Representing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador at the Summit’s plenary session in Havana, Barcena said her country will remain at the G77+China Group, which “brings together two-thirds of the UN members and 80% of the world’s population, making it a too important entity in the international agenda on financing and development.

Barcena also stressed that developing technologies and innovation is pivotal, as it was proved during the Covid-19 pandemic which hammered poor countries and exposed asymmetries and scientific gaps as well as the reality of a pharmaceutical monopoly.

The Mexican diplomat stressed Mexico, from its presidency at the time of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, worked in favor of the region’s health self-sufficiency, with regulatory mechanisms to boost production capacities and a Latin American network creating drugs and vaccines in countries with conditions to produce them.

She called attention to the central issue of financing sustainable development and the capacity of countries to achieve it due to the unfair external debt and the crises that continue to indebt them, which distances them from the proposed health goals.

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