The Ibero-American Summit to be held in Madrid between November 4 and 5 has only managed to bring together 10 leaders from the region, including Spain. An attendance that can be described as 'low' taking into account the estimates used by the Ibero-American Secretary General, Andrés Allamand, who spoke last week of around 15 heads of state. Among the casualties, it is striking that the main social democratic leaders of the region, the Brazilian Lula da Silva and the Mexican Claudia Sheinbaum, have fallen out of the photo with Pedro Sánchez. Instead, most of the attendees are associates of Donald Trump.
As confirmed by government sources, the leaders of Andorra, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Portugal, the Dominican Republic and Spain will attend. In addition, Colombia, Ecuador and El Salvador will attend the meeting at the vice presidential level. The other countries will be represented by their respective heads of delegation at the level of foreign ministers, that is, foreign ministers, until the list of 22 countries that are part of these meetings is completed.
In this way, Pedro Sánchez is left without his allies from the leftist axis, whose participation would have been a boost in his anti-Trump crusade. The presidents of Brazil and Mexico, along with the then Colombian president Gustavo Petro, did appear in April for the progressive summit in Barcelona, although the effect then was mitigated by the mass bath of the Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado, in Puerta del Sol.
The absence of Lula da Silva is striking, who has just staged a historic comeback in just three weeks, after losing the first electoral round. The Brazilian knew how to motivate disenchanted people to defeat the right-wing Bolsonaro, very similar to what Sánchez is seeking in these elections.
The absence of Claudia Sheinbaum is also relevant, since even from the head of state great efforts were made to convince the president of the importance of her presence. Thus, King Felipe VI made a statement acknowledging that there was "a lot of abuse" during the conquest. And he took advantage of a trip to Mexico to support the team during the World Cup and meet with the Mexican leader. A photo with which they concluded several years of "diplomatic pause" in relations.
Compared to the summit held in the Ecuadorian city of Cuenca two years ago, in which Sánchez himself did not even participate, leaving King Felipe alone, the Madrid conclave includes the presence of six American countries. All of them belong to the Shield of the Americas, led by Donald Trump.
Despite the lack of support from social democratic leaders, government sources explain that they are very satisfied with the level of representation. They emphasize that the relationship with Mexico is in a very positive moment and that the country's delegation has been very involved in the preparation of the Summit. They also hide behind the fact that the president travels very little. They also downplay the absence of Brazil, with whom they have excellent cooperation. And they attribute Lula's absence to the process of wear and tear that elections imply.
Another notable absence is that of Delcy Rodríguez, the president in charge of Venezuela under the tutelage of Washington. In his place will appear the new chancellor (Minister of Foreign Affairs) Oliver Blanco, appointed last week and who yesterday, Monday, traveled to Washington for his first meeting with Marco Rubio, Secretary of State. Blanco comes from the opposition ranks: for years he remained very close to Henry Ramos Allup, general secretary of the social democratic Democratic Action (AD).
Despite being sanctioned by the European Union (EU), Delcy Rodríguez could have participated in the Madrid Summit with the same special exception that was already applied weeks ago for her trip to Rome for the assembly of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
