The PARLACEN’s achievements and proposals for the Central American people

In an interview held with the local newspaper Metropolitano de Guatemala, the President of the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), Manolo Pichardo, talks about the importance of the PARLACEN and the initiatives that it brings about for the citizens in this region. Following here is a reproduction of the text.

Newspaper Metropoliano of Guatemala

By Mario Rolando Reyes Barrios

The PARLACEN is working to eliminate the Mexican Visa and the roaming for telephones in the region. Airlines shall charge for flights in Central America like inland flights.

The Central American Parliament, PARLACEN, wants that flights in Central America will be charged like domestic flights and not like one would be travelling to Europe, how it happens a lot today, said the Dominican Manolo Pichardo, President of this regional institution. The regional official pointed out that the PARLACEN also wants the phone companies to eliminate roaming because it is expensive and doesn’t support the regional economy which they aim to strengthen, helping in the end the citizens in the different countries in this region.

He added that the PARLACEN is working together with the Mexican Senate to eliminate the Visa for Central American people, to be able to improve the commercial ties with this Northern neighbor and not to stay isolated as a region but to follow the path of globalization, like the rest of the world.

What is the PARLACEN and what does it represent for Guatemala and the other countries in this region?

‘It is the political body of the System of the Central American Integration (SICA)’, would be the classical response, but said like this it does not reflect the dimension of this parliament. An institution defined like this would be transitory, but in fact it is the most democratic of the whole system for that its representatives are elected through the popular vote, unlike in the other bodies of the system.

But it is still more, because the plurality in the representation gives it more legitimacy and its responsibility to audit the other bodies and organisms of the system and to propose initiatives related to integration, reach a dimension that makes the whole sub regional process of integration more transparent.

The PARLACEN that fore cannot be considered isolated but like one part of the process of integration to which we have contributed to face the challenges of the globalization. Without it we couldn’t be successful because it is the strongest economic instrument that we have to bring about development.                   

What it means for Guatemala and the other countries that make up the PARLACEN is, that we are advancing a process of integration in a transparent way that bears the opportunity to find a sustained development path; it gives us the opportunity to cease legal frames that allow us the design of a regional society with opportunities and with a bigger share in the international community, which in the end will benefit the interests of our men and women.

What is the political impact of that now, 20 yearslater, a Dominican takes the presidency of this regional organism?

I see it like the consolidation of the integration process. The fact that a person who was born outside of the isthmus is its president, gives other Central American Island states, like Haiti and Cuba for example, the chance to start recognizing the necessity to advance in integration, together with the countries that are part of the SICA. But also that the states less committed to the political integration like Costa Rica and Belize, understand that the process doesn’t wait, that the integration has to emerge with more swiftness and that its fore coming depends on political will.

The old criterions of the state-nation bound to anachronistic positions about national sovereignty don’t help a lot in the consolidation of the globalization process of the economies in which capital doesn’t have geographic ties but moves to where it multiplies the easiest.

In our sub regions there aren’t too many economic asymmetries that would make the integration process that difficult. We speak the same language, we practice the same religion, we have common heroes and the same culture, questions that define us like a nation. Why then do we have such trouble creating one geo-economic unity that will lead us to wealth?

From which initiatives and resolutions of the PARLACEN can the Guatemalans and the other Central American citizens benefit?

We bring about initiatives that, besides strengthening the integration process, have a direct impact on the population of the region.

We have proposed that the Central American Presidents work, for example in the case of the airlines, to define a policy of “open skies”, that wouldn’t only reduce the burden on the citizens’ purses who buy the flight tickets and sometimes pay more like for travelling to Europe, but that this also facilitates trade and gives the chance to create a multi-destination, being an alternative for tourists in the SICA countries.

The idea of the “open sky” policy is, or put differently, with these interregional or domestic flights we would combine the ease on the consumers’ purse with the opportunity for our business people to get involved in the air business, being a concrete step towards integration.

Another proposal that was taken to the meeting with the presidents was that the phone calls between the member states of the SICA would be considered local calls so that roaming would be eliminated by that. The idea of the ease on citizens’ purses enters here once again, but it is also true that the telephone companies could increase their gains, because people almost don’t use the phones because of its high costs.

This is also an example of a concrete step towards integration and a policy from which citizens can benefit. It’s important to note that like this business opportunities are being opened up.

We have fulfilled many beneficial initiatives for our citizens, but I would like to mention that from the Commission on International Relations and Migration Topics of the PARLACEN, together with the fellow Mexican senators which are in the observant quality in our institution, we are pushing for a law proposal for the Mexican senate, that will allow the entry of Central American people into Mexico without needing a Visa.

With them and with the same Commission we worked for the approval of decriminalization of undocumented Central Americans in Mexico, a question that has already turned into fact.

We have the commitment to advance to a Central American Integration Process, knowing that the path is there to build a prosperous regional society but we need allies, the ordinary people, the business, academics, students, civil society organizations, parties, churches and everyone else because the integration will be to everyone’s benefit.