Bávaro (Dominican Republic), November 18, 2002 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, in a farewell speech at the XII Iberian-American Summit, said that summits "strengthened a community of ideas and action between peoples." He underscored the importance of dialogue and cooperation in the quest for social justice and stronger democracies.

"Our hopes for prosperity and justice for our people were more distant in the past when we all lived under the heavy hand of authoritarianism. We have made progress recently. We are on track to liberty and economic modernization," he concluded. (AB)