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Headed by the Vice-President of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, Mr Rodolfo Nin Novoa, a large number of representatives of the national government attended the ceremony, such as Mr Jorge Lepra - Industry Minister-, Mr Martin Ponce de León - Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Industry-, Mrs María Simón - President of ANTEL, Director José Luis Cancela of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the President of the Uruguayan Regulatory Agency (URSEC), León Lev, among many others.

The emotional words of welcome spoken by an exultant Raúl Echeberría in his capacity as Executive Director of LACNIC reflected the extent of the efforts that have been made in reference to the tasks that were carried out and the race against time that was necessary in order to be ready for the day set for the opening ceremony as was expected, even against all predictions. He acknowledged the efforts of all those involved in achieving this objective and the attendance of all those present. In his words, "LACNIC began in a 12 square meter office with a budget of 150 thousand dollars; today we have these beautiful headquarters, and manage an annual budget of 1.5 million dollars".

On a clear, typical Montevideo evening, at 6125 República de México Avenue, on the corner of 6 de Abril Street, lulled by the music of the "Club de Tobi" string quartet, diplomatic representatives and members of the international community such as Markus Kummer, of the IGF (Internet Governance Forum), Richard Hill of the ITU, José Clastornik, Executive Director of the AGESIC (Agency for the Development of Electronic Governance and an Information and Knowledge Society), enjoyed the delicious courses with which we celebrated the occasion.

Our colleagues from the other regional registries (RIRs) were extremely well represented: Ray Plzak, President and CEO of ARIN from the United States; Axel Pawlik, General Director of RIPE, Jim Reid and Janos Zsako, also members of the RIPE Board of Directors, from Europe; and Kenny Yitong and Alan Barret from AfriNIC.

Foreign diplomatic representatives to Uruguay had the opportunity to exchange opinions about the latest ICANN meeting held in Brazil, in several different languages, with Paul Twomey - President of ICANN, Pablo Hinojosa, David Conrad, Vanda Scartezini, Theresa Swinehart, Jacob Malthouse and Leo Vegoda,

Designed as a state-of-the-art technology center and meeting place for the region's Internet community, the new headquarters are located in a traditional home on the waterside Avenue of the Carrasco neighborhood, after an extraordinary process of restoration that consumed over a year's work and represented an investment of one million dollars.

Cassio Vecchiatti, as well as many friends of the regional Internet community, some of them members of our organization, were present with us during the event: the President of CABASE, Patricio Seoane, Ariel Graizer, Fernando Silveira, chair and LACNIC region representative to the ASO - AC Sebastián Bellagamba, Francisco Obispo of CNTI Venezuela and representative of the LACNIC region to the el ASO AC, Margarita Valdés of NIC Chile and president of LACTLD . Although there are many others who we will surely forget to include in this brief article, we wish to mention the presence of the representatives of the LACNIC Board of Directors, Mr Oscar Messano of Argentina (president), Fabio Marinho of Brazil, Jesús Martínez of Cuba, Hartmut Glaser of Brazil, Javier Salazar of Mexico. Also present were members of LACNIC's Fiscal Commission: Cassio Vecchiatti and Gabriel Adonaylo; Carlos Neira of Colombia, recently elected LACNIC Director and Raimundo Beca of Chile, member of the ICANN Board of Directors and former director of LACNIC.

Emotional Reunion

Internet pioneers and early promoters of our organization, network promoters of the entire region reunited once again under the shelter of the new LACNIC house. Florencio Utreras, Executive Director of CLARA, Ida Holtz, of the University of the Republic of Uruguay, Julián Dunayevich, creator of the RAN, Estela Barone, representing the Argentinean Secretariat of Science and Technology, José Soriano of Perú, Demi Getschko and Frederico Neves of LACTLD and NIC BR respectively. Numerous representatives of the region's industry were also in attendance, such as Gabriel Adonaylo of COMSAT and Christian O’Flaherty of Impsat Fiber Networks (Argentina) and Moderator of the LACNIC Public Forum.

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