The president of Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz, has defended this Thursday in Madrid that Ibero-American leaders have the responsibility to act in a coordinated manner to meet the region’s challenges, setting aside ideological differences. "Our peoples do not need to think alike," he said.
During his speech at the XXX Ibero-American Summit, taking place in the Spanish capital, Paz highlighted that "This is a historic moment and our America, I believe, has those resources and an extraordinary heritage in order to be able to collaborate with the whole of Ibero-America and to be able to generate a better future".
In his remarks, the president insisted that "We are neither left nor right. For us, ideology does not put food on the table; what puts food on the table is common sense and the common good of our nations," and he proposed the launch of an Ibero-American Center for Strategic Thinking and Security with the aim of coordinating a regional response to organized crime, drug trafficking, and narcoterrorism.
Paz also emphasized that the historical ties and the mestizo identity that Europe and Ibero-America share must be translated into "concrete results" and not remain at the level of symbolic statements, questioning the current visa restrictions for students and the difficulties in terms of trade.
The president recalled that "We have a Hispanic legacy that is part of us (...) This diversity is our strength and it is part of the strength that builds Ibero-America," while calling for a more active role for the region in the field of development. "We don’t want to be only markets or only consumers of technology," he stressed.
Along these lines, he defended that "That is the task: to transform our wealth into knowledge, knowledge into production, and production into opportunities for our peoples," and he warned of the urgency of overcoming a historic "technological defeat" in relation to Europe in order to open horizons for new generations.
Paz recalled that "They are the ones who are going to live with the consequences of what we decide or fail to do (...) The homeland has to be a promise of the future as well. A place where a young person can study, work, start a business, fall in love, form a family, make mistakes, start over again, and feel that their effort makes sense," he said.
Finally, it has equated the priority of the fight against transnational crime with the battle against climate change, calling for more human and financial resources to strengthen the continent’s borders and institutions.