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This Friday in the Dominican Republic, the XXVIII Ibero-American Summit was inaugurated with the surprise announcement of the participation of the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, whose legitimacy is questioned by Spain and other participating 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.
The president of the host country, Luis Abinader, opened the event at the Osama Fortress, a colonial fort facing the Caribbean Sea, together with the King of Spain, Felipe VI, and nine other heads of state. The meeting, 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. Leaders of 14 of the 22 countries summoned to the Summit will discuss, for two days, issues for the development of the region
The summit plenary will be held this Saturday, when the leaders will sign a joint declaration. Maduro must participate in the debate, absent from the opening ceremony. It is the first time that the president has participated in this forum since he came to power in 2013 after the death of 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. During 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. Ecuador, Paraguay and Spain still refuse to give it formal recognition.
The Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele, or the Nicaraguan, Daniel Ortega, are not expected to attend, both also criticized for their growing authoritarianism and accused of human rights violations.
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.
“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.”
A hot topic is migration, several experts estimate, which they think will be addressed more in bilateral meetings.
“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.
with AFP
