Send page Print

Peace, Security & Human Rights / Comment

What to expect from the XVII Ibero-American Summit?

08/11/2007 By Susanne Gratius

The space provided by the summits, which are financed and promoted primarily by Spain, has begun to substitute exclusively Latin American fora such as the Rio Group, which has for some years now been suffering a serious existential crisis.

The Ibero-American community has also succeeded in staging thematic summits – a marked difference to other Europe-Latin America conferences – and in finding consensus in areas of importance to Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

Last year, the main Ibero-American leaders met in Uruguay to debate the impact of migration, an issue of primordial importance to Spain, which has become the world’s second largest (after the United States) destination of Latin American migrants, principally from Ecuador and Colombia. [See National Statistics Institute data, and also more detailed information on inmigration to Spain, at Wikipedia]

This year, the big issue at the summit will be social cohesion. Even the name itself can be considered an achievement, given that not so long ago “social cohesion” was considered an unacceptable term by many Latin American governments.

The fact that high level meetings to deal with the issue are now being organised reveals that something has changed in Latin America. With a few exceptions, the entire region is witnessing a tendency among the traditional political elite, whether they be populist or social democratic, to move towards government with greater political will to confront and overcome the challenges of extreme inequality and social injustice.

Until recently, Latin America had a depressing record as the most unequal and violent region in the world. The poverty, which still affects almost 40% of the population, is not caused by a lack of infrastructure or resources, but the distribution of wealth.

In no other part of the world is the concentration of income greater. This is especially true in countries like Bolivia, Brazil and Guatemala. And in no other place is the risk of being a victim of violence as high as it is in Latin America. Colombia, Guatemala and Venezuela lead the list of the continent’s most dangerous states.

Both phenomena, social inequality and violence, are intrinsically linked and are the consequence of states that are weak and dysfunctional when it comes to offering services to their citizens.

With this problem in mind, Spain and the states of the European Union offer an important reference for Latin American countries which is in stark contrast to that offered by the United States.

But we should not forget that there are positive examples to be found in Latin America, too. Among others, Brazil and Chile have managed to reduce not only poverty, but also the “shameful” abyss between rich and poor.

In Spain, Portugal and the other member states of the EU, the formula for tackling inequality and poverty has been: “more state as guarantor of security and wellbeing = more cohesion and social peace”.

Following European antecedents, social cohesion, based on an effective public sector and resources, has been rescued in Latin America, firstly by the Inter-American Development Bank (BID) and secondly by the Latin American Economic Commission (CEPAL), which played a key role in the preparation of the Ibero-American Summit in Santiago.

Social cohesion is becoming an evermore important issue, both with regard to Europe’s relations with Latin America and to the Ibero-American system. Even though this is an important and positive development, it should not be forgotten than even within Europe it remains a controversial issue on which it is often difficult to find consensus, even at the national level.

For this reason we should not expect monumental results to come from the Ibero-American summit. Gradual and modest progress towards social inclusion and more effective states can be hoped for, however. Greater solidarity and justice within Latin America would also help strengthen links with Europe and its model of the democratic state and social wellbeing.

Keywords

Chile Inequality International relations Latin America & Caribbean Populism

Related publications

• Is the politicial dialogue between the European Union and Latin America useful?
• La Cumbre Europeo-Latinoamericana en Viena
• Salamanca: results of a successful Summit
• The iberoamerican summit in Salamanca: from a cultural community to a political alliance?
• The Latin American State: "failed" or evolving?

Bio author: Susanne Gratius

PhD in Political Science by the University of Hamburg. Expert in Latin America.