Panama Conference

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The Panama Conference was a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Americas from September 23 to October 3, 1939, in Panama City, as World War II began. Its goal was to set a common policy for the war, especially regarding naval actions near the Americas.

Attending were the United States, Mexico, and many countries from Central and South America: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay. Canada did not attend because it was part of the British Empire and was already at war with Germany.

The participants formed three committees to discuss neutrality, maintaining peace in the region, and economic cooperation. They produced the Panama Declaration, laying out the agreed policies to keep the Americas neutral. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, promoting the Good Neighbor policy, sought to unite Latin America against fascist influence while avoiding intervention. He had supported earlier inter-American meetings, and after the war began in Europe he called this Panama Conference. The declaration was generally supported by the attendees, and the public in the United States was favorable.