Panama City, April 9 (RHC) – Venezuelan delegates to the Forum of the Civil Society, organized by the Organization of American States in Panama, withdrew from the meeting in solidarity with Cuba.

With shouts of “Cuba and Venezuela under one flag”, the 30 Venezuelan activists left the room and said they would return to defend Cuba at the debate panels of the forum on Thursday.

Earlier, the Cuban delegates, members of the island's civil society, withdrew from the encounter to protest the presence there of members of opposition groups, that are funded by the same organizations and individuals that have for decades organized and carried out terrorist aggressions against Cuba and its people.

They also reiterated their rejection of the presence in Panama of Felix Rodriguez Mendigutía, a CIA operative and promoter of terrorism, which was directly involved in the assassination of Cuban-Argentinean guerrilla Ernesto Che Guevara.

The Cuban delegates said they would be back at the forum’s debate panels, but asked Panamanian authorities to help remove the U.S.-backed groups from the Civil Society meeting.