HAVANA, Cuba, Dec 6 (acn) Heads of State and Government of the member nations of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and regional organizations , will begin arriving today in this capital to participate on Monday in the Fifth CARICOM-Cuba Summit.

According to the program released to the press by the Cuban Foreign Ministry, starting at noon the presidents of Surinam, Grenada, Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda will arrive on different flights in José Martí International Airport, in Havana city.

The arrival today of the heads of delegations of Barbados, Jamaica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is also expected, and the heads of the Association of Caribbean States, the Caribbean Community and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States.

In December 2002 the CARICOM-Cuba mechanism was founded, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the date when Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago decided, in a brave gesture in 1972, to establish relationships with the largest Caribbean nation in open challenge to isolationist siege that Washington had on the island.

From that moment, every three years the summits of heads of state and government meet, with a clear integration objective, on the basis of equality, respect and understanding, where Cuba and its Caribbean neighbors review what has been achieved in collaboration and commerce.