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Guatemala Reports on Preparations for the OAS General Assembly

The Permanent Representative of Guatemala to the Organization of American States (OAS), Rodrigo Vielmann, today made a presentation to the Permanent Council on the preparations for the General Assembly to be held in Antigua, Guatemala from June 4 to 6, and presented the logo for the event.

Ambassador Vielmann said that his country will propose as the theme of the Assembly "the beginning of a process of leadership and hemispheric contribution to the global debate in favor of a comprehensive and integrated strategy to counter the global drug problem." He said the Foreign Minister of Guatemala, Fernando Carrera, has planned a visit to the Council on February 25 to make "an extensive and comprehensive presentation of the vision that Guatemala would be proposing as the theme for the next General Assembly."

The Guatemalan representative also gave a summary of the activities that will take place apart from, previous to, and as part of the General Assembly, among which are the Social Sector Forum in the last week of February, the OAS Model Assembly in last week of April, a workshop on increasing the political participation of indigenous peoples from May 29 to June 4; a Investment Summit on May 30 and 31; the competition for young innovators TIC Guatemala; the Young Americas Business Trust (YABT) to be held on May 31 and June 1; the Private Sector Forum on June 1 in Guatemala City; a meeting of senior executives of the countries of Central America and the Caribbean on June 2; a conversation between the OAS Secretary General and Assistant Secretary General with civil society on June 3; and the dialogue of heads of delegation and the Secretary General with civil society on June 4.

The Assistant Secretary General of the OAS, Albert Ramdin, stressed that "we are very pleased with the level of commitment and preparation" Guatemala has shown in the process and announced that following the signing, on Monday February 4 of the agreement to host the General Assembly, the organization will "continue in an expedited way the technical coordination and support for the government of Guatemala" in its preparations.

The OAS General Assembly will begin on June 4 in Antigua, Guatemala and will close on June 6. The General Assembly is the supreme organ of the Organization of American States and is composed of the delegations of all Member States, who are entitled to be represented and to vote.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

The video of the event is available here.

The B-roll of the event will be available here.

The audio of the event is available here.

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

Reference: E-037/13