The Mexico-Central America Rectors Summit was held yesterday in Tuxtla Gutiérrez at the Autonomous University of Chiapas, with the attendance of Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard and Chiapas Governor Rutilio Escandón. It was organized by the National Association of Universities and Higher Education Institutions (ANUIES), the Central American University Council (CSUCA) and the Foreign Ministry.
At the inauguration, ANUIS Executive Secretary Jaime Valls Esponda said the member institutions of ANUIS would join the El Salvador-Guatemala-Honduras-Mexico Comprehensive Development Plan (PDI), adding their efforts to those of the Central American institutions as part of the Academic Cooperation Program. This program aims to boost academic cooperation, mobility and exchanges; innovate educational practices; and improve the social management of knowledge of Mexican and Central American educational institutions.
The Undersecretary for Latin America and the Caribbean, Maximiliano Reyes, presented the PDI to the Summit's participants, including CSUCA Secretary General Carlos Guillermo Alvarado Cerezo and rectors from universities in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. Mexico was represented by universities and higher education institutions from Aguascalientes, Baja California, Campeche, Chiapas, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Jalisco, Michoacán, Mexico City, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, Veracruz and Yucatán.
Laura Elena Carrillo, Executive Director of the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation (AMEXCID), reported that the Government of Mexico had allocated resources from the Mexico Fund, formerly known as the Yucatán Fund, to El Salvador, Honduras and soon Guatemala as part of the Comprehensive Development Plan, for two priority programs in Central America: the Sowing Life and Youths Building the Future programs.
At the conclusion of the meeting, Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard stressed that the mission of the Government of Mexico is to look to the south, for which it needs to combine knowledge with initiatives, with a view towards transforming the circumstances there. Therefore, he stressed the importance of calling on educational institutions to participate in a meaningful way.
