His Excellency, Augusto Vela, Vice President of the Central American Parliament, otherwise known as PARLACEN, recently paid a courtesy visit to the Secretariat of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) in Port of Spain as part of his official trip to Trinidad and Tobago. PARLACEN, a Guatemala-based organization is one of Central America's major regional bodies, and is comprised of 20 lawmakers from each of its member countries: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic.

Vice President Vela was accompanied by Ambassador of Guatemala in Trinidad & Tobago and Permanent Representative for the ACS, His Excellency Julio Martini. The delegation met with ACS Secretary General Dr. Rubén Silié to exchange ideas on opportunities for establishing co-operation between the two organizations, and discussed potential ACS participation in PARLACEN meetings in the course of the year. They also agreed to explore the possibility of formalizing this reciprocal cooperation through a Memorandum of Understanding between PARLACEN and the ACS. This type of agreement for cooperation would be in harmony with the framework of the key focal areas of the ACS - trade, tourism, transport and natural disasters.