Panama confirms inviting Cuba to Summit of Americas

Panamanian Vice President and Foreign Minister Isabel Saint Malo de Alvarado confirmed Sunday [Sept. 7] that Panama invited the presidents of the United States and Cuba, Barack Obama and Raúl Castro, to the Ibero-American Summit scheduled for April 2015 in Panama.

On the program “Radar,” directed by Sabrina Bacal, Saint Malo said that the invitation to Cuba to participate in the Ibero-American Summit is not a unilateral decision by Panama but the response to a clamor from the entire region, as evidenced three years ago at the Summit in Cartagena, Colombia, and the secretary general of the Organization of American States, José Miguel Insulza.

She added that the United States must acknowledge that clamor from the region to invite Cuba and allow the Summit to be a space to talk about other topics.

Saint Malo stressed that Panama hopes that 34 chiefs of state from the region will attend the Ibero-American Summit.

She said that the invitation is consistent with the role that Panama wants to play in promoting dialogue, convergence, consensus among all countries on a regional and global level and maintaining its leadership on the social agenda.

The leaders must look beyond any differences and seek an accord to improve the lives of the people, and that’s the position presented by Panama, said Saint Malo de Alvarado.

[Photo above of Panamanian Vice President and Foreign Minister Isabel Saint Malo de Alvarado taken from TVN-2.]