Eleven leaders missed the previous 2011 Ibero-American summit in Paraguay
As Spain doubles efforts to ensure full attendance to the coming Ibero-American summit in Cadiz, next 16/17 November diplomatic sources recalled what happened in the previous event which took place in Asuncion, with Fernando Lugo president and which was considered a failure since eleven leaders missed the event including Mercosur full members, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.
Then president Lugo host of the XXI Ibero-American summit, October 2011, was exposed to the “vacuum” from its peers and ideological ‘comrades’ from Mercosur, plus Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, and the secretary of the organization, veteran diplomat and international bureaucrat Enrique Iglesias, almost lost his job following the complaints from King Juan Carlos.
Spain which is hosting the summit in Cadiz has suggested it would like President Federico Franco, from Paraguay, which has been suspended from Mercosur, to remain absent from the event as his attendance could trigger reactions from Argentina, Venezuela and Uruguay, among others.
The situation was pointed out by Spanish Foreign minister Jose Manuel García-Margallo during a press conference on the coming summit held in Lima, Peru. Spain has pending trade and investment issues with Argentina which it wants to address with Cristina Fernandez when she visits Cadiz.
Likewise the Paraguayan media recalls that when Lugo was president and host of the summit in October 2011, Venezuelan Hugo Chavez, because of medical reasons, stayed away; Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez said it was a year of the death of her husband, Nestor Kirchner, and was still in mourning; Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff alleged she was busy preparing for the G-20 summit and Uruguay’s Jose Mujica sent his Vice-president Danilo Astori.
A total of eleven leaders of the 22 which make up the Ibero-America summit were absent from Paraguay including Juan Manuel Santos (Colombia), Laura Chinchilla (Costa Rica), Raúl Castro (Cuba), Mauricio Funes (El Salvador), Porfirio Lobo (Honduras), Daniel Ortega (Nicaragua) and Leonel Fernández (Dominican Republic).
At the time Lugo was having trouble with his Mercosur partners because he was unable to convince the Paraguayan congress to approve the incorporation of Venezuela as full member of the group.
Besides there were trade conflicts with Argentina; disputes with Brazil over payments for power from the giant Itaipú hydroelectric dam, and President Mujica did not want to offend the senior members of Mercosur. Besides the Socialist government of Spain was on its way out and overall enthusiasm about such events was as it lowest.
The Spanish press furious that the King had become a laughing stock in Latin America said failure responded directly to “an unconvincing Spanish foreign policy, the way the Ibero-American group secretariat is managed or its penchant for bureaucracy full of good intentions, ad infinitum rhetoric and no follow up of the pompous cooperation programs which many times compete directly with bilateral or multilateral Spanish cooperation”.
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Can't they afford the phone bill?
she is a european country,
well, in name only, now she has a new leader,
still,
it seems CFK is expanding into spain,
her doorway to glory.lol.
The reality is that the Spanish since 1990 have been presuming to be the natural “Bridge” from SA to Europe and also US.
They were showing all over the world former SA state companies acquired by them as a sign of the influence they got in the region.
Even a stupid Spanish politician went to US to promote a “Plan Marshal” style loans program to be manage by them in which US would have to put 100bn and Spain 5bn to promote growth and business (of course their business). The yanks of course laugh...
Now after the YPF nationalisation by Arg. their credibility to get profit from SA and to repay debt owned to international bankers has been eroded and they are desperate because if something similar will happen again (like the nationalisation of Telefonica for example) none will lend a penny to them any more.
That is the terror that the Spanish have now, and they should be very scared by now.
So the Spanish tiger turned into a domestic little cat to be swallowed by International lions bankers.
If what you say is true then surely Argentina is already the “domestic little cat” you speak of. You are far further down that road than Spain are.
using non-attendance at trans-continental summits to score political points.
These ibero-american summits are designed to cement friendships and facilitate trade relationships.
Sooo short-sighted and counter-productive.
The Spanish are close to collapse like Italy and then follows UK.
Be patient I said before that to the end of 2012 we will see the true consequences of the bank mess.
The bad times have not even started in Europe...
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