«Let’s continue to do Ibero-America, there is more that unites us than what separates us.» The enthusiasm of the organizers and the presence and words of the King Philip VIthat open this chronicle, were not enough to prevent the Ibero-American Summit in Cuenca It goes down in history as a failure.
The bad relations of the host president, the Ecuadorian Daniele Noboawith its counterparts in the region, the presidents’ war that marks political current affairs in the Americas and the absence of Pedro Sánchezhead of the Spanish government, habitual agitator of the 28 previous Ibero-American conclaves, not only blew up the results of Cuenca 2024. He also raised doubts about the effectiveness of these summits and They say that the dream of an integrated America in the style of the European Union is today a political nightmare.
Who has no doubts about the «vitality and validity of our community» is King Felipe, who collected the testimony of the leaders for the 2026 summit in Spain and, furthermore, firmly defended «the ecosystem of relations without which» it is impossible to understand the Ibero-American community beyond these summits.» The monarch based the strength of his roadmap on the achievements achieved in three decades of Ibero-American conclaves.
«In this dizzying period in which we have to live, of great complexity for multilateralism, it is necessary to redouble our efforts and not give up the effort to continue working to consolidate and double the efforts», underlined Felipe VI, determined to rediscover «the spirit and enthusiasm of the first summits».
«With each meeting that we carry out in Ibero-America, we continue in the effort», concluded the king, who had the support of the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albaresin the absence of Sánchez.
«Let’s make an effort to dilute the differences»specified Albares, who, despite everything, insisted on the need for these spaces of dialogue and cooperation. Very marked differences on this occasion between Argentina and Cuba, including the dialectical argument. Havana’s envoy accused the Argentine ambassador of trying to «taint» the summit, while attacking human rights violations on the island.
It was these same differences that caused the false closure of the summit, without consensus to arrive at a joint declaration. The «radical positions», as the Ecuadorian chancellor defined them, came from Argentina, which did not want to join in condemning the US embargo against Cuba and the measures against climate change or for gender equality.
The evocative solitude of the King was confirmed in the family photo and in the interventions in the plenary session. Two European presidents (Portuguese Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Andorra Saverio Espot), the host president (Daniel Noboa), one vice president (the Salvadoran Flix Ulloa), four foreign ministers (foreign ministers of Spain, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Panama), one minister (Peru), five deputy foreign ministers (Bolivia, Chile, Guatemala, Paraguay and Uruguay), three ambassadors (Brazil, Argentina and Colombia), a regional director (Honduras) and a third-ranking position from Cuba made up the final photo of Cuenca 2024.
«These summits should be more sporadic and governments still need to make an effort to maintain recurring contacts to assess their common interests and what deals they can make. There is no reason why heads of state and government should not make the most of digital connectivity tools. In this era, any summit must be able to show clear and tangible results for the citizens of the countries involved, otherwise the perception that they have little value continues to increase and therefore the credibility of the subjects involved is reduced», warned EL MUNDO. the internationalist Mariano de Alba.
In addition to the absence of the great leaders of the region, representatives of Mexico, Venezuela and Nicaragua were also missing, dictatorships in solidarity with the North American government after the assault by Ecuadorian forces on the Aztec embassy in Quito to arrest the first revolutionary vice president Jorge Glas. The other revolutions sent a vice chancellor (Bolivia) and Rodolfo Bentez, Cuban national coordinator.
«On a formal and official level, what is achieved from these summits is very little, including the UN summit Organization of American States (OAS). They have many reservations about its effectiveness. But from an informal point of view they can still be useful: in Latin America governments change quite frequently beyond what is established by constitutions. Somehow, in these spaces, opportunities for mutual knowledge are generated and good and useful things can come out of countries, with mutual cooperation initiatives. From this dimension they can be useful,” said political analyst Matas Abad for this newspaper.
