By Stephen Eisenhammer, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian President, Dilma Rousseff, used her opening speech at the Sixth Summit of the Americas, to reiterate her criticism of Western monetary policy, which she said was damaging Latin American industry. The summit, which was held last weekend in Cartagena, Colombia, brought together 33 heads of states from across the Americas, including the U.S. President Barack Obama.
Rousseff called for Latin American nations to defend themselves against the “tsunami of money” that she said was hitting emerging market economies as a result of Eurozone expansionary monetary actions (massive State-backed cash injections) designed to maintain international liquidity in the face of the European sovereign debt crisis.
This money has lead, she said, to rocketing levels of foreign investment into Latin America, resulting in an overvaluation of the region’s currencies and subsequently damaging exports.
“Of course we must take action to defend ourselves. To defend is different from to protect. It means not letting our manufacturing sector be cannibalized,” Rousseff said in the speech.
During the summit, Rousseff was part of a growing position on the part of Latin American nations that no future meeting of American nations be organized without the inclusion of Cuba.
However, Colombian president and host for the summit, Juan Manuel Santos, said in his closing speech on Sunday that no final agreement had been reached over the invitation of Cuba into the Organization of American States (OAS).
Read more (in Portuguese).
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