Young people call to fight against fear and self-censorship

Young people call to fight against fear and self-censorship / 14ymedio
Posted on April 8, 2015

14ymedio, Havana, 7 April 2015 — The Second Regional Youth and Democracy
Forum started Monday in Panama City with the challenge of becoming a
"dialogue space for young leaders of student, social and political
movements in the region." The meeting, which runs until Tuesday and is
organized by the Latin American Youth for Democracy Network (RLJD), is
being held in the framework of the Summit of the Americas and aims to
prepare future leaders for democratic governance and citizen
participation, two of the priority themes of the Summit.

Most participants concluded, during the day yesterday, that the region
is undermined by the cancer of populism, whose origins lie in Cuba. They
also consider that democratic governments violate the fundamental
principle of the Organization of American States (OAS) by sitting down
with Cuba and Venezuela and not recognizing the legitimate voice of
civil society in these countries. If the OAS and its organizations are
not genetically reformulated, they warn, they will cease to have a
reason for being and could lose any credibility as a regional body.

In the opening session,Guillermo Cochez, Panama's former Ambassador to
the OAS and member of the RLJD Advisory Council, urged the young people
not to allow authoritarian governments to appropriate the discourse of
social justice and of the continent. "I urge you to continue the fight
against the enemies of democracy, who do not rest. You also must not
rest in your struggle to defend democracy," he urged.

Present at the conference were Eduardo Stein, former vice president of
Guatemala, and Marta Lucía Ramírez, former Minister of Defense of
Colombia, who participated with opinions and questions.

Yesenia Alvarez, director of the Institute for Political Freedom (IPL-
Peru) and member of the Iberoamerican Youth Advisory Council, asked the
young civil society leaders to look at the problems of each country
across the region. "We join with Cuba, and we will continue together
with the Cubans until they are free and can choose their destiny as a
nation. We will work hard for it. The Latin American presidents will not
speak about it, so I ask the civil society not to forget Cuba and
Venezuela. Don't be afraid. Dictatorships live in self-censorship that
causes fear," she added.

Meanwhile, Gina Romero of RedLad (Latin American and Caribbean Network
for Democracy), called for developing an awareness of the kind of
democracy that seeks and prioritizes the objective that all citizens
have a decent life.

The first panel of the day, Youth Participation in Proposals for
Strengthening Democracy and Governance, had as participants Pedro Cruz
(Youth for Guatemala), Ricardo Sande (Student Federation of the Catholic
University of Chile) and Rosa Maria Paya, who spoke of her project Cuba
Decides. Also invited was, Rodrigo Diamanti, one of the directors of the
video A World Without Gag Laws, who could not attend because the
Venezuelan government prevented him from leaving the country. Sande
demanded citizen involvement in politics to prevent the State from
becoming the only provider of solutions. "There is no point having a
democracy if we give the solution of the problems to power, (…)
forgetting that citizens are responsible to each other, not to the states."

Among those attending the second panel, on the Inter-American System of
Human Rights and specific cases in the region, was Nizar El Fakih, a
human rights lawyer from Venezuela who offered specific data on the
situation in the country — including the unofficial count in 2013
showing 6% of the Venezuelan population in extreme poverty. Kirenia
Nunez of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National
Reconciliation (CCDHRN), warned of the known increase in short-term
detentions on the island, while Ana Karina Garcia, from the Venezuelan
Youth Popular Will, discussed the challenge to sensitize Venezuelan
society to the fact that authoritarianism affects not only the
opposition but the entire society. "The government is applying the same
methods as the Cuban dictatorship, spreading terror to paralyze the
population, alongside increasing deprivation and violence," she said.

The Nicaraguan deputy Edipsia Dubon focused criticism of the government
of her country on the Canal Law that will threaten and sweep away
indigenous rights, given that 52% of the lands that will be confiscated
by the State under the Law belong to those groups. For his part,
Mauricio Alarcon, of Fundamedios (Ecuador), called attention to the
violation of freedom of expression and press, as well as the attempts by
some of the governments of the region to maintain themselves in power.

After a discussion between all the young participants and the social and
political leaders from Latin America, the first day closed with a
concert with Cuban hip hop artists Michel Matos (Matraka), Soandres del
Rio, David D Omni and Aldo Roberto Rodriguez Baquero (of Los Aldeanos).

Source: Young people call to fight against fear and self-censorship /
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