By Caribbean News Global contributor
WASHINGTON, USA – The new Permanent Representative of Panama to the OAS, Ana Irene Delgado, presented her credentials to secretary-general Luis Almagro in a ceremony held at the headquarters of the hemispheric Organization in Washington, DC.
Ambassador Delgado said that the OAS, “with its strengths and challenges, continues to be the main political forum of our region and it is Panama’s commitment to contribute to its effectiveness, ensuring that it can act as a mediator in the regional crises we face, as it has done in the past.” The Panamanian representative reaffirmed that her country “has unrestricted respect for democracy, the rule of law, institutions, freedom and human rights, and we see the OAS as the ideal space to articulate, as a region, the necessary alliances for the defense and protection of these rights.”
For his part, the OAS secretary-general, Luis Almagro, recalled that Panama “is one of the member states that signed the OAS Charter at its inception and has accompanied the Organization with a great commitment to defending our pillars: democracy, human rights, hemispheric security and integral development. Honouring these essential principles of our work as the main hemispheric Organization, Panama has played and continues to play a significant role within our activities,” he concluded.
The new representative has been Panama’s ambassador to the United Kingdom and vice president of the Assembly of the International Maritime Organization.