As part of the Ministry of Culture and Youth’s agenda to promote joint actions to develop national and regional culture, Costa Rica will lead the “Central American Caribbean Cultural Project”, a Central American initiative that expects to identify and reactivate the historical heritage and cultural legacy of the region.

This was one of the final agreements of the Second Extraordinary Meeting of the Central American Integration System’s Culture and Education Coordination (CECC/SICA)’s Ministers of Culture Council, that took place today at San Salvador, El Salvador.

Cultural authorities from Costa Rica, Belize, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama took part at the meeting. They came to several agreements like the approval of Costa Rica’s proposal to create the “Central American Caribbean Cultural Corridor” (CCCC) which will be coordinated by the Ministry of Culture and Youth and sponsored by international organizations.

“The ‘Cultural Corridor’ will be a means to identify, reactivate and give value to the historical heritage and the multicultural legacy of the peoples from the Central American Caribbean coast and the Dominican Republic. This will contribute to the integration and the socioeconomic and cultural development of the Region”, states the Meeting’s Final Declaration.

Also approved was El Salvador’s initiative to build a regional cultural policy for the period 2011-2013. This initiative aims at “promoting identity, knowledge exchange, sense of belonging, respect for cultural diversity and a culture of peace, as well as a shared Central American vision”, adds the Declaration.

The CECC-SICA Meeting was chaired by El Salvador’s Culture Secretary, Héctor Samour Canán, and also took part Diane C. Haylock, Belize’s National Culture and History Institute President; Anahí Moyano, Costa Rica’s Ministry of Culture and Youth’s delegate; Elsa Son Chonay, Guatemala’s Vice Minister of Culture and Sports; and Bernard Martínez Valerio, Honduras’s Culture and Sports Secretary; Raúl Castro Zachrisson, Panama’s National Culture Institute’s General Secretary, and Mateo Morrison, Dominican Republic’s Vice Minister of Culture. 

Anahí Moyano, Costa Rica’s delegate, considered the Meeting’s results as “worthwhile for the country” given that the key subjects for Costa Rica’s Ministry of Culture’ were taken into account.

The Culture and Education Coordination (CECC/SICA) is one of the institutions that makes up the Central American Integration System. Its mission is to promote regional integration through culture and education, core components of sustainable human development.

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