Leaders Emphasize Free-Trade, Education
Leaders from Spain, South America and Costa Rica concluded a meeting of the Montevideo Circle Saturday in San José by recapping the topics of education, development and free-trade discussed during their two-day encounter.
“Promoting education to improve access to knowledge and build Latin America as more competitive in the global market” was the theme of the meeting, attended by prominent democratic leaders including Costa Rican President Oscar Arias and the ex-Presidents of Spain, Felipe González; Uruguay, Julio MarĂa Sanguinetti; Colombia, Belisario Betancourt; Brazil, Enrique Cardoso; and Chile, Ricardo Lagos; among other Latin American political figures, according to a statement from Casa Presidencial.
Latin America has a great challenge of both taking advantage of the global “revolution” and providing its citizens better education, González said.
Arias agreed countries must not neglect social areas when working toward economic development, which he called “the most effective of any other method of eradicating poverty,” the statement said.
“Only if we open ourselves up can we achieve the fundamental challenge of Latin American democracies: bearing fruit for our citizens, improving the quality of life for individuals and producing results in the daily lives of our populations,” Arias said during the meeting’s opening Friday.
Improving the distribution of wealth to help disenfranchised sectors was another challenge the leaders discussed, mentioning job creation, infrastructure improvements and investment in technology as ways to achieve this goal.
The Montevideo Circle was created by Sanguinetti in 1996 to unite politicians, intellectuals and international leaders from Latin America to talk about the challenges facing the region, according to the wire service ACAN-EFE.