Varela to meet Pope on first official Europe trip

POPE FRANCIS will meet with the president of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, on Friday September 5 said the Press Office of the Holy See, even before it has been announced by the Vatican embassy in Panama. The pontiff will receive the Panamanian president in his private study in the Apostolic Palace Library, where they will talk for a few minutes alone.

During his first international trip to Europe as president, Varela remain only a few hours in Rome, as traveling to Madrid. Spain, Panama’s principal trading partner in Europe, As it is an official visit to the Vatican, so he will not have contact with senior representatives of the Government of Italy and only meet with the Pope and the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.
On October 26 last year, the Pope met with former president, Ricardo Martinelli, but the Vatican did not confirm the visit until the last moment, something in the diplomatic delicacy of the Holy See has a special meaning.
Martinelli’s visit went unnoticed by the news of Vatican Radio and just was reviewed with only a just five line press release. For much of the early part of the year, Italian newspapers had been rife with coverage of he Finemeccanica scandal and it links to Panama,
On September,8 the president will he received at noon by King Philip VI, of Spain, for lunch at the Royal Palace and in the afternoon will meet with the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, and later with the Minister of Development, Ana Pastor.
In his second day in Spain, Varela will participate in a symposium New Economy Forum, have lunch with a group of Spanish businessmen and conduct a site visit of the Canal de Isabel II. Varela come to Spain, He will be accompanied by his wife Lorena Castillo and their three children, plus a group of senior trade ministers.