Honduras confirmed the participation of a dozen dignitaries in the IX Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), which will be held next week in this Central American nation.

President Xiomara Castro announced on Thursday night that she had held telephone conversations with her counterparts from Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, and Guatemala, Bernardo Arévalo, who confirmed their presence in Tegucigalpa for the summit on Wednesday 9 April.

I have just had a telephone conversation with my dear friend the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, and my friend President Bernardo Arévalo, of Guatemala, and I welcome them warmly to our country, Honduras,» the president wrote on her social network account X. «I would like to thank them for their presence in Tegucigalpa,» she added.

Castro extended his fraternal welcome to «our brother heads of state and government who have confirmed their participation in the 9th Celac Summit».

Among them, she mentioned the leaders of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva; of Colombia, Gustavo Petro; of Bolivia, Luis Arce; of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel; and of Uruguay, Yamandú Orsi.

The list is completed by Prime Ministers Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Mark Phillips of Guyana, as well as the President of the Presidential Transitional Council of the Republic of Haiti, Leslie Voltaire.

The Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs, Enrique Reina, underlined in his X profile that «no president in the history of Honduras» had ever achieved such a presence of heads of state, foreign ministers, deputy foreign ministers and heads of delegation at an international summit.

Reina said that this event marks a decisive moment in the foreign policy of the Central American nation, as Honduras and its people strengthen and recover their image through the leadership of President Castro.

For his part, Deputy Foreign Minister Gerardo Torres stressed that the summit of the main continental consultation mechanism «will be the event of the year in the region and an indelible milestone in the history of Honduras».