THE ROMAN.– The president of Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD) Miguel Vargas Maldonado, led the start of the meeting of the Committee of the Socialist International for Latin America (AL) and the Caribbean in the country, from this Friday until tomorrow, Saturday, in La Romana.
In delivering his main speech at the meeting, Maldonado referred to the harsh consequences that the crisis over the coronavirus has brought to the continent.
“In our region alone, the pandemic has pushed 22 million people into poverty, of which 8 million are in a situation of extreme poverty,” alerted.
He also explained that “a disease with low fatality rates was enough for poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean to reach 33.7% and extreme poverty to 12.5%, according to figures from ECLAC.”
He stated that thanks to the approved emergency vaccines against COVID-19 in an extraordinary time, “we can focus our efforts on overcoming the economic and social consequences of the pandemic, expressed in the inflationary crisis, the loss of jobs and the increase in poverty”.
“The post-pandemic scenario presents us with the great challenge of avoiding at all costs that the crisis causes the multiplication of social outbreaks throughout the region, for this it is necessary for governments to work together in the search for creative solutions, taking distance from measures populist and authoritarian practices that in the end only contribute to aggravating the problems that afflict us.”
Warn you about the dangers of populism, authoritarianism, criminality and inequality.
Miguel Vargas took advantage of the stage to draw attention to the phenomenon of populism and authoritarianism that affects the world, especially Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Increasingly we turn to the painful spectacle of leaders and rulers capable of anything in order to appear sympathetic to the citizens who, in their desperation in the face of the onslaught of the crisis, clap their hands at the incendiary harangue of the social avenger on duty”, warned.
He also warned that “the growth of poverty and inequality, added to the weakening of democracy, create the conditions for insecurity and crime to grow considerably.”
Vargas indicated that “the constant encouragement of people to distrust institutions using the fight against corruption as a pretext, as a panacea to end poverty and inequality, can lead to a large-scale crisis of democracy and take us back to the era of governments of force to the detriment of civil liberties that we had already overcome”.
In that order, he argued that “it is highly dangerous that a ruler takes measures aimed solely at winning the applause of the stands or that a political leader, in order to gain power or maintain it, is willing to set fire to the prairie.”
“Crime is a complex challenge that we must address very carefully, since the factors that stimulate it are closely linked to the lack of opportunities and the inequity derived from it. Heavy-handedness is the easiest path, but it has also turned out to be the least effective in the long run,” he continued.
The president of the PRD also said that “we have to convince ourselves once and for all that we will not be able to defeat the criminals if we fight on their land, if we are equal to them.”
Proposals
Miguel Vargas added that these attitudes must be decisively and firmly combated by Latin American and Caribbean social democracy, through alliances with citizens.
“Social democrats must assume the historical responsibility of stopping this populist and authoritarian wave, shaking the citizen’s conscience with wise proposals that seek the unity of our peoples around the common goal of achieving development, prosperity and well-being together in an environment of peace and conciliation”, he insisted.
“Combating insecurity, from the social democratic point of view, goes through the stimulation of wealth creation, the execution of inclusive social policies that encourage our young people to work beyond a simple state subsidy, in addition to the construction of more committed social referents. with respect for the laws and good customs,” he said.
Among the proposals that he raised are: the intensive use of technology with the implementation of artificial intelligence in crime prevention and the development of applications so that citizens can alert the police about the possibility of a robbery or assault.
What happens with the phenomenon of migration and the Haitian crisis? The president of the Socialist International for Latin America also referred to the drama that migration represents. He indicated that this is the result of a combination of lack of opportunities, the social gap and increased crime.
He highlighted that, according to data from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), almost 43 million Latin Americans and Caribbeans reside in countries other than the one of their birth, 70% of them in the United States.
“The phenomenon of migration in the region, in addition to poverty, violence and inequality, has been accentuated in recent years by the political situation that, for example, we can see in Venezuela and the institutional collapse of Haiti,” he said. .
In this sense, it coincided with the recent call of the Summit of the World Forum on Migration and Development to increase international cooperation to turn migration into an opportunity for development.
Vargas also referred to the crisis in Haiti and said that it represents a major threat to the social stability of the region, expressed in a large migratory exodus that not only significantly affects the Dominican Republic, but also expands to other nations. from Latin America.
“I take this opportunity to ask the international community, especially the multilateral organizations and the main Western powers, to make Haiti a priority and decisively contribute to getting them out of the critical situation in which they find themselves today,” he said.
Call for unity and solidarity in the face of the international crisis
Finally, Miguel Vargas called for full unity in this period of crisis and said that “beyond the ideological nuances of social democracy in the world, we have the duty to work together in the search for practical solutions to the problems of our species, today accentuated by the pandemic, but which I am sure we can overcome if we rigorously apply the original principle of democratic socialism: solidarity”.
conclave data
The meeting of the Socialist International Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean is being held this Friday and until tomorrow, Saturday, in Casa de Campo, La Romana.
His work agenda includes issues of regional interest, including: the increase in citizen insecurity, the phenomenon of migration and the challenge to democracy of the populist wave in the region.
Luis Ayala, secretary general of the Socialist International, vice presidents and members of the Presidium of said organization, delegates of the political parties of the countries that make up the Committee and representatives of the PRD, host of this important meeting, participate in the event.
