MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay (AFX) - The plight of millions of migrants trying to cross new fencing on the U.S. border, flee the Andes to Spain or get work in Argentine textile mills is the pressing issue for participants at the 16th Iberoamerican summit.
Spain's King Juan Carlos and presidents or their envoys from Portugal, Andorra and 22 Latin American nations on Friday will open the three-day summit, which will examine migration and economic development.
They also will be debating a host of economic, social and cultural issues affecting their Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking communities against the backdrop of cross-border feuds and disputes that threaten to overshadow the 16th meeting of the trans-Atlantic bloc.
In Montevideo, thousands of police are expected to ring the summit site, dissuading groups ranging from anti-free trade protesters to activists following the construction of controversial wood pulp plants in Uruguay that are opposed by Argentine demonstrators.
Some groups want summit partners to back redoubled government efforts to safeguard the human rights of migrants and refugees crossing common borders.
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 Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
While the United States is the top destinations for migrants from the region, less prosperous nations such as Argentina, despite its 2002 economic meltdown, have seen an influx of poor migrants from neighboring Bolivia and Paraguay.
Spain is coping both with North Africans reaching its shores and Andean migrants.
'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.'
Foremost in many minds is last week's bill-signing in Washington by President Bush to authorized 700 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.
Other Latin American nations are publicly grumbling about fence-building.
'This measure is not advisable,' Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Consuelo Araujo said of the U.S. barrier at a news conference in Bogota.
Multiple regional feuds are threatening unified action at the summit.
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is attending after relenting in 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.
But Brazilian leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will skip the summit to rest after a bruising second-round re-election victory in South America's largest country.
Morales, who is expected, has lauded completion of an ambitious natural gas and oil nationalization plan even though major issues remain to be resolved with Brazilian state energy giant Petrobras, Bolivia's largest investor.
Another absentee: Cuba's Fidel Castro, 80, who temporarily ceded power to his brother Raul in July following intestinal surgery.
Associated Press Writer Debora Rey in Buenos Aires, Argentina, contributed to this report.
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