Mexico's President Felipe Calderon's visit to Canada for a North American leaders summit may be cut short as deadly Hurricane Dean surges towards his homeland, a diplomatic official said Monday.
"We're monitoring the hurricane's progress in order to make a timely decision (to return to Mexico) at the right moment," said a Mexican diplomatic source in Ottawa, adding "for the moment, the summit program is unchanged." President Calderon was to hold talks Monday and Tuesday with US President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the Montebello luxury log cabin hotel, 80 kilometers (50 miles) east of Ottawa.
The Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) talks aim to unify regulations to boost trilateral trade and beef up North American security following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. It was launched at the first "Three Amigos" summit in Waco, Texas, in March 2005, but has been maligned since by activists, labour groups and academics who lament its burning business focus.
Calderon, arriving early, stayed with Harper and his family over the weekend at the Canadian prime minister's summer home in Harrington Lake, Quebec. He was expected to stay an extra day, until Wednesday, for bilateral talks with Harper, but this portion of the trip may be annulled due to the storm.
Category four Hurricane Dean is packing winds of 150 miles (240 kilometers) per hour, so far killing at least five people across the Caribbean basin, and whipping up a giant surf as it heads for Belize and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula.
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