COMUNICACIÓN

The European and Ibero-American Academy of Yuste Foundation is organising the 8^th International Congress “Relations between Latin America, the Caribbean and Europe” in La Antigua, Guatemala, which, under the title “Cultures and Identities in the Ibero-American Space: Spain’s Contribution”, aims to continue deepening the study of the interaction that has taken place over the past five centuries between Extremadura, Europe and the Americas. (29/10/2025)

This congress follows on from others held since 2021 in Guadalupe and in various American cities such as Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, and Lima, Peru.

The event, organised in collaboration with the Rafael Landívar University of Guatemala and the Research Centre for Ibero-America Studies (CEIB) at Rey Juan Carlos University, has brought together representatives from Guatemalan institutions and academia, as well as the mayor of La Antigua, Juan Manuel Asturias, and the ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain to Guatemala and Belize, Clara Girbau Ronda, who inaugurated the congress alongside the director of Yuste Foundation, Juan Carlos Moreno Piñero; the academic vice-rector of the Rafael Landívar University, Martha Pérez de Chen; and the director of the AECID Training Centre in La Antigua, Elena Diego Castellanos.

Topics addressed at the congress include cultural diversity, identities and territory in the Euro-Latin American space; cultural cooperation within the Ibero-American sphere; tangible and intangible cultural heritage and assets; new mechanisms for cultural cooperation in the Ibero-American space; geopolitics and the Ibero-American cultural charter.

The congress, held at the Spanish Cooperation Training Centre in La Antigua and conducted in both in-person and online formats, registered 150 participants from 14 countries: Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Spain, the United States, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Paraguay, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Uruguay.

The organising committee of the congress was composed of the director of Yuste Foundation, Juan Carlos Moreno; the dean of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences at the Rafael Landívar University, Lourdes Balconi Villaseñor; the full professor of Public International Law and International Relations and director of the Research Centre for Ibero-America Studies (CEIB) at the Rey Juan Carlos University, Cástor Díaz Barrado; and the full professor of Public International Law and International Relations at the Rey Juan Carlos University, Sagrario Morán Blanco.

Memorandum of understanding signed between Yuste Foundation and the Rafael Landívar University

The congress also provided the framework for the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Yuste Foundation and the Rafael Landívar University, signed by the rector, Miquel Cortés Bofill, and by Juan Carlos Moreno.

The purpose of this memorandum is to establish a framework for collaboration in the design, development, implementation and joint delivery of various academic cooperation activities of mutual interest and benefit to both parties. These include exploring avenues for academic and cultural cooperation through the joint organisation of seminars, conferences, courses, research programmes and publications on topics of common interest; promoting the exchange of researchers, lecturers and students; and fostering academic mobility within inter-university cooperation programmes and international networks.

This memorandum seeks to lay the groundwork for a future framework agreement that will govern the legal, academic and financial aspects of the specific actions to be carried out.