The Ibero-American Summit was inaugurated this Friday in the Dominican Republic with the surprise announcement of the participation of the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, whose legitimacy is questioned by Spain and other member countries of this forum.
The meeting in Santo Domingo, which runs until Saturday, has an agenda focused on the difficult economic situation left by the covid-19 pandemic and which worsened in the region with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The forum is committed to strengthening cooperation between Latin America and Europe.
The president of the host country, Luis Abinader, inaugurated the event at the Osama Fortress, a beautiful colonial fort facing the Caribbean Sea, together with the King of Spain, Felipe VI, and nine other heads of state.
“It is urgent to rethink a fairer global financial system, which allows us to invest to create the bases for a green, equitable and true economic development,” Abinader said in his speech.
The summit plenary will be held on Saturday, when the leaders will sign a joint declaration.
Maduro must participate in this debate, absent from the opening ceremony. His arrival in Santo Domingo was announced by the master of ceremonies by enumerating the arrival of rulers.
It is the first time that the president has participated in this forum since he came to power in 2013 after the death of his predecessor, Hugo Chávez.
His legitimacy has been questioned since his re-election in 2018 by several countries in the region, which have branded this process as fraudulent. In fact, at the last summit in 2021 in Andorra, where Maduro was represented by his vice president Delcy Rodríguez, Venezuela was the epicenter of a heated debate.
Latin America has since experienced a shift to the left in countries such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Brazil, which improved the international outlook for Maduro, as the Venezuelan opposition at the national level lost strength with the failure of its offensive to remove him from power with the support of the United States. He will now seek a third six-year term in 2024.
Ecuador, Paraguay and Spain still refuse to give it formal recognition.
The attendance of the Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele, or the Nicaraguan, Daniel Ortega, both also criticized for their growing authoritarianism and accused of human rights violations, is not expected.
“It will not disappoint”
The joint declaration that is expected to be signed on Saturday includes “a ‘critical route for food security, inclusive and sustainable in Ibero-America’, an ‘Ibero-American environmental charter’, which contributes to protecting our habitat and oceans; and the ‘Ibero-American charter of principles and rights in digital environments’, to guarantee the exercise of fundamental rights within the framework of digital transformation,” according to a statement from the organization.
Latin America is facing a difficult year, with growth projections of less than 2%, while the cost of a healthy diet in the region is the most expensive in the world: $3.89 per person per day, inaccessible to 22.5% of the population , according to the United Nations.
A central point will be access to financing for poor countries.
The Ibero-American Summit precedes the July meeting between the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) and the European Union (EU), to be held on July 17-18 in Belgium.
“Economic recovery today more than ever needs cooperation,” Felipe VI said at the end of a business meeting prior to the summit. “The commitment to Latin America will not disappoint.”
“Under the carpet”
Overcoming the economic crisis that is hitting part of the region requires achieving political stability, in the midst of severe turbulence in countries such as Peru, Ecuador or Venezuela.
The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, said at the business meeting that he was fighting, for example, with “a very blind opposition” that seeks to come to power “not by voting, but by a parliamentary coup d’état,” when a political trial is promoted. against him.
A hot topic, but not the protagonist of the summit, is migration, estimated Mariano De Alba, an analyst with the International Crisis Group, who believes it will be part of the bilateral ones.
“Latin America is experiencing one of the largest migrations in history,” said Paraguayan President Mario Abdo, referring to the more than 7 million Venezuelans who have left the country according to the UN. “We can’t sweep that under the rug.”
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