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News > Latin America

Caricom-Mexico Summit Opens Amid Backdrop of Hurricane Damage

  • Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Keith Rowley.

    Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Keith Rowley. | Photo: Reuters

Published 25 October 2017
Opinion

The impetus behind the meeting will be discussions involving regional cooperation for preventing and dealing with natural disasters.

The Caricom-Mexico Summit, which will host leaders from the Caribbean Community as well as Mexico, has gotten underway in Belize in the wake of widespread devastation and death left behind by Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

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The impetus behind the meeting will be discussions involving regional cooperation for preventing and dealing with natural disasters.

Mexican President, Enrique Peña Nieto and the Prime Minister of Belize Dean Barrow will co-chair the summit. Mexico, for its part, aims to further consolidate its political collaboration with Caribbean nations in respect to addressing climate change and other natural disasters, migration and security.

The Mexican government is providing round-trip air transportation for all Caricom delegates to and from Belize to attend the conference, according to CaribFlame. Its longstanding relationship with Caricom dates back to 1974, when it was the first country to establish a joint commission with the regional body.

Keith Rowley, the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, is scheduled to attend the summit accompanied by Dennis Moses, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Caricom Affairs.

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After Hurricane Maria devastated the Caribbean island of Dominica, Rowley announced that all immigration restrictions typically imposed on Dominican citizens will be waived for the next six months — on the condition they can find accommodations on Trinidad and Tobago.

President of Guyana David Granger will also be attending, who has offered vast, unused land that could serve as a "gift” to a number of islands.

Speaking from New York prior to his speech at the U.N. General Assembly, Granger said that his country, as the largest of the Caricom states, must consider how it could turn its unused land into the "hinterland of the Caribbean."

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