Above: the meeting in Tegucigalpa (Photo: OP)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Panama President Ricardo Martinelli met Tuesday with the member presidents of the Central American Integration System (SICA) in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

Martinelli and the SICA leaders were joined at the meeting by United States Vice President Joe Biden.

The meeting, which consisted of a working lunch at the Presidential Palace, was chaired by Honduran President Porfirio Lobo and focused on how to fight drug trafficking, with the help of the United States.

The SICA leaders said the presence of Biden at the meeting was timely, because they said that they need the United States’ help in their fight against transnational crime.

Attendees included Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla, Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina, El Salvadoran President Mauricio Funes and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega.

They were joined by Dominican Republic Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso.