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Panama invites Cuba to OAS summit Printer friendly page Print This
By Staff Writers, Telesur
Telesur
Saturday, Sep 20, 2014

The panamanian Vice Presiden, Isabel de Saint Malo, met with Cuban chancellor Bruno Rodriguez at havana (Photo: REUTERS)

After having excluded the country some 50 years ago under U.S. pressure, numerous member nations have pushed for the island to be reintegrated into the regional organization.

Isabel de Saint Malo, Vice President and Foreign Minister of Panama, said Thursday that Cuba will be been invited to the Summit of the Americas.

​The surprise move defies the position of the United States to exclude the island from the regional forum.

Saint Malo said however that the was not a Panamanian initiative alone, but rather a response to the request of the entire region as well as Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General, Jose Miguel Insulza.

It is still not clear if the move could lead to the United States not attending the Summit.

The next continental meeting is scheduled to be held next April in Panama. Invitations for the 34 heads of state of OAS member countries plus Cuba will be sent in November.

Diplomat from Panama met with Cuban president Raul Castro in Havana this past week.

During the previous Summit, held in Cartagena three years ago, a group of Presidents from across the political spectrum made an unprecedented appeal for the island's inclusion in the forum, even threatening to not attend the next summit if Cuba was not invited.

The OAS voted to reinstate Cuba into the organization in 2009, after suspending the country in 1962 under U.S. pressure following the Cuban Revolution. Cuba subsequently declined to participate in the organization, citing the regional organization's record of endorsing U.S. foreign policy in Latin America and the Caribbean.

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