Jackson: U.S. should heal the breach

PANAMA. U. S. Reverend Jesse Jackson speaking in Panama, said that president Barack Obama looks at Latin America as its “good neighbors” and that the U. S. and the region should be “allies in the fight against drug trafficking. ”

Jackson was honored by the city municipality and he talkedabout the challenges of democracy.

Latin America and the US are “united by the same principles and we need each other for peace, security, and development,” Jackson said at the end of the conference called “Challenges of Democracy: Social Justice in the New World Economic Order.”

“We should be allies in the fight against drug trafficking, allies in the fight against violence, allies in the fight against terrorism,” he said. “Latin America is no longer the backyard (for the U.S.), but the next door neighbor.”

Jackson was invited to Panama by the Female Lawyers Association and the Lawyers group representing unions. The president of the Supreme Court of Justice Harley Mitchell, electoral judges, and others were present at the event.

After the conference the president of the Municipal Council Javier Ortega presented Jackson with a a scrolls naming him a distinguished guest of the city.

Jackson recalled that his relationship with Panama dates back decades, when the isthmus fought to recuperate its sovereignty and the Canal, then in hands of the United States.

“I was part of that struggle,” said Jackson, remembering that he got involved in the Panamanian’s cause through the deceased Cirilo McSween, a successful Panamanian businessman living in the United States.

“Panama has recovered its canal, is investing in its canal, and is investing in its people. The challenge is still to invest more in education, in moving forward,” he said.

“The segregation struggle in the United States is similar to the segregation fight that has been fought here in Panama; we are the same people having the same fights.”

In Panama, 14 percent of the population are black people.

During his stay in Panama, Jackson visited McSween’s tomb in Jardin de Paz and visited his widow.