    [Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 36, Number 15 (Monday, April 17, 2000)]
    [Pages 782-783]
    [Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

    <R04>
    Proclamation 7288--Pan American Day and Pan American Week, 2000

    April 8, 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

    [[Page 783]]

    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.
                                                William J. Clinton

    [Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., April 12,
    2000]

     Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on April
    13.