Pan American Day and Pan American Week, 2000

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 7288 of April 8, 2000

Pan American Day and Pan American Week, 2000

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

This year on Pan American Day and during Pan
American Week, we celebrate the springtime of a new
century in which the fundamental ideals of democracy
and human rights are blossoming across our hemisphere.
We stand at the threshold of a new era of economic
development and prosperity with a common determination
to meet the challenges and seize the opportunities that
face the Americas.
Building on the agreements forged at the last two
Summits of the Americas in Miami and Santiago, we are
witnessing unprecedented cooperation within our
hemisphere. Efforts such as the negotiations on a Free
Trade Area of the Americas, now progressing toward a
concrete agreement in 2005, exemplify our commitment to
building a self-sustaining and widely shared
prosperity. We continue to work creatively through the
Organization of American States to encourage
constitutional solutions to political crises such as
those that occurred in Paraguay and Ecuador. And we
have witnessed elections in our region that were models
of civic participation and a testament to the strength
and vibrancy of democratic government in the Western
Hemisphere. Such achievements illustrate that the well-
being of our neighbors is fundamental to our own
security and prosperity. We look forward to the Third
Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, where the
democratically elected leaders of 34 nations from
North, Central, and South America will gather to review
our progress, identify new challenges, and further
enhance our cooperation.-
Even with our significant progress, however,
challenges remain. The 34 free and democratically
elected nations of this hemisphere must work together
to ensure that Cuba, the only country that has not
embraced our common vision, becomes a member of our
community of democracies. By doing so, we can ensure
that all the people in our hemisphere share in the
blessings of freedom and in the promise of the global
economy, living and working and raising their families
in dignity and with hope for the future.
NOW, THEREFORE I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of
the United States of America, by virtue of the
authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of
the United States, do hereby proclaim Friday, April 14,
2000, as Pan American Day and April 9 through April 15,
2000 as Pan American Week. I urge the Governors of the
50 States, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Puerto
Rico, and the officials of other areas under the flag
of the United States to honor these observances with
appropriate ceremonies and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand
this eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord two
thousand, and of the Independence of the United States
of America the two hundred and twenty-fourth.