The speech was all the more significant as it was made by President Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico, one of the few Latin American countries that has never broken ties with Cuba and had in the past steered clear of any criticism of its communist government. "There can be no sovereign nations without free men and women. Men and women who can freely exercise their essential freedoms: freedom of thought and opinion, freedom of participation, freedom of dissent, freedom to choose," said Zedillo.

"The more vigorous the democracy of every Ibero-American nation, the more dignified are its people and the more solid its democracy," he said at the summit's closing ceremony. Zedillo stopped short of naming Cuba, as did other leaders who made similar statements during the summit, which Castro shrugged off,saying Cuba had no intention of abandoning "the path of socialism and the revolution."

The heads of states at the Ibero-American summit signed of a series of documents, including the Havana Declaration, in which they expressed commitment to democracy and human rights while calling for the scrapping of the 37-year-old US trade embargo against Cuba.