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Obama’s Colombia visit itinerary

by Rosemary Westwood

Obama Colombia

U.S. President Barack Obama will begin his first official visit to Colombia on Friday night, accompanied by an expected delegation of 700 people.

The leader will arrive in Cartagena ahead of the Summit of the Americas, April 14 and 15. He is the first U.S. president to ever stay overnight in the country.

Here is the President Obama’s itinerary, as detailed by Ben Rhodes, White House Deputy National Security Advisor.

Friday

  • On the way to the summit, the President will do an event at the Port of Tampa, where he will speak about the importance of U.S. exports to the Americas and the need to deepen trade and investment.
  • He arrives in Cartagena Friday night, and he’ll begin the summit with a dinner that the Colombians are hosting for summit leaders on Friday night.

Saturday

  • Obama begins his day with a CEO Summit of the Americas.  This will be an opportunity for the President to join President Santos of Colombia and President Rousseff of Brazil in a discussion about our efforts to increase economic integration and opportunity across the hemisphere.
  • Then he joins the other leaders of the Americas for an arrival ceremony in the early afternoon to kick off the summit.
  • From that, they will go into the plenary session, which will run throughout the afternoon.
  • The leaders will again have a dinner, this time a leaders’ dinner in which they will be able to continue their discussions.

Sunday

  • In the morning there will be an official photo for the Summit.
  • That will be followed by the leaders’ retreat, which will run throughout the morning and conclude the summit program.
  • The President will also have an opportunity to speak on the margins of both the summit and the retreat with other leaders of the Americas.
  • Following that leaders’ retreat, he’ll have a multilateral meeting with Caribbean leaders.
  • In the afternoon, the President will have a bilateral program with President Santos of Colombia that will include a meeting among the Presidents and then a working lunch.
  • Following their meeting, the two leaders will have a joint press conference, when they the leaders could announce a date for the enactment of Colombia’s Free Trade Agreement with the US.
  • Then they will participate in an event at San Pedro Claver Church.
  • In the late afternoon, the President will return to the United States, getting back to Washington late Sunday night.