Central American Integration System
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 Flag  Logo | |
| Motto: "Dios, unión y libertad" (Spanish) "God, Union and Liberty" | |
| Anthem: La Granadera[citation needed] The Grenadier | |
 States in the Central American Integration System. | |
| Administrative center |  San Salvador,El Salvador |
| Official languages | Spanish |
| Type | Regional organization |
| Membership | 8 states 11 regional observers[1] 21 extraregional observers[1] |
| Leaders | |
• Presidentpro tempore | Johnny Briceño |
• General Secretary | Werner Isaac Vargas Torres |
| Legislature | Central American Parliament |
| Establishment | |
| 20 December 1907 | |
• ODECA | 14 October 1951 |
• CACM | 13 December 1960 |
• SICA | 13 December 1991 |
| Area | |
• Total | 572,510 km2 (221,050 sq mi) |
| Population | |
• 2009 estimate | 51,152,936 |
• Density | 89.34/km2 (231.4/sq mi) |
| GDP (PPP) | 2010 estimate |
• Total | $506.258 billion |
• Per capita | $9,898.17 |
| GDP (nominal) | 2010 estimate |
• Total | $266.213 billion |
• Per capita | $5,205.45 |
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TheCentral American Integration System (Spanish:Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana, orSICA) has been the economic and political organization ofCentral American states since 1 February 1993.[2] On 13 December 1991, the ODECA countries (Spanish:Organización de Estados Centroamericanos) signed the Protocol of Tegucigalpa, extending earlier cooperation for regionalpeace,political freedom,democracy andeconomic development. SICA's General Secretariat is in El Salvador.
In 1991, SICA's institutional framework includedGuatemala,El Salvador,Honduras,Nicaragua,Costa Rica andPanama.Belize joined in 1998 as a full member, while theDominican Republic became an associated state in 2004 and a full member in 2013.Mexico,Chile andBrazil became part of the organization as regional observers, and theRepublic of China,Spain,Germany,Georgia andJapan became extra-regional observers. SICA has a standing invitation to participate as observers in sessions of theUnited Nations General Assembly,[3] and maintains offices atUN Headquarters.[4]
Four countries (Guatemala,El Salvador,Honduras, andNicaragua) experiencing political, cultural and migratory integration have formed a group,the Central America Four or CA-4, which has introduced common internal borders and the same type ofpassport. Belize, Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic subsequently joined the CA-4 for economic integration.
Between 14 November and 20 December 1907, after a proposal byMexico and the United States, five Central American nations (Costa Rica,El Salvador,Guatemala,Honduras andNicaragua) took part in the Central American Peace Conference in Washington, D.C. sponsored byUnited States Secretary of StateElihu Root. The five nations, all formerSpanish colonies, had previously tried to form a political alliance. Their first attempt was theFederal Republic of Central America, and the most recent effort was the founding of theRepublic of Central America 11 years earlier.
The participants concluded the conference with an agreement creating the Central American Court of Justice (Corte de Justicia Centroamericana). The court would remain in effect for ten years from the final ratification, and communication would be through the government of Costa Rica. It was composed of five judges, one from each member state. The court heard ten cases, five of which were brought by private individuals (and declared inadmissible) and three begun by the court. The court operated until April 1918 from its headquarters inCosta Rica; despite efforts beginning in March 1917 (when Nicaragua submitted a notice of termination of the agreement), it then dissolved.
Reasons for the agreement's failure include:
At the end ofWorld War II, interest in integrating the Central American governments began. On 14 October 1951 (33 years after the CACJ was dissolved) the governments of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua signed a treaty creating the Organization of Central American States (Organización de Estados Centroamericanos, orODECA) to promote regional cooperation and unity. The following year (12 December 1952), ODECA's charter was amended to create a new Central American Court of Justice (Corte Centroamericana de Justicia, orCCJ) without the time limit of its previous incarnation.
The Charter of San Salvador was ratified by all Central American governments, and on 18 August 1955 their foreign ministers attended its first meeting inAntigua Guatemala. The Declaration of Antigua Guatemala authorized subordinate organizations of ODECA to facilitate economic cooperation, better sanitation and progress in the "integral union" of the Central American nations.[5]
The Central American Common Market, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE) and the Secretariat for Central American Economic Integration (SIECA) were established by the five Central American nations on 13 December 1960 at a conference inManagua.[6] All nations ratified the membership treaties the following year.Costa Rica joined the CACM in 1963, but Panama had not yet joined. The organization froze during the1969 war between Honduras and El Salvador; in 1973 ODECA was suspended, and progress toward regional integration ground to a halt.
In 1991 the integration agenda advanced with the creation of the SICA, which provided a legal framework to resolve disputes between member states. SICA was supported by the United Nations General Assembly in a resolution of 20 December 1993.[7] SICA includes seven Central America nations and theDominican Republic, which is part of theCaribbean.Central America has several supranational institutions, such as the Central American Parliament, the Central American Bank for Economic Integration and the Central American Common Market. The Central America trade bloc is governed by the General Treaty for Economical Integration (the Guatemala Protocol), which was signed on 29 October 1993. The CACM has removedduties on most products throughout the member countries, and has unified externaltariffs and increased trade within its members. The bank has five non-regional members:Argentina,Colombia,Mexico, theRepublic of China andSpain.
All SICA members are also part of theMesoamerica Project, which includes Mexico and Colombia.Haiti admitted to join SICA in 2013 as a regional observer[citation needed] and theDominican Republic became a full member on 27 June 2013.[8]
Guatemala, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica appealed SICA to expel Nicaragua from SICA membership and reject admission of Russia as a SICA extra-regional observer due toDaniel Ortega regime's support for Russia during the ongoingRusso-Ukrainian war since 2014.[9][10]
| Flag | State | Capital | Largest City | Code | Accession | Population (2021)[11][12] | Area | Population density | HDI (2019) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Belize | Belmopan | Belize City | BZ | 1998 | 400,031 | 22,966 km2 (8,867 sq mi) | 16/km2 (41/sq mi) | 0.716 |
 | Costa Rica | San José | CR | Founder | 5,153,957 | 51,180 km2 (19,760 sq mi)[13] | 95/km2 (250/sq mi) | 0.810 | |
 | Dominican Republic | Santo Domingo | DO | 2013 | 11,117,873 | 48,671 km2 (18,792 sq mi) | 219/km2 (570/sq mi) | 0.756 | |
 | El Salvador | San Salvador | SV | Founder | 6,314,167 | 21,041 km2 (8,124 sq mi) | 302/km2 (780/sq mi) | 0.673 | |
 | Guatemala | Guatemala City | GT | Founder | 17,608,483 | 108,889 km2 (42,042 sq mi) | 152/km2 (390/sq mi) | 0.663 | |
 | Honduras | Tegucigalpa | HN | Founder | 10,278,345 | 112,090 km2 (43,280 sq mi) | 81/km2 (210/sq mi) | 0.634 | |
 | Nicaragua | Managua | NI | Founder | 6,850,540 | 130,370 km2 (50,340 sq mi) | 47/km2 (120/sq mi) | 0.660 | |
 | Panama | Panama City | PA | Founder | 4,351,267 | 75,420 km2 (29,120 sq mi) | 53/km2 (140/sq mi) | 0.815 | |
| 8 total | 58,096,944 | 570,547 km2 (220,289 sq mi) | 102/km2 (260/sq mi) | 0.716 | |||||
The Central American Bank for Economic Integration has not introduced its own common currency, anddollarization is possible. However, for formal purposes the US Dollar is sometimes referred to as "Central American Peso" pegged 1:1 to the Dollar. There are no coins or notes in this currency and it is little known outside of legal circles. Central America is increasing its regional economic development, accelerating its social, political and economic integration. The region has diversified output and price and wage flexibility; however, there is a lack of business-cycle synchronization, dissimilar levels of public-sector debt, diverging inflation rates and low levels of intra-regional trade.[14]
In the parliamentary body are proposals to consider regional air travel as domestic travel, to eliminate roaming fees on telephone calls and to create a regional penitentiary (affiliated with the Central American Court of Justice) to address regional trafficking and international crimes.[15]
SICA's administrative centre is located inSan Salvador, El Salvador.
Parlacen was born as a parliamentary body emulating the Federal Republic of Central America, with Costa Rica an observer. It evolved from theContadora Group, a project launched during the 1980s to deal withcivil wars inEl Salvador,Guatemala andNicaragua. Although the Contadora Group was dissolved in 1986, the concept of Central American integration is implicitly referenced in several countries' constitutions. TheEsquipulas Peace Agreement (among other acts) agreed to the creation of a Central American Parliament composed of 20–22 directly-elected deputies from each country.Costa Rica has not ratified the agreement, and is not represented in the Parlacen. Parlacen is seen by some (including former President of HondurasRicardo Maduro) as awhite elephant.[16]
The CCJ's mission is to promote peace in the region and the unity of its member states. The Court[17] has jurisdiction to hear cases:
The court may offer consultation to the region's supreme courts. In 2005, it ruled that Nicaraguan congressional reforms (which removed control of water, energy and telecommunications from PresidentEnrique Bolaños) were "legally inapplicable".[citation needed] As of July 2005, the CCJ had made 70 resolutions since hearing its first case in 1994.
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