Representatives from Venezuela, Uruguay, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Peru, Paraguay, Panama, Chile, Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, among other countries in the region participated in the XVI São Paulo Forum Meeting in Buenos Aires. They were received by officials of the Argentinean Chancellery and a meeting with the National Government is expected. During the first workshop debates took place on the region’s problems: human rights, mass media, ecology, social movements, and the arms race, were some of the issues addressed.
Humanist Party spokeswoman, Bernardita Zalisñak, expressed: “It is very encouraging to participate in each new meeting next to other left-wing, popular and progressive forces with whom we struggled in the 90´s against the neoliberalism installed in the region, today many of them are in government and persist in the same struggle. In some cases with greater or lesser depth but in the same direction”.
With respect to the position of the Humanist Party regarding Latin American integration process she pointed out: “It is fundamental to accompany and support the integration processes, such as MERCOSUR, UNASUR and ALBA. To commit to its consolidation and to going deeper to strengthen the states in facing the great pressures of globalization, which is none other than Yankee imperialism. This imperialism, also operating within our countries, still carries out economic terrorism and threatens the unleashing of a new nuclear episode. They do it with the same political and economical operators they have always relied on to destabilize, also incorporating the media operators, which misinform and confuse people”.
“Nevertheless, there is still much to do, in the Southern Cone and Caribbean countries there has been advances in sovereignty, social justice, internal strength, and economic growth. But there is still much to advance on, for that, we must definitely get rid of the neoliberal model and advance clearly towards other models of production and wealth distribution. Towards other political models that overcome the already worn out formal democracy and pass on to a real democracy. Thus generating conditions so that a non-violent society with solidarity can arise, with full exercise of human rights and a progressive disarmament in internal security”, added the humanist spokeswoman.
Zalisñak also referred to politics in defence of the region: “While the states prepare themselves for self-destructive and suicidal warfare, they do not realize their fragility in the face of natural catastrophes and do not have answers for earthquakes, tsunamis and other tragedies. A global politics for the care of the environment and “defence” in the face of natural catastrophes and to permanently put an end to wars in the planet are urgent as was resolved in the treaty of Tlatelolco. The powerful countries must be pressured to dismantle their arsenals, as the people have manifested in a world march for Peace and Non-Violence that we carried out last year”.
*translation: Ramiro Pozzo*
