Friday, October 31, 2008

XVII Ibero-American Summit

Today marks the second day of the three day Ibero-American summit in El Salvador, and despite the nominal theme of "Youth and Development," all signs indicate that the themes of the summit continue to be dominated by the financial crisis.

All in all, the summit seems to be yet another opportunity for bloviating, with little hope for serious advances or accord:

Mexican President Felipe Calderón: "(We) need enormous flows of external investment, without which it would be impossible to finance our development."

Argentine President Christina Fernandez: "It is the failure of a model established at the end of the 80s,which dominated the international stage during the 90s, known as neo-liberalism or Washington Consensus."

Guatemalan President Alvaro Colóm: "Guatemala should not have to pay for the failure of a model that we never wanted... I hope they don't ask us for more poverty because we can't give more."

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez did not attend,
citing among several reasons El Salvador's alleged complicity with anti-Cuban forces (alas, there were no "porque no te callas" moments.)

I'll update next week to see what accords come out of the summit.

Sources: Reuters, Xinhua, Forbes, Youtube

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