A Parlatino press release stated that the first of those tributes would be to Peruvian founder, lawyer, and journalist Andres Townsend (1915-1994) at the Congress of that South American nation on August 1st,

Cuban legislator Rolando Gonzalez, president of Parlatino, and Townsend’s relatives, among others, will attend the ceremony.

Townsend was unanimously elected Parlatino’s first secretary general, a position to which he was re-elected until 1991.

Within the organization, Townsend, a Peruvian writer and politician, contributed to important initiatives, such as the institutionalization of Parlatino in the continent’s 18 countries through a treaty signed on November 16, 1987.

Comprising 23 member countries, Parlatino was founded at the Constitutive Assembly that took place in Lima, the capital of Peru, on December 7-10, 1964. It aimed to promote integration and strengthen democracy.

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