Óscar López argues that Ibero-American countries should spearhead "a humanist, multilateral, sustainable and trustworthy digital third way"

The Minister for Digital Transformation and Civil Service, Óscar López, has opened the Ibero-American Digital Forum, held at the Royal Mint and Stamp Factory in Madrid. This high-level event brings together, as part of the 30th Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State and Government, 22 countries, international organisations, technology companies and representatives from academia and civil society to discuss and analyse key issues relating to digital transformation.

"The aim of the forum is to establish digital transformation as one of the pillars of the Ibero-American community in the 21st century," said López at the start of his speech, in which he noted that, during the meeting, "issues affecting the lives of more than 700 million people" would be addressed.

López recalled that the Ibero-American countries had already set out the roadmap "towards a joint Ibero-American Digital Agenda" at the 2021 Ibero-American Summit held in Andorra, and that one of the most significant milestones on this path was the Ibero-American Charter of Principles and Rights in Digital Environments, which was adopted at the 2023 Ibero-American Summit in the Dominican Republic. He also highlighted the commitment to promoting AI language models in Spanish and Portuguese, which was agreed at the 2024 Ibero-American Summit in Ecuador, as well as the creation of the EU-Latin America and the Caribbean Supercomputing Network in 2025.

In this regard, López pointed out that the Latin American languages - Spanish, Portuguese and the other official and indigenous languages - have a combined total of more than 850 million speakers and that, "nevertheless, the major global AI systems are predominantly trained in English".

The minister stated that "none of our countries can exist outside the digital revolution". "The question is where in the chain we want to position ourselves: as a data farm, as a dependent customer, or as a sovereign digital producer. If we choose to, Ibero-America can bridge the digital divide between the Global North and South", added López, who believes that "in contrast to the models of China and the US, Europe and Latin America can lead the way with a third digital path that is humanistic, multilateral, sustainable and trustworthy".

He therefore emphasised that, following the Forum, during the First Ibero-American Ministerial Meeting on Digital Transformation and AI, the Madrid Declaration and the Ibero-American Alliance on Artificial Intelligence will be discussed and analysed, "two political instruments that will help us to converge towards a sovereign, ethical and trustworthy AI".

The Ibero-American Secretary-General, Andrés Allamand, also spoke at the opening of the Forum, warning that "artificial intelligence is not going to wait for Ibero-America". "Either we organise ourselves to decide, participate in and influence its development, or others will decide for us. This Alliance has been created so that the region ceases to be merely a user of technologies designed elsewhere and instead builds its own, using our data, our languages and our priorities", he added.

A forum to place digital transformation at the heart of the agenda

The Ibero-American Digital Forum features the participation of global leaders in digital rights, cybersecurity and digital governance, as well as senior representatives from Ibero-American countries with expertise in digital transformation. There will be four presentations and four panel discussions in which the main issues relating to digital transformation will be debated and analysed: digital rights and the protection of minors, connectivity and cybersecurity, digital administration and artificial intelligence.

The programme, which can be viewed on the Forum's website, begins with the Mexican activist against sexual cyberviolence, Olimpia Coral. She will be speaking at the first of the four presentations, in which she will discuss digital rights and violence-free digital spaces for girls and women. Having been a victim of digital sexual violence at the age of 18, her personal experience spurred her to begin a campaign that led to the creation of the 'Olimpia Law', a legal reform that recognised digital violence as a form of violence against women in Mexico. This work led to her being recognised as one of the most influential people of 2021 by *Time* magazine, and her story has been the subject of a documentary entitled *Llamarse Olimpia*.

The Forum also features the participation of Elizabeth Bodine-Baron from the US, a senior scientist specialising in cybersecurity, information operations and social media analysis applied to national security. As Director of the Master's Programme in Technology Policy at the RAND School of Public Policy, she has worked as an adviser to the Office of the US Under Secretary of Defence for Policy, where she dealt with cyber operations, electoral security, efforts to counter malicious foreign influence and policies on emerging technologies.

Another of the speakers is Mateo Valero, director and founder of the BSC, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. He is a Professor of Computer Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, where he has been teaching since 1974, and a Graduate Engineer in Telecommunications from the ETSIT in Madrid, Valero is one of the world's leading researchers in the field of computing and a pioneer of supercomputing in Spain and Europe.

The list of speakers is rounded off by Sebas Muriel, head of Telefónica's Digital Innovation division and the company's Chief Digital Officer. A telecommunications engineer, he has extensive experience in innovation, digital business and transformation strategy.

Other prominent figures at the Forum include Ana García Robles, head of the UN's AI Governance for Humanity Lab; Pedro Duque, president of Hispasat; José Ignacio Latorre, professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Barcelona; Roberto Benes, UNICEF's regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean; and Marina Fernández, chair of the Asociación Libre de Móviles.

The round-table discussions are moderated by María González Veracruz, Secretary of State for Digitalisation and AI; Antonio Hernando, Secretary of State for Telecommunications and Critical Infrastructure; Consuelo Sánchez, Secretary of State for the Civil Service; and Manuel de la Rocha, Director of the Office for Economic Affairs and the G20 at the Presidency of the Government of Spain.

Non official translation