Read the whole speech.

Torrijos' inauguration came on the heels of the 11th hour "pardon" by outgoing president Mireya Moscoso of four anti-Castro Cubans arrested and charged, during the presidential summit of 2000 in Panama City, with a plot to assassinate Fidel Castro.

With this "pardon" of four accused terrorists, Moscoso claimed that she was protecting them from deportation to Cuba "or Venezuela" where, she claimed, they could receive "the death penalty." The fact is, there is no capital punishment in Venezuela, which led to Venezuelan recalling its Ambassador from Panamá. (The United States, however, agreed to give asylum to these accused assassination-plotters... so much for the so-called "war on terrorism.")

The new president, Martín Torrijos, during his speech, in which U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was present, among other world leaders, said:

Rank-and-file Panamanians were astonished last week when the government of Panama decided to grant presidential pardons to four people of Cuban origin, condemned by the courts, and whose sentences were under appeal.

Such unfortunate reprieves ended criminal proceedings and blanketed those charged with an impunity most repugnant to the very notion of justice, and to all consciences that reject the threats of terrorism.

I would never have used that presidential prerogative to avoid the judicial branch's definitive finding in such a landmark case.

To my view, there aren't two types of terrorism: one that is condemned and another that is forgivable. Terrorism must always be fought, no matter what its source.

There are no excuses, no way of justifying this deed with statements offensive to other countries.

Panama's standing in the international community has been tarnished, and we fully intend to restore it, which is why I will take the necessary steps toward the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with the Republic of Cuba and the normalization of our relations with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Similarly, in my opinion there can not be a foreign policy divorced from what we do internally. Ours is a single vision and all our efforts should focus on achieving the overall national goals.

Henceforth Panama joins efforts for a true and effective integration of our entire continent...

Let me repeat President Torrijos' last sentence there:

"Henceforth, Panama joins efforts for a true and effective integration of our entire continent...

Those of us who have read the tea leaves in recent years on the awakening of the dream of Simón Bolívar ("the name of our country is América") can explain the significance of this statement: a radical break from Panama's recent subservience to Washington's orders.

Washington's campaign against Cuba has had less to do with Cuba than it has had to do with efforts to divide the rest of Latin America and impede the inexorable tide toward, at very least, a South American Union, similar to the European Union: an economic and political giant ready to take its seat at the world table.

By making a country's "position on Cuba" a litmus test, Washington has created a smokescreen to divide nation against nation... Whether through the antics of Mexico President Vicente Fox or ex-president of Panama Moscoso...

So far, Central American countries (technically part of "North America") have remained largely timid, given U.S.-funded interventions in recent decades from Guatemala in the 1950s (and since then), to El Salvador and Nicaragua in the 1970s and 1980s, to the invasion of Panama in 1989 (to topple a U.S.-installed dictator, Manuel Noriega, who got out of hand)...

That the new head-of-state for the most strategic Central American nation - Panama, the nation with the canal that connects Atlantic and Pacific, and, thus, Asia and much of the rest of the world - is now saying that his country "joins in the integration" is a big domino to fall. His appeal looks north to Mexico, where the neoliberal "free trade that isn't free" imposed economic agenda teeters on the ledge of the upcoming 2006 presidential election.

Torrijos' inaugural statement thus places Central America and Mexico (again, all geographically part of North America) in play for the lunging unification of not just South America, but... now... all of Latin America.

Things of this land... a country called América!