The Diplomat
The President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, was awarded this past Thursday, at the Belém Palace in Lisbon, with the Medal of Honor of the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI).
The distinction, delivered by the Secretary General of the OEI, Mariano Jabonero, was approved by the Board of Directors of the organization in recognition of the contribution of the Portuguese president to the consolidation of the Ibero-American space and the deepening of cooperation between the OEI and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), “essential for dialogue between peoples and the reinforcement of multilateralism”. It had been 17 years since the OEI had delivered its Medal of Honor.
At the event, Jabonero highlighted the contribution of the President of Portugal “for the consolidation of the Ibero-American space, as well as for the deepening of cooperation between the OEI and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries.” Likewise, he praised Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s support for the two official languages of the OEI, Portuguese and Spanish, within the Ibero-American community and as a contribution to his strength in the world order. “The proximity of these two languages has been essential for the success of innovative processes such as the International Conference of Portuguese and Spanish Languages (CILPE)”, whose first edition took place in Lisbon in 2019, said Jabonero.
For his part, Rebelo de Sousa declared that “this recognition is not for the President of the Republic, it is for Portugal” and stressed that Portugal works “always with its eyes on Latin America”, promoting Portuguese and Spanish as “two languages sisters”.
The award of the medal was approved at the 79th Meeting of the OEI Board of Directors, held last December in the Dominican Republic, and also took into account the performance of the Portuguese educational system. In this regard, the Portuguese President recalled the “great effort” made by his country to “address inequalities in access to higher education and to reaffirm the role of women in the Portuguese educational system” and the OEI Secretary General highlighted that Portugal, “in two generations, was able to go from very high illiteracy rates and very low frequency rates to an educational offer that serves as a model for many of the countries of the Ibero-American community.”
The OEI Medal of Honor was awarded for the first time in 1960 and it is always awarded at the suggestion of the acting Secretary General. It was last awarded in 2006. This year, in addition to the President of Portugal, it will also be awarded to the Mexican diplomat Alicia Bárcena for the “mark she left in the development process of the countries of the region through her excellent work in the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC)”. Bárcena, current ambassador of Mexico in Chile, was executive secretary of ECLAC for almost years, between 2008 and 2022.
During his visit to Lisbon, Secretary General Mariano Jabonero also met in Lisbon with the ambassadors of the Ibero-American countries and the OEI member entities to present the Organization’s Program-Budget for the 2023-2024 biennium.
