The entire Cuban delegation to the Civil Society Forum has decided NOT to participate in the dialogue that the representatives of this meeting were going to have on Friday with a group of leaders present in Panama for the 7th Summit of the Americas.

The White House announced on Friday that presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro will meet on Saturday in Panama.

"Greetings from Cuba to the Panamanian people and government" were the first words by Cuban President Raul Castro upon arriving in Panama on Thursday evening, to participate at the 7th Summit of the Americas, an event described as historic and a symbol of change in this part of the world.

This is the time for the diplomacy of dialog, peace and a new era for relations between the two Americas, said Bolivarian President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday.

Cuba will introduce, in the forum parallel to the 7th Summit of the Americas in Panama, its current portfolio of projects aimed at encouraging foreign investment in key sectors to demonstrate how much it is being done for energizing its economic development.

The Seventh Summit of the Americas will kick off today in the Anayansi Theatre, ATLAPA Convention Center in Panama City, where the attendance of Heads of State and Government from 35 Latin American, Caribbean and North America countries is expected.

US President Barack Obama admitted on Thursday in Jamaica that Venezuela is not a threat to US National Security, but he added that sanctions announced last month are still in force.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez met in Panama prior to the opening today of the 7th Summit of the Americas, as confirmed by sources with the Cuban Foreign Ministry.

Through the information platform Pensando Américas of the Network in Defense of Humanity, we learned that "there will be no declaration of Panama" at the 7th Summit of the Americas, which will be inaugurated on April 10 in the Panamanian capital.

The secretary general of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Alicia Barcena, said in a statement to ACN that she has come to the Forum of Rectors of the 7th Summit of the Americas to promote the idea of public education, free and of quality for the inhabitants of the region.

Havana--Following strong denunciations by the Cuban delegation at the forums parallel to the Summit of the Americas in Panama about the presence there of paid-mercenaries and terrorists, local union and social organizations urged the Panamanian government to refuse the use of their country as a platform for regime change policy against the constitutional governments of Cuba and Venezuela.

Things became heated at the Convention Center Vasco Nunez de Balboa in Panama City before the beginning of the Forum on Wednesday due to a strong protest of the Cuban delegation to the Forum of Civil Society of the 7th Summit of the Americas, the entry to which was denied to some twenty representatives of the island.

The Cuban delegation to Panama´s Social Forum abandoned its opening session on Wednesday in a strong response to the presence of paid-mercenaries at the event.

Barack Obama was only four days old when the Heroic Guerrilla Ernesto Che Guevara publically denounced Washington´s hostile policy against Cuba during an Inter-American Summit, while reiterating Fidel Castro´s desire to dialog in order to solve the differences in an equal footing and carry out secret talks with the US envoy.