MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Cuba and Panama restore full diplomatic relations

Cuba and Panama restored Saturday full diplomatic ties in a ceremony attended by presidents Fidel Castro and Martin Torrijos, and witnessed by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries were severed last year after former president Mireya Moscoso pardoned Luis Posada Carriles and another three terrorist sentenced in Panama for plotting to assassinate Cuban president Fidel Castro in 2000.

Fidel Castro and Martin Torrijos looked on as a document declaring normal relations "inspired by the spirit of fraternity that has always linked these two countries" was signed in Havana by Cuba's Foreign Affairs Minister Felipe Perez Roque and his Panamanian counterpart Ricardo Duran.

Chavez, Torrijos and other regional leaders travelled to Havana to attend the first Latin American Medicine School graduation.

Over 1,600 doctors from 28 countries will receive their diplomas in a ceremony to be broadcast live on Cuban radio and television network Saturday evening.

The Latin American School of Medicine was established by Cuba following Hurricane Mitch (1998) with the goal of bringing quality health care to poor people.

Other distinguished guests include Prime Ministers Ralph Gonzalves, of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Baldwin Spencer of Antigua and Barbuda, Keith Mitchel of Grenada and Denzil Douglas of Saint Kitts and Nevis.

El Salvador"s left-wing leader Shafik Handal, Daniel Ortega, from Nicaragua, and Reverend Lucius Walker, from the United States, will also be attending the first graduation of the Latin American School of Medicine, considered a symbol of Cuba"s cooperation with neighboring countries amidst ongoing regional efforts to achieve full integration.