The Ministry of Culture congratulates and emphasizes the election of the Permanent Delegate of Panama to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Elia Del Carmen Guerra as President by acclamation of the eighth Meeting of States Parties to the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage at the virtual session held in Tunis.

The Panamanian delegate thus became the first woman in the twenty years of existence of the 2001 UNESCO Convention to preside at the meeting of the States parties to this prestigious Convention.

The Panamanian representation at the Meeting of States Parties includes the Permanent Embassy of Panama to the UNESCO through Ambassador Elia Del Carmen Guerra, Second Secretary Paola Gómez and the Ministry of Culture of Panama in their exercise of the protection and conservation of Panamanian cultural heritage, through Dr. Katti OSorio as Focal Point, the Roxana Pino Anthropologist as a Panamanian expert and Dr. Mirta Linero Baroni as a candidate to the Scientific and Technical Advisory Council (STAB).

Dr. Katti OSorio, Focal Point by the Ministry of Culture at the Convention and an advisor to the office of the Ministry of Culture (MiCultura) with regard to Cultural Heritage emphasized that Ambassador Elia Del Carmen Guerra's choice for that honorable office became important as she was put forward by Honduras and supported by Mexico, countries with a well-known track record in protecting its underwater cultural heritage.

The choice of the Panamanian delegate, in his view, is important to the country "because it highlights and gives visibility to Panama's efforts to protect the Underwater Cultural Heritage, both with our own heritage and with that that that that that forms part of our common past with other nations whose ships have reached our waters and have been passing through our interoceanic routes, from the Chagres with the Way of Cruces to the Panama Canal."

Dr. OSorio noted that Panama as a State party to the 2001 UNESCO Convention earned international recognition in the area of "best practice" of protecting its underwater cultural heritage under the guidelines of that Convention while stopping the Expolio (looting) of the Galeon San José, which had been shipwrecked at the Pearl Archipelago in 1634 and was part of our common past with Spain and Peru through the old commercial seaport routes that united with the old Spanish empire.

On that occasion, the former National Institute of Culture (INAC), currently the Ministry of Culture of Panama, through the historic heritage and currently the national cultural heritage office, was able to stop the looting and conduct legal actions to recover the cultural wealth extracted from the Galeon with the support of an expert mission of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Council (STAB) requested by Panama to the Meeting of States parties to the Convention of the UNESCO of 2001 on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage.

OSorio recalled that according to studies conducted by Dr. Carlos León Amores in Panama there can be about 150 documented historic shipwrecks.

The country was currently planning to conduct an inventory to study and protect the underwater cultural heritage in collaboration with State security agencies.

The eighth Session of the Meeting of the States Parties to the 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage takes place in a hybrid format from June 7 to 9, 2021, from 13: 00 to 17: 00, Paris time, through the Zoom platform. The inaugural session had an opening ceremony at the host country Tunis with high-level representatives from the Tunisian and UNESCO government.

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