Panama bringing Cuba in from the cold

PANAMA will host the Summit of the Americas in 2015 and will lobby to have Cuba part of the event said Foreign Minister Francisco Álvarez de Soto in Washington DC on Tuesday April 8.

He said that his, that his government will also work for Cuba to join the Organization of American States(OAS). "It is time, in the context of the new realities of our continent, that all nations share political space," he said. "Cuba should be brought into the OAS and all their forums," reports La Prensa.

Alvarez de Soto made the statement in a speech before the OAS.
The summit, which is held every three years, "is not i Panama, it is in all the Americas," he said.
 Panama's relations with Cuba are strained at the moment. This is partially due to the Panamanian seizure of a North Korean vessel loaded with Cuban weapons as it tried to use the Panama Canal.
But, he said, Panama is willing to collaborate with the Cuban government to have it participate at the summit.
The OAS reopened its doors to Cuba in 2009 after a suspension imposed in 1962 due to the communist takeover.
Since then, however, Havana has stated repeatedly that it has no interest in returning to that organization.
Despite the rejection of Cuba, the majority of Latin American countries has demanded that the island be invited to the summit. In 2012, several countries threatened to boycott the2012 event in Colombia if Cuba was not invited.