Young people from various regions showed their enthusiasm for their participation in the forums held within the framework of the Democracy Summithosted by the United States this week.
In Costa Rica, which was one of the co-host countries of the Summit, the young people expressed that it was also an opportunity to share experiences in their respective countries.
Venezuelan María José Brito, from the political group Consorcio Desarrollo y Justicia, told the voice of america that the Summit for Democracy seemed to him an interesting meeting of many actors who were working “for democratic values in the region.”
“And it seems quite important to me that we meet and specify what the initiatives are, what we are doing in our countries, how we are articulating and connecting what we do,” he added.
Brito believes “that as a region it is very important that we specify the actions that we are going to continue carrying out to try to build a much more democratic region and build the ties that can rescue countries that are in dictatorship, such as Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba” .
Enrique Martínez, from the Nicaraguan Student Youth Unit, commented that one of the things that has been shared at the Summit has been the need to provide some financial support first so that young people can promote their proposals.
Martínez considered that this guarantees that young people can participate effectively in political spaces.
“Many of the young people who are in exile and worse, those who are in the national territory are in extremely poor conditions that limit accessibility to these decision-making and political science spaces that allow us to show what the needs of youth are. at this time,” he said.
President Joe Biden opened the Democracy Summit on Wednesday with a pledge that the United States will spend $690 million to bolster democracy programs around the world.
Evelyn Gaiser, representative of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Costa Rica, agrees that the Democracy Summit is an excellent opportunity to give political actors a space to join forces and develop strategies on how to strengthen democracy in the region and around of the world.
“Let’s say that in the neighborhood of Costa Rica we do see some authoritarian tendencies that do worry me and, therefore, it seems to me that it is a very important signal for the Democracy Summit here in Costa Rica, to organize it here and have so many guests from the region coming and working together to strengthen democracy”, he concluded.
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