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CUBA, December 7, 2008. Trinidad-Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning was the first Caribbean Community leader to arrive here on Sunday for the 3rd Cuba-CARICOM Summit to open sessions on Monday. Manning was welcomed at the Antonio Maceo International Airport by the First Secretary of Cuba’s Communist Party in Santiago de Cuba Misael Enamorado, along other government authorities. Trinidad-Tobago is a group of islands with 5,128 square kilometers and a population of 1,290 000 inhabitants. It was one of the first four Caribbean nations to establish relations with Cuba on December 8, 1972. Other heads of state and government will continue to arrive in this eastern Cuban city to take part at the summit that will be held at the Santiago Hotel under the slogan “Cooperation for Caribbean Integration.” According to schedule, next to arrive are the leaders of the Bahamas, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica, followed by the heads of government of Saint Lucia, Surinam, Jamaica, Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Kitts and Nevis. Also expected to arrive are CARICOM General Secretary Edwin Carrington; the General Secretary of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), Luis Fernando Andrade Falla, and the General Director of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States Len Ismael. On Sunday, the CARICOM leaders will pay tribute to Cuban Independence heroes Jose Marti and Antonio Maceo, who fought for the independence of Cuba and advocated the unity of Latin American and Caribbean nations. Cuban President Raul Castro will officially welcome the Caribbean Community leaders in the evening. The 3rd Cuba-CARICOM Summit will open sessions on Monday and will adopt the Declaration of Santiago and a Special Document on the upcoming Latin American and Caribbean Summit on Integration and Development, slated for Salvador de Bahía, Brazil, next December 16 and 17. (Cubaminrex- ACN) |