A new Ibero-American Summit

The closing of the XXVIII Ibero-American Summit held in Santo Domingo once again showed the need to strengthen this regional coordination body and at the same time revealed its weaknesses and insufficiencies.

The consensus reached this time has been minimal, especially in the fight against climate change, food security, digitization and its conversion into an integration axis in an area where, according to ECLAC data, less than 20% of trade it is intraregional.

What the summit has shown is the new era that the leftist governments of the region are going through and the difficult comparison between Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia and Cuba and the new progressive left that has more recently come to power, as is the case of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil, Gustavo Petro in Colombia or Gabriel Boric in Chile.

The former did not sign the condemnation of the UN-sponsored invasion of Ukraine and they are also behind the very lukewarm statement from the summit in favor of peace, without explicit mention of Ukraine, although Gabriel Boric did cross out for his account of "unacceptable" Russian aggression.

Among the most vibrant moments was precisely the Chilean president's defense of democratic values ​​and his criticism of the "family dictatorship" of Daniel Ortega and his wife,

The last-minute resignation to negotiate a new financial architecture for the region adds to other notable political deficiencies.

Although 13 delegations headed by heads of state or government attended Santo Domingo, Brazilian President Lula was missed, who excused himself citing a trip to China (finally also canceled due to pneumonia) and sent Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira in his place.

But it was the role of Mexico that aroused the most suspicion.

Not only did President Andrés Manuel López Obrador renounce traveling, which is unusual in international meetings, but his foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, did not even attend, and the undersecretary chosen to replace him did not stay until the end of the summit, without any of this could hide the overwhelming majority of male leaders,

Beyond the unusual statements by Alberto Núñez Feijóo about the alleged "homage" that the Government paid to "autocratic rulers" of the region, Pedro Sánchez confirmed that the current presidency of Spain in the EU will promote a set of investments of a strategic nature in the area, negotiated during the days of the summit with the presence in Santo Domingo of the High Representative of the EU, Josep Borrell.