The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, will travel tomorrow to Costa Rica to attend the XI Summit of the Tuxtla Mechanism of Dialogue and Concertation, to be held until Wednesday, July 29 in the city of Guanacaste.

President Óscar Arias of Costa Rica will host a meeting that will be attended by President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa of México, President Álvaro Colom Caballeros of Guatemala, President Mauricio Funes Cartagena of El Salvador, President Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal of Panama and President Álvaro Uribe Vélez of Colombia, according to the Costa Rican Ministry of Foreign Relations.

Also confirmed are Rafael Alburqueque, Vicepresident of the Dominican Republic, and Gaspar Vega, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment of Belize.

Other invitees to the Summit include Luis Alberto Moreno, President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Alicia Bárcena, United Nations Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Rebeca Grynspan, Assistant Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Director of UNDP’s Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, and Nick Rischbieth, Executive President of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI).

The Tuxtla Mechanism of Dialogue and Concertation was adopted at the Summit of Presidents of Central America and Mexico held in January, 1991 in Tuxtla, Mexico. It represents a forum for consensus building, political dialogue and cooperation. The mechanism includes Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Mexico and Dominican Republic (Observer). Colombia takes part in the Mesoamérica Project.

The OAS Secretary General is scheduled to return to Washington, DC on Thursday, July 30.

Reference: E-243/09