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Central American Black Organization (CABO) to host XV General Assembly in Belize

InternationalCentral American Black Organization (CABO) to host XV General Assembly in Belize
Afro-Belizeans are for the most part disconnected from other Black communities in the Central American region, but a network of regional leaders and organizations could help renew broken ties, with the hosting of the General Assembly of the Central American Black Organization (CABO) in Belize from December 1 to 7, 2009.
  
The general assembly could serve to create a forum through which people with like roots in the region can strengthen their alliances in a manner that would benefit struggling Black communities across the Central American isthmus.
  
The membership of CABO, an organization based just south of us, in La Ceiba, Honduras, spans Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and the United States, to which many Central American Blacks have migrated.
  
According to its president, Sidney Francis Martin of Nicaragua, as many as 28 organizations are connected via the network created by the organization. (Affiliates from Mexico and South America have also joined as special guests to the group.)
  
Martin said that four of those organizations exist in Belize, and include National Garifuna Council, the National Kriol Council, and the UBAD Educational Foundation (UEF).
   
A team led by CABO president, Sidney Francis Martin, elected in December 2008, was set to visit Belize at the end of August, but they have postponed their visit to October due to scheduling constraints, Martin explained to Amandala Friday.
  
Martin said he would visit Belize along with CABO executive director (and former president) Celeo Alvarez, General Secretary Zulma Clariel Valencia, as well as two other directors.
  
Franklin Martinez Palacio (also known as Christy) is the only Belizean named to CABO’s executive, elected in December 2008 and appointed to serve a two-year term, for 2009 and 2010.
  
During their October visit, the CABO team intends to liaise with key members of CABO, said Martin.
  
Every year, the CABO General Assembly is held in a different country and according to Martin, this is the second time since the organization was founded that they are holding the meeting in Belize.
  
On their agenda for the December meeting would be the revision of their yearly plan, as well as the exchange of information on the political, social, cultural, economic and environmental situation of peoples of African descent in the region.
  
The Central American Integration System, economic development, and land issues would be among the pressing issues for discussions, Martin explained.
  
Martin says that this year, CABO, formed in Belize in 1994, would be holding its XVth General Assembly.
  
The last General Assembly was held in New York from December 3 to 6, 2008, and had the attendance of ousted Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, as well as reps from the UN General Assembly, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Central American Integration System and the African Union.
  
As recorded in Amandala’s newspaper archives, at the end of August 1995, exactly 14 years ago, Belize hosted CABO’s first Conference of Black Leaders of Central America in Dangriga.
  
(See my Special Report titled, Central American Black organizations meet in Dangriga: “These are our 500 years” in issue #1354 and dated September 3, 1995.)

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