King Felipe VI calls for a united Ibero-America as Urda rail victims are remembered

Condolences for the Urda rail crash

King Felipe VI opened his speech at the Teatro Real in Madrid by remembering the victims of the rail accident at Urda, in Toledo, on 28 October. He said the country remained in grief and sent an embrace to the injured, to the families of the dead and to the communities that lost relatives. ABC reported the death toll at 69, including the former employment minister Fátima Báñez, who chaired the CEOE Foundation and had been due to attend the business forum. El Periódico reported that Transport Minister Óscar Puente resigned a day earlier over the tragedy. The King and Queen are due to attend a funeral in Toledo cathedral on 10 November.

A call for one voice

The King used the summit's opening to urge the 22 Ibero-American nations to respond to a world marked by rivalry with unity. According to El Periódico, he said it was in their hands to answer with "one harmonious voice or 22 dissonant voices". Only seven of the 19 Latin American leaders invited attended in person, although every country sent some representative, a figure the government presents as an achievement, according to ABC. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Claudia Sheinbaum and Venezuela's Delcy Rodríguez were absent, and diplomatic sources cited agenda and domestic politics. The King recalled that the summits began in 1991 and warned of an approaching turning point, a change of paradigm. Javier Milei did not attend the inauguration, his team announced on Wednesday afternoon, RTVE reported.

Business forum and an open economy

Later on Wednesday, the King and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez closed the XVI Ibero-American Business Meeting at the Las Ventas bullring. The event brought together more than 2,000 registered participants from 42 countries over two days, according to ABC. Antonio Garamendi, president of CEOE and CEIB, handed leaders a document with 10 commitments, ranging from intra-regional investment and formal employment to responsible adoption of artificial intelligence. At the forum the King rejected retreat and protectionism.

“The best response is not in retreat or protectionism, but in an open economy, based on equal rules for all and cooperation between partners who share values.”

He also asked for stable environments, legal certainty and transparent institutions, and he called trust one of the region's most valuable assets. He proposed an AI capable of working in Spanish and Portuguese, which he described as a strategic question for the region's economy. Sánchez said spaces like this one are very necessary and urged a response to powers that disregard international law.

Awards to business leaders

On Wednesday the King also presented the Enrique V. Iglesias award, granted by the business council Ceapi, to Dionisio Gutiérrez and André Esteves. Gutiérrez heads the Fundación Libertad y Desarrollo in Guatemala, and Esteves leads BTG Pactual in Brazil. Ceapi is led by Núria Vilanova, with Ana Pastor as secretary general, and Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo and Andorran head of government Xavier Espot attended the ceremony. Gutiérrez said:

“Ibero-America is not what it seems today. It is, above all, what it can still become.”

Gutiérrez added that its future depends on leaders willing to lift it up, citizens ready to sustain it, entrepreneurs able to finance it and honest intellectuals to think about it. Esteves described the award as a symbol of Ibero-American integration, one of the benefits of globalization.

What comes next

The summit runs through Thursday, 5 November, with 22 countries taking part, including Spain, Portugal and Andorra. Sánchez hopes the Thursday plenary at the Galería de las Colecciones Reales will produce an Ibero-American alliance to tackle challenges such as artificial intelligence. Sánchez also shared a panel on Wednesday with the leaders of Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia and Portugal. The funeral in Toledo cathedral follows on 10 November.