Panama's civil society will organize a meeting of social movements from the continent, parallel to the Summit of the Americas, scheduled for April, the promoters of the forum said on Sunday.
The Panamanian Solidarity Committee of Social Movements toward ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas) called an urgent meeting of its counterparts to call the people's summit.
The latest precedent was in January in Costa Rica, where non-governmental groups met parallel to the Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and analyzed regional social problems.
In the final declaration, the people's summit, as these kinds of events are also known, recognized CELAC as the sovereign space of Latin America and the Caribbean, respectful of plurality and political diversity.
It also reaffirmed that it is in transit to become Latin American and Caribbean integration, as dreamed of by our national heroes, under the respect for the people's free self-determination, sovereign equality, territorial integrity and non-interference in their internal affairs.
One of the first People's Summits was organized in 2005 in Mar del Plata, Argentina, and brought together 12,000 people who traveled to the city where the 4th Summit of the Americas was held with participation of all 34 member countries of the Organization of American States (OAS).
