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Presidents at XVI Latin American Summit agree on a greater commitment with immigrants

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay.- The second day of the XVI Latin American Summit that is celebrated in Montevideo concluded today after most of the presidents expressed their will to look for better conditions for the immigrants.

In the first plenary session they participated most of the Governments and Chiefs of State that attend the summit, which was inaugurated last Friday and will conclude tomorrow with the signature of two documents, the "Declaration" and the "Commitment" of Montevideo.

The first plenary session of the Summit, whose subject is "Migration and Development", opened by host president Tabaré Vázquez welcoming all the participants.

He was followed by King Juan Carlos, who emphasized the "maturity and solidity" that these meetings of Governments and Chiefs of State have obtained after sixteen years.

The president of the Spanish Government, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, proposed the creation of a Latin American fund to facilitate the access to water by those people who do not have it and advanced that Spain is ready to commit to its financing.

The Argentine president, Néstor Kirchner, said on the subject of migration that "this old human phenomenon acquires new visibility", but now is described as "flows" by those who "often forget that we speaking about people and not about goods or capitals".

On the other hand, the president of Paraguay, Nicanor Duarte, noted that the Latin American community cannot "allow for racism to come forward again" and said that the " migration problem is not solved by constructing walls", in addition complained that in some occasions " the emergent countries are not even listened to ".

The president of Chile, Michelle Bachelet, only woman between the Latin American chief executives, raised her voice in favor of "policies of gender" the loss of feminine capacity and talent.

In his turn, the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, denounced that when there were migrations north-north, or from the north to the south, there were no walls, neither migratory deportations, nor other barriers like the present ones, when those that travel go from the south to the north, he stressed "now migration is criminalized".

The Colombian President, Alvaro Uribe, indicated that immigration is a subject to be understand "not as a formal freedom, but as a social right" and "would have to become the first imperative in the globalization".

Vicente Fox, Mexico?s president made a call to face the migratory phenomenon with intelligence in Ibero-America and assured that it can become strength.

At the closing of the first plenary session, the president of El Salvador, Elias Antonio Saca, requested that the process of integration in Latin America be accentuated and accelerated, so that the countries of the region stop promoting ?their own people?s expulsions".

On the second plenary day, the Dominican Republic?s vice-president, Rafael Alburquerque, made a call to the international community to continue supporting the process of institutional consolidation and economic development of Haiti.

He indicated also, that the Dominican Republic supports the work accomplished in that Caribbean country by the United Nations Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti.

After pronouncing his speech of order within the framework of the XVI Latin American Summit, which in this version deals with migration subjects and development, Alburquerque indicated that the migratory phenomenon can have a positive effect, as long as it is understood that the same exclusively competes to the sovereignty of each country.

"That is why Summits like this are so important, they facilitate the search of collaboration mechanisms, bilateral, regional as much as global and they allow debating the phenomenon of migration in a frank and opened way".

He asserted that work is needed to conform an international - regulated labor market to avoid irregular migration, illicit traffic of migrants and other forms of transnational crimes connected to migration.