CARICOM Secretary-General meets Mexico’s Foreign Minister

In the course of a short visit to Mexico on 7 March 2019, the CARICOM Secretary-General, H. E Irwin Larocque, pursued several areas of priority interest to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). His meeting with the Foreign Minister of Mexico, H.E. Marcelo Ebrard, facilitated a timely exchange of views on the current worrying situation in Venezuela. In this regard, the initial activities of the Montevideo Mechanism put in place by Mexico, Uruguay and CARICOM on 6 February 2019 to facilitate a peaceful and internal solution to the Venezuelan crisis through mediation were reviewed. The first of the four phases of the Mechanism consists of dialogue. To this end initial contact has been made with representatives of both sides to ascertain their willingness and availability for dialogue.

CARICOM Representatives and the Foreign Ministers of Mexico and Uruguay after agreeing to the Montevideo Mechanism in February

The meeting also provided the opportunity to discuss the long-standing CARICOM-Mexico relationship going forward with the new Mexican administration. In this regard, other meetings were held with the  Chairperson of the Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Committee of the Senate, Senator Vanessa Rubio, and with the Chairman and members of the Caribbean Committe of the Mexican business association COMCE with business interests and investments in the Community.

Time was also made to meet with senior officials of the Foreign Ministry,  technical cooperation officials, and with representatives of CARICOM and Caribbean member states resident in Mexico City.