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Ramotar arrives in Colombia for Americas Summit
…host doesn’t want drugs to be “the item” of the agenda
By Neil Marks in Cartagena, Colombia
President Donald Ramotar arrived in Cartagena yesterday as Colombia looked
President Donald Ramotar signs the guestbook on arrival at Las Americas hotel in Cartagena as his wife, Deolatchmee looks on.
to ensure its hosting of the Summit of the Americas is not bogged down by its image of a drug and crime-ridden country.
To ensure that the agenda stays focused and to cover over its stained image, Colombia has chased away beggars, vagrants and prostitutes from the streets of Cartagena, the beautiful beach city that lies on its northern coast.
Juan Manuel Santos, the Colombian president, welcomed delegations from 34 countries participating in Summit. He wants discussions to focus on poverty and inequality, citizen security, disasters, access to and use of technology, and regional physical integration in the Americas.
These are issues that President Ramotar, who is accompanied by his wife Deolatchmee, is expected to address during his participation at the Summit. Others in the Guyana delegation include Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues –Birkette and Ambassador Bayney Karran.
Ramotar has come to the country from which the cocaine trail into Guyana originates. Cocaine from Colombia is smuggled to Venezuela and onward to Guyana by sea or air.
The Colombian President wants to make sure that the drug issue will not dominate
President Donald Ramotar shares a joke with a Cartagena resident and a hotel worker in Cartagena.
the talks here.
“A review of the current policy of drug control is necessary and expresses the will of the vast majority of the nations participating in the Sixth Summit of the Americas but should not become the great theme of the event,” Santos said this week.
The production and trafficking of popular illicit drugs—cocaine, marijuana, opiates, and methamphetamine—generates a multi-billion-dollar black market in which Latin American criminal and terrorist organizations thrive.
The USA has castigated Colombia for its effort to rid drug traffickers, and the issue is expected to be addressed by President Barack Obama, who also arrived in Cartagena yesterday.
“The drug issue should not be the ‘item’ of the Summit. That is to discuss, yes, because that is the will of the vast majority of countries are. And that can go from here is the beginning of a necessary discussion,” Santos said during an informal meeting with reporters.
Last November, the Colombian President spoke of the need for a new approach in the global fight against drug trafficking.
Getting the issue of drug control on the agenda of the Summit was a request of several countries of Central and Latin America.
For the Colombian President, the Summit is “a golden opportunity that through partnership we can bring our people the social and economic prosperity they crave.”
The summit of leaders from the Americas will begin today with the national anthem being sung by Shakira.
To ensure the safety of the 8,000 participants, including Heads of State and Government and their delegations, representatives of the international community, stakeholders, the leadership of businessmen and journalists, the organization of the Summit VI has deployed a security strategy that comprises about 15,000 members of the security forces, including 7,680 policemen, 400 vehicles with GPS, 300 video cameras, 36 radioactive detectors, explosion-proof robots, and patrols at the special hotels where special guests will be staying .
The security scheme deployed by the Colombian Government with the support of 32 police and intelligence agencies from 27 countries, also includes unmanned helicopters, radiation detectors and cameras that detects happens at 360 degrees in all directions.
The Prime Minister of Jamaica, Portia Simpson-Miller, was the first Head of Government to arrive in Cartagena to attend the summit.
“I anticipate a very successful summit. I am sure that the Sixth Summit will be a great success,” she said.
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