Costa Rica found in Panama an ally to promote the reforms it wants to make to the Central American Integration System (SICA).
On January 1st, Costa Rica will assume the pro tempore presidency of this regional forum for a period of six months. The plan with Panama is to work on the changes they want to promote, so this country continues said changes during the next six months of 2017 during its leadership of SICA.
Since the previous year, Costa Rica has greatly insisted on the changes that SICA requires, especially as a result of the migratory crisis that the country faced at the end of 2015 and in which it demanded a greater support from Panama.
In recent months, the government has worked on a proposal for a reform of the forum. On February, President Luis Guillermo Solís mentioned that Costa Rica will advocate for an extension of the time during which each country exercises the pro tempore presidency.
For Solís, the current 6 months period prevents the follow-up of the agreements, a situation that is exacerbated when each country changes the agenda upon arrival to the presidency.
In that sense, Solís said that SICA accumulates “thousands” of agreements without being executed or just partially executed and others do not even have a report on their status, which in his opinion affects the credibility of the organization.