PANAMA CITY, Panama — President Barack Obama and President Raúl Castro symbolically ended more than a half-century of official estrangement between the United States...
The Young Americas Forum, which takes place during the Summit of the Americas in Panama this week, is officially focused on entrepreneurship and economic opportunities for Latin America's youth. But Venezuelan and Cuban youth opposition leaders have a separate agenda.
Panamanian authorities have been meeting with counterparts of different countries, seeking to decrease the spiraling political tension after U.S. President Barack Obama ordered new sanctions against Venezuela.
Ambassador Federico Picado Gómez found himself in hot water this week after voicing support for the Venezuelan government in an interview published Sunday in the Costa Rican daily La Nación.
The top U.S. diplomat for Latin America, Roberta Jacobson, met her Cuban counterpart Josefina Vidal behind closed doors for a third round of talks on normalizing relations, but the atmosphere of reconciliation was marred by protests over Washington's treatment of Venezuela.
Obama ordered the freezing of U.S. properties and bank accounts of seven officials, including the director general of the intelligence service and the director of the national police.
The move came after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro lashed out Saturday at U.S. "conspiracies" against his socialist government and ordered his foreign ministry to reduce the number of officials at the U.S. Embassy from 100 to 17.
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro also singled out several U.S. political figures as being unable to come to Venezuela because his government considered them "terrorists."
Costa Rican Foreign Minister Manuel González told reporters on Tuesday that the government would not extend offers of asylum to Venezuelan opposition leaders, but that any requests would be treated like all others.
