Between Thursday the 22nd and Saturday the 24th of March the II Latin-American Annual Conference of the Global Progressive Forum was held in the city of Bogotá, hosted by the Liberal Party of Colombia, with the support of Party of European Socialists and Foundation for European Progressive Studies. The event was coordinated by Maria Cristina Cifuentes, IUSY former Vice-President, and Rodrigo Muñoz Baeza, IUSY Vice-President, took an active part in it.
During the conference, various debates and conversations were held on different topics: the peace agreements in Colombia, the European Union – Latin America and the Caribbean trade agreements, the situation of human right s in Latin America, the struggle for land in the continent, the gender perspective in the globalization, the LGTBI agenda in globalization and the empowerment of youth in access to politics.
IUSY participated within the framework of the panel on the struggle for land in Latin America (moderated by Rodrigo) and in the panel on the empowerment of youth in access to politics (moderated by Maria Cristina and with the participation of Rodrigo as one of the panellists).
We highlighted the work that has been done in IUSY regarding the political training of young people from various Countries around the world. We stressed the importance for Political Parties of working in cooperation with youth to make influential decisions for the development of our Countries. Young people can provide valuable knowledge and new action strategies to generate social transformations and common welfare.
International training activities such as those offered by IUSY (Seminars, Study visits, Political festivals, Regional committees meetings, Thematic workshops, among others) are efficient instruments to develop youth involvement at the local and national levels. If we participate we can understand the good practices that are developed in other Countries and we can put them in practice in ours.
The leaders of the political parties must value the knowledge acquired by the young people in the participation in international activities, and they must provide spaces for the presentation of innovative ideas which promote the creation of new policies and effective action strategies.
In this event three experiences were presented:
- personal experience in the PS Chile,
- political participation in general in Latin America (especially the alarming low participation in elections, the decrease confidence in democracy as a political system versus dictatorships, and the class bias in political participation)
- and the empowerment of Youth in Mother parties (sure that through organization, contestation and attitude political spaces will open, taking as an example Jusos, the youth organisation of the Social-democratic party of Germany, and its strong position against the formation of a new government of great-coalition in their Country).
We also had a private meeting to discuss the political situation in Venezuela, in which the representatives of the parties Acción Democrática and Voluntad Popular, as well as the former Attorney general Luisa Ortega, were invited to report the institutional, humanitarian and economic crisis that the Country is experiencing.
In this occasion, and representing IUSY, pointing out the political positions of the Organisation through the statements of the IUSY American Committee (“We reiterate our concern about the political, economic and social crisis that deepens in Venezuela”) and of the IUSY Presidium, citing that “IUSY 1) calls for plural dialogue, and 2) we urge the main political actors of both the government and the opposition to the cessation of political violence. We also hope that 3) the institutions are respected and 4) that they bet on the recognition of all the Venezuelan people” and that “IUSY 1) requests the right to peaceful protest to be guaranteed and that 2) who has been deprived of liberty during the demonstrations can be judged by natural judges, and that they are guaranteed due processes and, finally, 3) the posts are released“, signing the study visit that was made in 2015 to Caracas.
Finally, we announced the intention to be present in Venezuela during the upcoming Presidential elections as observers.
Conclusions
- The European Union has been working with effort in order to contribute to the important peace process in Colombia, providing significant support and accompaniment in the implementation of the agreements.
- Relations between Europe and Latin America have been maximized to support solutions to different situations, as the case of Venezuela. There is a call for international cooperation to support the opposition in Venezuela.
- We must continue to create effective action strategies that provide guarantees of rights for LGTBQI* people, women’s rights, gender equality, and the rights of indigenous communities.
- We understand that in Latin America there are problems that require urgent solutions, and international cooperation provides solutions and advances, building justice, peace, freedom and equality.
- IUSY should continue working with the Global Progressive Forum in the development of training projects to contribute with effective action strategies to solve the problems of the region.
Rodrigo Muñoz Baeza
IUSY Vice-President
Maria Cristina Cifuentes
Former IUSY Vice-President