Former president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, at IE

In the course of his address Piñera shared his thoughts on Latin America with the members of the Spanish business community who attended the event.

The former president assured his audience that Latin America enjoyed its best period in the first decade of this millennium. During this time the region grew in economic terms more than the rest of the world, in political terms it recuperated its democracies, and saw major advancement in social terms. He recalled how when Chile recuperated its democracy in 1990 it signed political pacts in three key areas. First, it drew up a pact to respect, protect and take care of its democracy, and to maintain elements that included a separation of powers, a respect for human rights, and political alternation. Second, it made a pact to have a market economy that is free and open to the world, and third, there was a pact for a more inclusive society, with greater equality of opportunities and dedicated to eradicating poverty.

Piñera talked about economic achievements during his mandate, namely a growth in GDP of 25%, and a reduction in levels of poverty from 15% to 7%. He also commented that the countries that form the Pacific Alliance (Colombia, Chile, Mexico and Peru) have made a commitment to the market economy and the rule of law, and that they are seeing greater rates of development than the rest of LATAM.