This Thursday marks the second and last day of the event in Panama, organized by CAF-development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, with the support of Grupo Prisa (publisher of EL PAÍS) through the World in Progress (WIP) forum. An event designed mainly to strengthen commercial ties that became a regional multilateral summit with high political content, a president-elect and 6,000 guests debated on Wednesday the role of Latin America in the new world.
The second day began with the words of Mayer Mizrachi, mayor of Panama City, who came to office with the Popular Party, a movement of Christian origin. “I want to propose the expansion of this forum so that it is not only for presidents and businesses,” he said. “But also for the mayors of the cities of Latin America and the Caribbean,” he continued, explaining that his administration is inspired by what leaders of other metropolises have done, such as the Colombians Federico Gutiérrez, mayor of Medellín, Alejandro Char, mayor of Barranquilla, and Carlos Galán, mayor of Bogotá.
The president of Grupo Prisa, Joseph Oughourlian, defended quality education and independent information as “two resources that cannot be stolen or expropriated” from Latin America and the Caribbean. “These are the essential foundations to consolidate strong and independent states,” he concluded after acknowledging his concern with the current educational scenario. 55% of Latin American students do not reach minimum reading levels, according to UNESCO. It is a percentage that doubles the average of OECD countries, which is around 26%. “It is in our hands to awaken the capacity of 120 million basic education students (…) There are 120 million citizens whom, in the very near future, we need well trained and well informed to be able to contribute to the growth and prosperity of Latin America.”
Oughourlian also highlighted the speech given yesterday by the President of Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz, in which he insisted on the importance of creating a culture of trust. “That is the fight we are in, the fight for democracy, against misinformation and for the truth,” he expressed.
Former Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos and member of the WIP advisory board, participated in the second day of the forum. Santos, in line with several of the authorities who have contributed to the debates these days, has warned of the danger that Latin America will remain irrelevant on the international board. “In this unpredictable world, Latin America has to find its direction to be relevant, to be an actor in the discussion of how the world is reorganized,” he explained. “We have heard at this summit, from all the presidents, that they tell us: ‘We have to unite, we have to integrate.’ We have been hearing that for years, decades, but it does not translate into concrete actions.”
Santos has asked for “certainty” for Venezuela. The former Colombian president assured that Latin America could play a “determining role” in that crisis. “There are valid discussions. What the United States did was illegal, the precedent is very dangerous… But the majority of people were very happy that they led to [Nicolás] Maduro to prison, because he was illegitimately responsible for a number of crimes against humanity and war crimes.” Santos raised many questions in his speech: “How long will those who previously repressed remain in power? When are there going to be elections? What is this transition going to be like and what is going to happen to the regime?” That – he added – has to be resolved “soon.”
The vice president of Grupo Prisa, Fernando Carrillo, and the director of EL PAÍS, Jan Martínez Ahrens, who will interview the president of Bolivia, Rodrigo Paz, will also participate throughout the tables.
The axis will be the same: the need to find a voice for Latin America in the face of an increasingly turbulent world. If in the last century the strategy was that of a front of “non-aligned countries”, which included governments from around the world dissatisfied with the division of the world imposed by the United States and the Soviet Union, the new reality seems to be converging towards a regional alliance that irons out internal differences.
Sessions can be followed
