The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, faces starting this Wednesday in Madrid the XXX Ibero-American Summit, conceived to give new momentum to the format, but which will finally be held without the attendance of the heads of State and Government of several of the most influential countries in the region, such as Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. The President of Argentina, Javier Milei, will attend, who just a few weeks ago made serious insults against the head of the Executive.
According to government sources, the leaders of Andorra, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Portugal and the Dominican Republic will also participate in the meeting, in addition to the vice presidents of Colombia, Ecuador and El Salvador. The rest of the 22 countries that make up the Ibero-American Community will be represented at ministerial level, mainly by their Foreign Ministers.
Finally, the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, will not travel to Madrid, whose presence was taken as practically certain a few weeks ago and with whom it was hoped to definitively close the diplomatic crisis between Spain and Mexico stemming from the Conquest.
Sheinbaum drops out of the summit despite the thaw
In recent months, both the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and King Felipe VI had made gestures of rapprochement toward Mexico, and Sheinbaum herself was recently in Barcelona with Sánchez. In Moncloa, a symbolic gesture in Madrid was expected to seal the full normalization of the bilateral relationship.
Sources from the Palace of Moncloa argue that Sheinbaum barely makes international trips and underscore that it was already considered an achievement that she traveled to Barcelona last April to attend the Summit in Defense of Democracy. They add that this same month of November she will have to attend the APEC summit in China, where Mexico will take over as the next organizing country.
Absences of Lula and Delcy Rodríguez
The non-attendance of the President of Brazil, Lula da Silva, is attributed to the recent electoral campaign that has secured him in office for another four years and to the advanced age of the leader. The intense electoral contest has brought him notable wear and physical fatigue, just after turning 81.
In a matter of days, Lula is scheduled to travel to Turkey to participate in the COP31 climate summit in Antalya, where he will hand over the presidency of this forum to the host country, after Brazil was the last organizer in 2025.
Venezuela’s president, Delcy Rodríguez, will also not be in Madrid, who is subject to European Union sanctions that, according to those in the Spanish government, could have been lifted on a temporary basis to facilitate her trip. However, they point out that the complex internal situation and the delicate political situation after the departure of Nicolás Maduro at the beginning of the year, captured by American soldiers, have also had an influence. On behalf of Venezuela, the newly appointed foreign minister, Oliver Blanco, will attend.
From Moncloa, they are trying to play down these absences —some of them from leaders ideologically close in a strongly polarized continent— and stress their satisfaction with the level of participation planned in the Spanish capital, recalling that at the previous meeting, held in 2024 in Cuenca (Ecuador), only four heads of state or government attended.
Milei travels to Madrid after his attacks on Sánchez
Among those who will indeed travel to Madrid is Milei, who will arrive in the city after a recent visit to Spain in which he gravely insulted Sánchez, calling him "dictator", "thief" and "corrupt", although the Executive trusts that the summit will proceed normally. They recall that this is not the first time presidents with radically opposite positions have shared a table and that this will happen again in this edition.
No bilateral meeting is planned between Sánchez and Milei on the margins of the summit, nor between the Argentine and the King. Felipe VI will be in charge of moderating the Thursday morning plenary, giving each of the delegations the floor.
The monarch does have meetings scheduled with other leaders who will travel to Madrid, such as the Chilean Sebastián Kast, the Guatemalan Bernardo Arévalo, the Costa Rican Laura Fernández or the Honduran Nasry Asfura, whose country will host the next Ibero-American Summit in 2028.
Other leaders who are missing the meeting
Some absences have an official explanation, such as that of the president of Panama, immersed these days in the celebrations of the National Holiday, or that of the leader of Uruguay, who at the end of the week will receive Pope Leo XIV on an official visit.
Other leaders, such as the Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega, have never participated in these meetings and do not usually leave their country, something that also happens with the Salvadoran Nayib Bukele and now with the new Colombian president, Abelardo de la Espriella, who has promised not to travel abroad during his term. The Cuban president, Miguel Díaz Canel, also does not often appear at this type of forum, although he did attend the 2023 summit in the Dominican Republic.
As for the leaders of Peru, Keiko Fujimori, and of Paraguay, Santiago Peña, they have canceled their trip at the last minute, citing internal political reasons in their respective countries.