Organization of Central American States

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The Organization of Central American States Spanish: Organización de Estados Centroamericanos (ODECA) is a regional organisation, formed on October 14, 1951 at a meeting in San Salvador to promote regional cooperation, intergrity and unity in Central America. Countries that make up the confedration are Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

The Charter of San Salvador was ratified by all the governments of Central America, and on August 18, 1955 the foreign ministers held their first meeting in Antigua Guatemala. There ensued the Declaration of Antigua Guatemala, which decreed that subordinate organizations should be formed under ODECA, to help establish systems of organization and procedure so there would be no restrictions to free intercourse, to economic cooperation, to better sanitary conditions for member nations, and to continued progress in the “integral union” of the Central American nations.^[1]

This was followed by the creation of the Central American Common Market (MCCA), the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE), and the Secretariat for Central American Economic Integration (SIECA) in 1960. In 1973, ODECA was suspended and progress in regional integration came to a standstill. Some 20 years later, in 1993, a new integration framework, the Central American Integration System (SICA), came into existence. SICA is made up of three Community Organs, the Central American Court of Justice (CCJ), the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), and the Secretariat General of the Central American Integration System (SG-SICA).^[2]