, represented Costa Rica at the SICA meeting who said the country, “Sees the need to work to face the global challenges in the region, with the goal of achieving the consensus needed to revise and update the legal instruments, and maintain a long-term vision,” the Foreign Ministry stated to the press.

Among the specific agreements made at the meeting are that executive mandates shall be put into effect and not be treated as mere declarations. Leaders also agreed to carry out a root-level analysis within two months time to define the actions needed to strengthen and update SICA.

Other agreements related to the body’s internal functioning and addressed funding for the executive committee, a request for a detailed work plan in three months time from each sector on how they will address the 2030 plan for sustainable development, and a report from all SICA agencies on their staff, budgets, and operations, according to the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry.

Nicaragua is next up for presiding over the body.