The Latin American and Caribbean Congress in Solidarity with the Independence of Puerto Rico consisted of an international summit held in

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

. More than two-hundred delegates hailing from twenty-two countries in North and South America met on November 18–19, 2006 to discuss the issue of Puerto Rican sovereignty and proposed independence. The congress was organized and sponsored by Panama's President

Martín Torrijos Martín Erasto Torrijos Espino (; born July 18, 1963) is a Panamanian politician who was President of Panama from 2004 to 2009. He was fathered out of wedlock by Panamanian military ruler Omar Torrijos, the ''de facto'' head of Panama from 1968 ...

’s governmental Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD) and the

Puerto Rican Independence Party The Puerto Rican Independence Party ( es, Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño, PIP) is a social-democratic political party in Puerto Rico that campaigns for the independence of Puerto Rico from the United States. Those who follow the PIP ...

(PIP). In the words of President Torrijos, "Puerto Rico is to this day the only Latin American nation remaining under a colonial regime. From the perspective of Latin Americans, assisting in the effort to mend that anomaly is a matter of principles, a continental priority". Torrijos stated that Latin Americans cannot continue being indifferent to said reality. Moreover, the aforementioned dignitary claimed that it is the duty of all Latin Americans to take part actively in its adequate solution.

Rubén Berríos Rubén Ángel Berríos Martínez (born June 21, 1939) is a Puerto Rican politician, international law attorney, writer, and current president of the Puerto Rican Independence Party (PIP). A former three-time senator, Berríos is a perennial P ...

, President of the

(PIP), informed of a plan to create committees of solidarity with

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

throughout the dozens of countries of the region, which are spread throughout two continents (

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, as well as in the

Caribbean Basin In Geography, the Caribbean Basin is generally defined as the area running from Florida westward along the Gulf coast, then south along the Mexican coast through Central America and then eastward across the northern coast of South America. This ...

region), Spain, France, Portugal, San Marino, the Philippines and Syria. The congress’ participants included fifteen incumbent-governmental parties that, together with dozens of other Latin American political parties, unanimously approved a proclamation calling for the United States to immediately respect Puerto Rico’s right to independence and unabridged sovereignty. This proclamation quickly became known as the Panama Proclamation in international circles. Also present to support

’s independence were

Raúl Alfonsín Raúl Ricardo Alfonsín (12 March 1927 – 31 March 2009) was an Argentine lawyer and statesman who served as President of Argentina from 10 December 1983 to 8 July 1989. He was the first democratically elected president after more than ...

, ex-President of

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

;

Tomás Borge Tomás Borge Martínez (13 August 1930 – 30 April 2012), often spelled as Thomas Borge in United States newspapers) was a cofounder of the Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua and was Interior Minister of Nicaragua during one of th ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

; and,

Ricardo Alarcón Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada (21 May 1937 – 30 April 2022) was a Cuban politician. He served as his country's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) for nearly 30 years and later served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1992 to ...

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

Sources

Dominican Today daily newspaper

Sources

See also