Ibero-American Summit

The Ibero-American Summit, involving the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries of the Americas, Spain and Portugal concluded this weekend with some painful acknowledgments:

"Despite our attempts to build something for all, exclusion, intolerance and discrimination are still the order of the day," said Bolivia's new president, Carlos Mesa, at the two-day event that ended on Saturday.

The summit's final declaration echoed the president, saying "economic reforms did not diminish inequality and social exclusion and in some cases worsened the situation."

Leaders said they would help Bolivia stabilize its economy to avert further turmoil in the Andean region. With no money in its coffers, Bolivia has asked for financing and special access to markets for its goods.

Like its neighbors, Bolivia opened markets to imports and foreign investment and privatized industry with the encouragement of the United States and Europe. But more than 60 percent of Bolivians still live in poverty, making it the poorest nation in South America despite its large gas and mineral reserves.

The story repeats itself across the region. The United Nations says 43 percent of Latin Americans live below the poverty line, while the number of poor has risen to 225 million in 2003 from 200 million in 1990.

Anyone care to make the argument that neoliberalism has been a boon to Latin America's most poverty-ridden citizens?

Some good ideas have come out of the summit. I especially like this one proposed by Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo:

Besides Mesa, another person claiming victory at the summit was Toledo, who got his colleagues to support a plan that he says will bring badly needed debt relief to Latin America while at the same time increasing badly needed investment in the region's roads, hospitals and schools.

The plan would allow debtor nations to reduce debt payments by instead investing the money in infrastructure.

Despite the nay saying by some, and although it's not a panacea, I think that is certainly a better plan than demanding repayment of the debt from countries that can little afford it and it will direct resources to parts of their societies that desperately need to improve infrastructure.

This is also an encouraging effort by Toledo, albeit a drop in the bucket:

Peru, for example, will finance $20 million of Peruvian exports to Bolivia and $20 million more for Bolivian imports to Peru, President Alejandro Toledo said Saturday. Peru will also give $1 million -- ''a symbolic gesture,'' Toledo called it -- to poor residents in El Alto, the area outside La Paz where the antigovernment protests originated.

If I recall correctly, that $20 million figure is about twice as much as the Bush administration offered to former president Sánchez de Lozada earlier in the year.