The Ibero-American Summit starts with the goal of having “concrete results”

The XXVIII Ibero-American Summit officially began this Friday in Santo Domingo with the presence of eleven heads of state who will have the mission of achieving “concrete results” in terms of sustainability, food security, digital transformation and financial architecture.

The inauguration took place in the colonial fortress of Ozama, the first permanent military structure in the Americas, where the President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, received one by one with his wife, First Lady Raquel Arbaje, the rest of the Ibero-American leaders.

The inaugural ceremony was attended by the King of Spain, Felipe VI, and the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, as well as the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and nine presidents from Latin America and the Caribbean, including the Argentine Alberto Fernández and the Cuban Miguel Diaz Canel.

Also in the squad were Bolivian Luis Arce, Chilean Gabriel Boric, Ecuadorian Guillermo Lasso, Honduran Xiomara Castro, Paraguayan Mario Abdo Benítez and Uruguayan Luis Lacalle Pou.

Despite the fact that his presence had been announced for the inauguration, the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, arrived in the Dominican Republic after 10:00 p.m. local time, and will have his first public appearance at the summit in plenary.

In the next few hours, the president of Costa Rica, Rodrigo Chaves, is also expected to arrive from France.

In addition, at the ceremony it was announced that Santo Domingo also awaits the arrival of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro for the plenary sessions, for whom this would be his first Ibero-American Summit as head of state if he finally arrives on Dominican soil.

The opening of the summit, with a national music show included, will give way on Saturday to the plenary session.

Summit for tangible agreements

“This will be a summit dedicated to the people and aimed at having concrete results,” said the head of the Ibero-American General Secretariat (Segib), the Chilean Andrés Allamand, who was the first to speak at the opening ceremony.

Allamand assured that this summit is aimed at “obtaining concrete results that have a positive impact on the quality of life of Ibero-Americans.”

It is expected that this summit will produce a set of documents that serve as guides on the central issues of the debates and for the development of public policies, among them the Ibero-American Environmental Charter, the Food Security Strategy and the Charter of Digital Principles and Rights. .

This is to direct Latin America to face the challenges of climate change, hunger and advances in technology, which imply adapting regulations to the new scenarios and digital contexts that will mark the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ibero-Americans even more far-reaching.

Abinader claims freedoms

In his capacity as host, the President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, highlighted the need to strengthen and expand integration spaces such as this Ibero-American community, “united not only by languages, history and geography, but by a common vision on the main challenges facing humanity”.

“There are more ties that unite us than the differences that separate us,” emphasized the Dominican president, for whom “only through collaboration and joint work can we address the challenges of our time.”

“Today, at a crucial moment for humanity, when we are facing a change of times, paradigms and models that we took for granted, more than ever it is necessary to rescue the possible utopia that encouraged the men and women of our land to aspire to of a more just society for all”, he added.

Abinader asserted that there are “common challenges that demand collective responses, and the first is the one faced by democracy and freedom due to an ‘overwhelming’ polarization of the political debate and a growing dissatisfaction with the quality of democratic governance, a scenario in which they flourish extremist discourses and the threatening shadow of authoritarianism”.

“In order to revitalize our democracies, it is essential to maintain the irreducible commitment to the defense of freedom, collective well-being and political action free of sectarianism,” he said.

Likewise, he appealed for concrete results, based on broad national consensus, as the only way to “dismantle extremism that endangers democracies”, because he urged his guests to develop the capacity to overcome political differences and dialogue sincerely. and friendly”. EFE

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