[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

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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.