Latin America pledged investment opportunities for recession-hit Spanish and Portuguese companies but warned its former colonial masters drastic cost cutting would only deepen their misery.
Spain and Portugal sought help from their former Latin American colonies to rescue them from economic crisis through a new wave of trade and investment across the Atlantic Ocean.
Spanish President Mariano Rajoy stated that he “would have liked” his Argentine counterpart, President Cristina Fernández to have attended the XXIIth Ibero-American summit, starting Friday in Cádiz.
The XXII Ibero-American summit which takes off Friday in the city of Cadiz will be focused on the Euro zone crisis and the need to boost investments in Latin America of which Spain can become the “vertebrate axis” said Spanish Foreign minister Jose García Margallo.
Uruguayan president Jose Mujica has plans to meet two, probably three times before the end of the year with his peer from Venezuela, Hugo Chavez to address “a real integration” of Mercosur, not limited to trade, but at the same time admitting that Venezuela is rapidly becoming one of the main markets for Uruguayan exports.
Paraguayan president Federico Franco and Spain’s Mariano Rajoy are scheduled to meet on Tuesday at the United Nations building to talk about bilateral issues and the coming Ibero-American summit in Cadiz, next November 16/17 which has become a highly controversial issue.
Spain has not invited Paraguay to the Ibero-American summit in Cadiz scheduled for next November confirmed Paraguayan Foreign minister Jose Felix Fernandez Estigarribia, who also admitted that the number of countries ‘disgusted’ with the new administration of President Federico Franco has diminished considerably.
President Federico Franco and the head of the Spanish government Mariano Rajoy will address the participation of Paraguay in the coming Ibero-American summit scheduled for November in Cadiz, taking advantage of their presence in New York next week for the UN General Assembly.
A top Spanish official made a low profile and unexpected visit to Paraguay last week with the purpose of trying to convince the administration of president Federico Franco to remain absent from the coming Ibero-American summit scheduled for November since Madrid fears his presence could turn the event into a failure.
Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel García-Margallo suggested on Tuesday that it would be best for Paraguay not to attend the coming Ibero-American summit scheduled to take place in Cadiz, next November, because of the complex political situation.