Spain’s Minister for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service, Óscar López, opened on 3 November 2026 in Madrid the Foro Digital Iberoamericano . In his speech at the Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre he argued that Ibero-American countries should lead a “third vía digital humanista, multilateral, sostenible y confiable” – an independent approach beyond the dominant models of the United States and China. According to the government, representatives from 22 countries, as well as international organisations, businesses, academia and civil society, took part.
López said Ibero-America could “bridge the digital divide between the North and the Global South” if the region pooled its shared strengths in language, market size and regulation. He pointed to foundations already agreed: the Agenda Digital Iberoamericana, advanced in 2021 under the Andorran presidency, and the Carta Iberoamericana de Principios y Derechos en los Entornos Digitales, adopted in Santo Domingo in 2023. As a next step, he announced a Declaración de Madrid and the creation of an Alianza Iberoamericana de Inteligencia Artificial to promote the “sovereign, ethical and reliable” development of artificial intelligence.
According to the organisers, the forum focused on the rights of digital users, connectivity, cybersecurity, the modernisation of public administration and applications of artificial intelligence. The Secretary-General of the Secretaría General Iberoamericana reportedly stressed that the region should not merely import technologies, but build its own systems using regionally rooted datasets and the Spanish and Portuguese languages.
The meeting brings together existing national and regional initiatives and seeks to establish a politically coherent Ibero-American position in global digital policy. It could provide incentives for joint infrastructure projects, standards and research initiatives. However, funding and coordination remain unresolved – particularly alignment with European legal frameworks and multilateral initiatives, as well as the practical implementation of cross-border data and network infrastructure. On the day of the opening, concrete legal or financial outcomes cannot be reliably quantified and will depend on the subsequent ministerial negotiations.
The forum’s formal framework is part of preparations for the next Cumbre Iberoamericana. Madrid is thus using its role as host to structure debates on a values-based, economically viable and technologically robust digital strategy for Ibero-America.
Editor: Phillipe Schmidt-Araguin (Article created with AI assistance).