Dominican Republic to host more than a dozen leaders at the Ibero-American Summit

About fifteen leaders of the 22 countries participating in the Ibero-American Summit will attend the meeting this Friday and Saturday in the Dominican Republic.

They will try to deepen further the cooperation achieved in the last three decades.

According to Dominican Foreign Minister Roberto Alvarez, fourteen presidents have confirmed their presence in Santo Domingo.

In two cases, vice presidents or foreign ministers will represent the rest, although he did not want to detail the countries that will not be represented at the highest level.

Two of the confirmed absences will be those of the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the president of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega.

They are not fond of attending international forums and will delegate their respective foreign ministers, Marcelo Ebrard and Denis Moncada.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva declined to attend because, on Sunday, he will begin an official visit to China.

After the departure from power of Jair Bolsonaro, who maintained tense relations with the region’s leaders and left Brazil on the margins of the international scene, Lula was expected to be much more active in forums such as the Ibero-American Summit.

Among those who will not travel to Santo Domingo are also, according to Europa Press, the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, who does not enjoy many friendships among his regional peers, as well as the president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, and the prime minister of Andorra, Xavier Espot.

Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, on the other hand, will be in doubt until the last moment.

Although his attendance at what would be his first summit was practically taken for granted, the corruption scandal that has splashed the oil company PDVSA and forced the resignation of the Minister of Petroleum, Tareck el Assami, could finally make him stay in Caracas.

With information from LGI