Costa Rica Will Be Asked to Integrate To Free Regional Transit
The governments of Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala will be urging Costa Rica and Panama to integrate to the CA-4.

The call to Costa Rica and Panama will be made at the XXVIII Cumbre Ordinaria del Sistema de la Integración Centroamericana (SICA) - a regional conference - that will be held on July 10 and 11 in Panama City, according to Fausto Carcabelos, director of Nicaragua's Migración y Extranjería.

Carcabelos added that the proposal is that Costa Rica and Panama integrate to the system at the same level they are in. The immigration director did not offer details of the integration state.

The CA-4 is a program that permits the transit of citizens from the member countries without requiring a passport or visa and was established as part of an integration between Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, to sustain development in the region.

As a result of the difference of opinion on the subject and the dispute over navigation rights of the San Juan river that divides the two countires, Nicaragua imposed a us$25 visa fee to all Costa Ricans travelling to theri country either by land or air, while Costa Rica charges Nicaraguans us$20 for the same.

Panama, meanwhile, it participates in the SICA conferences it has yet to integrate to the system.

The Nicaraguan immigration official indicated that during a meeting in Managua between the immigration directors of the CA-4 members, they will try to find a solution to eliminate some immigration controls and propose them at the Panama conference.

At the Panama conference, Costa Rican president, Oscar Arias Sanchez, will receive from his Panamian president, Martín Torrijos, the SICA presidency on a Pro Tempore*, as part of the bi-annual rotation of responsibilities of the organization.
 

* Pro tempore or pro tem is a Latin phrase which best translates to "for the time being" in English. This phrase is most often used in politics to describe a person who acts as a locum tenens (placeholder) in the absence of a superior.