President Barack Obama has arrived in Panama for a summit at which he is expected to have a historic encounter with Cuban leader Raul Castro. President Obama arrived in the Panamanian capital Thursday night for the Summit of the Americas, which will - for the first time - include communist Cuba. There is no formal meeting planned, but White House officials said President Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro will interact. Earlier, in Jamaica, Obama stopped short of announcing a U.S. government decision to take Cuba off its list of state sponsors of terrorism. “As you know, there’s a process involved in reviewing whether or not a country should be on the State Sponsor of Terrorism list. That review has been completed at the State Department. It is now forwarded to the White House,” said Obama. But the U.S. leader said a process still needs to happen, and he said he would not be making a formal announcement just yet. “The one thing I will say is that throughout this process, our emphasis has been on the facts. So we want to make sure that given that this is a powerful tool to isolate those countries that genuinely do support terrorism, that when we make those designations we’ve got strong evidence that, in fact, that’s the case,” said Obama. President Obama’s overtures to Cuban leaders come amid lingering questions about Cuba’s record on human rights. Obama arrived in Panama against a backdrop of questions about Cuba and human rights - as well as protests. Pro-Castro activists on Wednesday confronted Cuban dissidents outside the Cuban Embassy in Panama City, shoving, kicking and insulting the dissidents, who said at least some of the attackers had emerged from inside the embassy. The two-day summit of leaders of North and South America begins Friday.
from Voice of America http://ift.tt/1Co8Msc
from Voice of America http://ift.tt/1Co8Msc
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