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OAS Permanent Council Bid Farewell to the Representatives of Ecuador and the Dominican Republic

The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) today bid farewell to the Permanent Representatives of Ecuador and the Dominican Republic, in a regular meeting in which it also received a report on communication technologies and heard the draft agenda of the meeting of the Inter-American Children’s Institute, to be held in September in Medellin, Colombia.

Council members bid farewell to the Ambassador of Ecuador, María Isabel Salvador, and the Dominican representative, Robert Saladin Selin, who finished their assignments to the OAS. On behalf of the Secretary General of the OAS, José Miguel Insulza, who is on an official trip to El Salvador, his Chief of Staff, Hugo de Zela, praised the contributions of both diplomats.

Ambassador Saladin, said the Chief of Staff, made his presence known "by sharing with us his great experience." "His interventions, always diligent, thoughtful, always with a conciliatory tone, have greatly helped us in the Permanent Council," said Ambassador De Zela. As for Ambassador Salvador, the Chief of Staff described her as "very active, very present in the activities of the Organization," and recalled that during her three years at the OAS she held key posts, including that of Chair of the Council and the Commission on Juridical and Political Affairs.

At the opening of the meeting, the Council received a report on the "Communication Technologies Available for Use by the OAS," responding to a resolution adopted by the General Assembly of the Organization, which took place in June in Antigua Guatemala. The report submitted by the Director of the Department of Information Services and Technology, Juan José Goldschtein, detailed the technologies available in three levels of the organization - individual, departmental and institutional - as well as a describing the capabilities of the offices of the OAS Member States.

In another agenda item, the Council received the draft agenda of the 88th Regular Meeting of the Directing Council of the Inter-American Children's Institute (IIN), to be held in Medellin Colombia, on September 16 and 17 of this year. The Council decided to take note of the agenda and send the Council of the IIN the comments made by representatives during the discussion.

Numerous Permanent Representatives, and on behalf of all the Permanent Council, its Chair and Representative of Paraguay, Martin Sannemann, expressed their condolences and those of the Council to Spain over the train accident that took place this week, and to Colombia over the deaths on July 21 of a group of soldiers in an attack by the FARC.

During the meeting, statements were made by the representatives of Colombia, Canada, El Salvador, the United States, Paraguay, Peru, Mexico, Panama, Uruguay, Trinidad and Tobago (on behalf of CARICOM), Costa Rica (on behalf of SICA in its farewell to Ambassador Saladin), Honduras (on behalf of SICA in its farewell to Ambassador Salvador), Haiti, Venezuela, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, and the Permanent Observer of Spain to the OAS.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

The video of the event is available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-284/13