Without consensus, the Ibero-American summit avoids pronouncing itself on the war in Ukraine: Argentina winks at the Malvinas

He consent has its costs. Barring last-minute changes, the final document which will be signed by the 19 heads of state and government participating in the XXVIII Ibero-American Summit in the Dominican Republic – and which has been under discussion for months – will not mention Russia in any of its 11 pages, nor to Ukraine, much less to the invasion – the term he used Alberto Fernández at the UNlast September – ordered by Vladimir Putin.

Argentine diplomatic sources point out that “the bad guys” – Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua— as they qualified them — they definitely blocked that possibility. The pressure from Spain and Portugal was not enough.

For the President of the Spanish Government Pedro Sanchez the one that landed in Santo Domingo a few minutes after the President and a day after King Felipe VI, will represent a setback. The head of the Spanish government – who will meet Fernández and the representative of the European Union on Saturday morning Joseph Borrel– is one of the most adamant European leaders when it comes to condemning Russia’s responsibility for the first war on the old continent in 70 years. Spain will exercise the pro tempore presidency of the bloc in the second half of the year. This is the first face-to-face summit since the pandemic.

The 49-point declaration that leaders will sign on Saturday makes little reference to the “wars” across the planet that the region and the countries of the Iberian Peninsula intend to avoid using the UN Charter as a roadmap.

The text also alludes to the “war conflict” in Ukraine, emphasizing the need to guarantee a path for sustainable food supply. In the same section, the deed is issued against the commercial locks and that the countries of the region are also suffering, a clear allusion to the situation of Venezuela and Cubarepresented by the presidents of both countries, Nicolás Maduro and Miguel Díaz-Canel.

At the Argentine foreign ministry they acknowledge the absences of the Brazilian Lula, who went to China, and of the Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador “devalued” the top management. Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega also hit the foul, like the controversial Salvadoran executive Nayib Bukele. The Dominican capital is protected by the security forces, especially in the colonial zone, where the leaders stay and the Summit is held. Twenty minutes away, on the beaches that line Avenida España, kilometers of Caribbean Sea open up, but no one bathes because of the pollution.

The final document, somewhat recycled according to the appreciation of a diplomat, is a sort of declaration of good intentions to guarantee the sustainable development of the region after the pandemic and to achieve the 2030 goals. One of the axes of the document and of the entire meeting will revolve around actions to mitigate climate change.

Argentina, on the other hand, achieved a victory: it managed to get the leaders of the summit to issue an a special communication on the Malvinas in which they urge the parties to return to the negotiating table. On the other hand, they recognize the Argentine government’s effort to establish a peaceful solution. “It has been our greatest success”, the national delegation was honest by pointing out the detail that Spain and Portugal -two European countries with a colonial past- and in the Spanish case with enclaves in Ceuta and Melilla.

On behalf of Foreign Minister Cafiero, who traveled with Fernández, the undersecretary for Latin America was present Gustavo Martinez Pandiania man of Sergio Massa, to negotiate the documents. The Minister of Economy will join the entourage in the United States if the bilateral meeting between Fernández and Joseph Biden. The Argentine delegation is confident that this official confirmation will come from the White House this Saturday.

Fernández and the rest of the 19 heads of state and government took a family photo at the Fortress of Santo Domingo, the oldest fortress in America. The Argentine president was flanked by the Cuban president and the King of Spain.

There and shortly thereafter, the president met with the Chilean Gabriel Borico and with Ecuadorian William Lasso, with which this week he was the protagonist of public diplomatic short circuits, following the letter that Fernández sent to Quito after the ex-minister of Rafael Correa fled, Maria de los Angeles Duarte, from the Argentine embassy where she had taken refuge in Caracas. The president had questioned the Ecuadorian and Chilean justices, as well as the Argentine and Brazilian ones.

The meeting was relaxed in the Casa de Bastidas, in the colonial zone of the Dominican capital, offered by Dominican President Luís Abinader. “The personal relationship between Alberto and Lasso is very good”, they minimized close to the Argentine president, who returned to his hotel around midnight. In the small Argentine entourage there were signs of weariness and some regrets about the lack of organization.

Boric, meanwhile, has already extended an invitation to commemorate the 205th anniversary of the embrace between San Martín and O’Higgins in the city of Maipú, where the historic battle took place.