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F. Aravena: Address to Peace Summit 2023, Session VII-B
Written by Dr. Francisco Rojas Aravena, President, University for Peace (UPEACE), Costa Rica
Wednesday, May 3, 2023
Address to Peace Summit 2023
May 2-5, 2023
The United Nations Contributed to Peace during the Central American Crisis
- Deployed a peace mission authorized by the Security Council: The United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL) 1991-1995
- UN participated as Observer, then as Moderator, and ultimately as Verifier of all future agreements
- United Nations Mission for the Verification of Human Rights in Guatemala (MINUGUA) 1994-2004
- Creation of the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) 2007-2019
Necessity of the Search for Peace
- Era of conflict and great uncertainties
- Tendencies towards conflict: growing
- Work for peace more difficult by crises and threats in the international system
- 2 central threats to humanity: atomic danger and climate emergency
- Essential to recover spaces of dialogue
- Educating new leaders for peace is an essential and urgent task
Latin America as a Zone of Peace
- Latin American states defined the region as a "Zone of Peace"
- This is true from an inter-state perspective
- CELAC defines LAC as a "Zone of Peace"
- LAC is a denuclearized area
- OPANAL is the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons
- The most significant wars were in the 19th century
- Last inter-state wars were the Falklands War (1982) and the Cenepa War between Ecuador and Peru (1995)
Latin America: Declaration on Security in the Americas 2003
- New threats to the region:
- Terrorism, transnational organized crime, global drug problem, corruption, money laundering, illicit arms trafficking
- Extreme poverty and the social exclusion of broad sectors of the population
- Natural and manmade disasters, HIV/AIDS and other diseases
- Human trafficking
- Attacks on cyber security
- Harm arising in the event of an accident or incident during maritime transport
- Access to, possession, and use of weapons of mass destruction
Latin America: No Effective Institutional Framework for Security; No Shared Voice in the International System
- Declaration on Security in the Americas did NOT establish Security Institutionality
- Great contradiction:
- LAC as a Zone of Peace VS. LAC as the most violent region
- Violence in LAC has been trivialized
- “Ideologization" of regional multilateralism
- "New Loneliness of LA"
- Absence of a shared/common voice
Latin America: Without a Common Voice Regarding the European War, Fractioned by the War in Ukraine
LAC can be divided into 4 groups
- Those who have condemned the Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Argentina, and Uruguay
- Those who try to project a certain neutrality (maintain good relations with everyone) and vote against the invasion: Brazil and Mexico
- Those who project complete silence, as they are small countries: El Salvador
- Those who support Russia's positions as close partners in the region: Bolivia, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela
Risks from Latin America
In Latin America, Security has Taken Over National Agendas
- States have lost national territorial control and the monopoly of force
- “Failed areas“
- Narco-activity, delinquency, and organized crime
- Security occupies the 1st or 2nd place among citizens concerns
- Increase in the number of proposed laws against crime and organized crime
- Increased use of Armed Forces in police and security tasks
Latin America with no Regional Response to Violence
- Weakness of regional coordination
- Lack of spaces for effective dialogue
- Lack of cooperation
- Without Cooperation there is no PEACE
- Without Peace there is no Development
- Without Development there is no Social Justice or Equity
Organized Crime as Main Security Threat
- Organized crime = main threat to democracy, stability, and security in LAC
- Corruption opens large spaces for organized crime
- Increasing importance of money laundering
- New and dangerous crimes emerge with organized crime:
- Contract killings
- Minors participate in highly-violent, armed criminal acts
- Increase in violence
- Armed gangs and "maras" emerge
- Increased opportunities for cybercrime
Latin America State Fragility and Weakening Governments
- Weakened State unable to provide essential services
- Erosion of its legitimate authority
- Fragility = increase in violence and crime
- State fragility is related to the impact of corruption
- Greater corruption = greater space for organized crime
- Greater citizen distrust, increasing impacts on the licit economy, less support for democracies
- Deterioration of democracy in the world
- Authoritarian governments outnumber democracies
Social Unrest and Discontent
- Discontent: citizen unrest, social protests, demands for new social agreements, greater spaces for citizen decision-making, demands for consultations, more transparency
- Indignation tends to manifest itself in a completely different way
- Discontented no longer require institutional frameworks to protest
- Lack of confidence in institutional frameworks
- Hate speech on the rise
- Exclusionary and sectarian identities are created
- Greater weight of the virtual world gives fake news a better and larger space
New Conceptual Maps
- Increasingly complex contexts: new maps are required.
- New holistic views, new conceptual maps, new ways of analyzing and defining problems.
- New perspectives must be inclusive
- Participation of women is essential
- We need to strengthen ourselves through solidarity
- Study and development of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs
- Defense of the planet and its biodiversity
- Education for peace puts human dignity at the center
- Prevention: cross-cutting element in our teaching
- Incorporation of new technologies and a better understanding of artificial intelligence
The UPEACE & UPF have important tasks.
- The planet needs to move away from the danger of an atomic war.
- civil conflicts are growing in different regions of the world.
- The global system is in a stage of growing tensions and conflicts. Global instability is characteristic of the present situation
- We live in the context of increasing military spending.
- A new actor emerges, the country with the largest population on the planet: India.
- Parallel to this cycle of conflict and illegal use of force and violence, the climate emergency is advancing
- Cooperation is essential. It is vital to engage in dialogue, to reach consensus, to associate shared visions and actions in favor of satisfactory solutions.
- UPECE & UPF has shared visions. Making peace a priority is fundamental.
- UPF & UPEACE building trust. Cooperation builds trust. Trust building Peace and security and stability.
To go to the Peace Summit 2023 Schedule page, click here.