Cuba and Panama Grow Relationship

Cuba and Panama are working to create a Bilateral Chamber of Commerce to strengthen their commercial relations.

According to Panama’s Ambassador to Cuba, Luis Carlos Cleghorn, the goal of the agreement is to establish a formal and secure trade platform so that Panamanian business can promote their products in Cuba, and vice versa.  For the moment, trade between the two nations generates $300 million a year, La Prensa reports.

In somewhat related news, Panama and Cuba severed ties in 2004 when then-President Mireya Moscoso went on a pardoning spree before her term ended.  Among those pardoned were four Cuban exiles who had been accused of attempting to assassinate Fidel Castro.

One of the Cuban exiles was Luis Clemente Posada Carriles. Also known as Bambi, an ex-CIA agent, Posada Carriles was accused by both Cuba and Venezuela of international terrorism like masterminding the 1976 bombing of Cubana Flight 455 which killed 73 people including all 24 members of the 1975 national Cuban fencing team, as well as the 1997 tourist bombings in Havana.

On November 17, 2000, at age 72, Posada was discovered with 200 pounds of explosives in a plot to kill Fidel Castro who was visiting Panama for the first time since 1959 for the Ibero-American Summit.

In 2008, then-President Martin Torrijos revoked Moscoso’s pardon setting Cuban-Panamanian diplomatic relations back on track. In 2009, Panama and Cuba signed a partial trade agreement which included exchange of services and knowledge, fighting illiteracy, promoting tourism, transport, telecommunications, biotechnology issues and helping poor people see through Operation Miracle.