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The plight of millions of Latinamerican migrants looking for better living conditions in the United States or in the European Union will be the main issue of the 16th Iberoamerican summit which officially opens this afternoon in Montevideo.
Hosted by Uruguayan president Tabare Vazquez, Spain's King Juan Carlos and presidents or envoys from Portugal and 22 Latin American nations, the summit will also be debating economic, social and cultural issues affecting the region. Speakers at the opening are Uruguayan president Vazquez, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Anan, the Iberoamerican permanent secretary Enrique Iglesias and King Juan Carlos. As many as 25 million Latin American migrants were working or living in countries other than their homeland in 2005, up from 21 million in 2000, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. These overseas workers also remit billions of dollars back home, which have become a significant input for local economies. While the United States is the top destination for migrants from the region, in the EU Spain has become a magnet for Latin Americans and even less prosperous countries such as Argentina has seen an influx of poor migrants from neighboring Bolivia and Paraguay. "We are talking about people, not criminals," said Enrique Iglesias, in charge of the Iberoamerican summit's general secretariat. "These immigrants are people, men, women and children who are seeking better horizons." Some NGO groups want summit partners to back redouble government efforts to safeguard human rights of migrants and refugees crossing common borders. Foremost in many minds is last week's bill-signing in Washington by President Bush to authorize hundreds of miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. Outgoing Mexican President Vicente Fox, who has devoted much of his six years in office lobbying for a new guest worker program and a chance at citizenship for the millions of Mexicans working illegally in the U.S. has sharply criticized the plan, a position that has been supported by all other Latin American countries. Similarly with Spain that following an amnesty for illegal aliens has begun to expel many Latin Americans arguing it must comply with EU migratory legislation. However Latinamerica recalls that for decades economic and political refuges from Spain have been admitted in the region and claims a similar reciprocity attitude. During the preparatory discussions for the final documents, there was a strong clash between Mexico and Spain precisely over migrants' human rights. But the summit and quiet atmosphere of Montevideo should also help to address other issues and feuds which have irritated bilateral relations among some of the participants. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is attending after giving up a bitter fight for a seat on the U.N. Security Council after Washington put up heavy resistance to Venezuela's candidacy. U.S.-backed Guatemala and rival Venezuela agreed to withdraw from the race for a seat on the U.N. Security Council Wednesday and support Panama as a consensus candidate for a two-year term. Bolivia and Brazil still have unfinished business after Bolivian President Evo Morales nationalized his country's oil industry. However President Lula da Silva, recently re-elected will not be coming alleging pressing domestic business. Argentina's president Nestor Kirchner who will be arriving minutes before the inaugural ceremony, is scheduled to meet Spain's Rodriguez Zapatero to talk about debt repayment and rates of privatized public utilities which remain frozen since the collapse of the Argentine economy in 2001/02. Another much sought after is a meeting between Mr. Kirchner and host Vazquez to address the ongoing dispute over the controversial building of pulp mills in a shared river and which Argentine environmentalists object for pollution reasons. Chile's Michelle Bachelet and Bolivia's Evo Morales will be meeting to talk about re-establishing diplomatic relations, border issues and natural gas. Besides migration and development the summit will also be remembered for significant absences: Brazil's Lula da Silva; Peru's Alan García; Cuba's Fidel Castro recovering from surgery; Panama's Torrijos, Nicaragua's Bolaños because of elections Sunday, among others. Mercopress
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The small, coastal town of Condé is located just a twenty minute's drive from João Pessoa, the capital of Paraíba. The Northeast of Brazil has historically been a place of encounter and mixing between peoples. For millenia groups of indigenous people fished, farmed, migrated and sometimes fought along this large, fertile area. 
The Brazilian diplo-MÁ-cia (bad diplomacy) carries on its accelerated course towards the non-acknowledgment of human rights, although sometimes it takes pleasure in saying that it does precisely the opposite. The visit of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is another example of a diplomatic omission that verges on hypocrisy. 
On July 4, 2006, representatives of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay met in Caracas to sign the protocol for the entrance of Venezuela into the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). After two and a half years, the protocol was approved by the legislative bodies of Argentina and Uruguay, and as of now it may be only days away from being ratified by the continent's economic megalith, Brazil. 
Some sectors of the fight against AIDS have suggested that Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, committed genocide through his absence from the fight against the illness in his country throughout his two terms. 
One hundred and eleven years after Brazil abolished slavery, the number of workers deprived of their freedom is still huge. They raise cattle, produce charcoal, sugar cane or timber. Some of them, most undocumented Bolivians, work in basements of small apparel factories in São Paulo and other metropolis. 
On November 7, 2009 a few friends and I had an opportunity to take a look inside a Brazilian jail outside the city of Rio de Janeiro. We were able to take some amateur footage of our experience on video (see link below). It's no surprise, of course, that the typical Brazilian jail lacks some of the functionality of those in North America or Europe, but our experience that day was quite shocking. 
Depletion of the Amazon Rainforest is not a new concern facing environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and a growing number of the Amazonian indigenous peoples. For decades they have feared for the fate of the world's most biologically diverse and species-rich hothouse. 
Geisy Arruda made history this week in Brazil, but for all the wrong reasons. What began as a poorly planned fashion statement has become a worldwide tale. Geisy decided to wear a pink mini-dress to her private college in São Paulo state, and after that, all hell broke loose. 
The push of vigilante groups in Rio de Janeiro's favelas (shantytowns) in the last three years is the most important and alarming information of the just-released study by the Rio de Janeiro University's Violence Research Center (Nupev-Uerj). 
A dispute over drug trafficking territory in Rio de Janeiro has intensified lately, leaving in its wake unprecedented acts of violence, such as the downing of a police helicopter in the northern zone of the city on October 17. Three policemen died and another two were injured. This event has drawn the attention of the international media, who are raising the issue of public security for the 2016 Olympics to be held in Rio.
Afterall Mexico and Brazil dont have the lowest income.Therefore poorer foreign citizens should also be able to reside legally and illegally in your countries, just as you wish to have the same right to go more developed countries.
In fact, your countries are far more closed to legal and illegal immigrations than developed countries are. Doubtful that in Brazil and Mexico they allow millions of BOTH legal and illegal foreigners....UNLESS THEY ARE WEALTHY !!!!!!!!!!
But quite normal in Your view that developed countries MUST accept the millions of
uneducated and poor people and that we incorporate them at our expenses....FOR WHAT YOU ARE UNWILLING TO DO TO THESE PEOPLE !
Exports of goods cannot be made one way only !
Same for people, they cant move only one way !
If you want to export your people....you have to import some too under the same conditions !