Inflation, migration in focus at regional Ibero-American summit

Leaders attending the Ibero-American Summit meeting in the Dominican Republic on Saturday highlighted rising inflation and migration as risks to the stability of the region.

Presidents and representatives from 22 countries have gathered in Santo Domingo for the weekend summit, which provides a forum for leaders from across Latin America as well as Spain and Portugal.

drastically change it," said Argentina President Alberto Fernandez.

Leaders also called for regional collaboration on migration amid thousands of people fleeing Latin American countries for the US border due to economic hardships, rising violence and other challenges.

"Today migration management constitutes one of the great regional challenges," said Chilean President Gabriel Boric. "There is no infallible recipe and any solution requires working to- gether with countries of origin, transit and destination."

Colombian President Gustavo Petro told journalists he was considering going to Haiti to assess the most "constructive" role for Colombia there. The Caribbean state faces a humanitarian crisis driven by gangs that rights groups say now control most of the country.

The United Nations has urged countries to "urgently consider" deploying a specialized force. (Excerpt from Reuters) ness leaders. More than a third of the business leaders were from Brazil's farm sector, which sends the lion's share of its beef, soybeans and wood pulp to China.

With the cancellation, attention now turns to the presentation of an eagerly awaited fiscal framework in Brazil, which was initially promised by Finance Minister Fernando Haddad for March, but was postponed by Lula until after the China trip. (Excerpt from Reuters)

The meeting comes as the Region is grappling with stubbornly high inflation and global concerns over the financial sector after the failure of US regional banks Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank this month.

"At this point in time, with so much (of the financial sector) concentrated, with so much speculative play, we should already understand that the current financial system does not have to be helped anymore. We must