Central America—On the evening of Saturday, October 31, 2020, UPF-Central America and the Caribbean held a special Peace Talks webinar titled “The Role of Leaders in Promoting Interdependence, Mutual Cooperation, and Universal Values.” The conference had 80 attendees from 18 countries.
Mr. Mario Salinas (Secretary General, UPF-Honduras) served as the emcee and introduced the panelists. “In these times of the pandemic and confinement with the complications to which this environment subjects us, UPF has taken the lead in keeping our people active through convocations, Peace Talks and dialogues to bring light and hope by encouraging knowledge and valid information to be brought to the different sectors of society so that they can have a voice and contribute to peace.”
Mr. Eliecer Araya (Secretary General, UPF-Central America and the Caribbean) opened the program by saying, “Our commitment to service, association and cooperation for the best quality of life for people and world peace are the hallmarks of the Universal Peace Federation.”
Panelists
Hon. Azucena Ferrey (Former Member, Nicaragua National Assembly) was the first panelist to speak:
The individual and collective actions of parliamentarians can mark a general pattern of behavior in society by contributing to the achievement and strengthening of peace. Parliamentarians logically have the responsibility of knowing how to interpret the most felt needs of the population and bringing citizens closer to the government. The actions of the representatives logically affect citizens. That is why preserving principles and values helps citizens to accept the rules and norms that emanate from the parliaments to govern private and public behavior regarding respect for civil and human rights necessary for the integral development of the individual, the family and society.
Mariana De la Torre (Psychologist) shared:
Family and education are the two main axes of our lives that are interrelated in the construction and development of peace. We as human beings were created as social beings prepared to develop and live in a community, strengthening ourselves through interdependence, respect, and love amongst all of us. Today we can achieve this purpose of world unity through peace by adding our personal desires, labor and social expectations that are emerging from today’s globality.
The family is where we find the real foundations of our being: that is, values, universal principles, and morality. As an example of this we have love, justice, honesty, freedom, forgiveness, gratitude and one that seems wonderful to me, faith, because faith is a spiritual value. We have to start working on these values.
Juan Carlos Hasbún (Pastor):
The word peace is an ideal. We have a society that will celebrate 200 years of independence from the kingdom of Spain next year. We see different short events that have been synonymous with peace, but not as in other places where peace is more permanent or lasts longer. There have been violent events, so I think that in this global village that we live in, the word family is the most important, especially in a society like ours that has been dismembered and separated by different political ideological interests. I add my position to the opinion of the honorable congresswomen from Nicaragua, Hon. Azucena Ferrey, when she says that the mission as parliamentarian is so difficult when there is so much polarization among the different sectors of society. The Bible says, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” From the beginning this is an incentive for all of us.
IPH. José Ramón Viñas Alonso (Engineer, Member of Freemasonry; Cuba).
Many thanks to UPF for an opportunity in which a Cuban Ambassador for Peace participates for the first time in an event like this. I am part of a fraternal institution that postulates precepts and behaviors that share universal values and interdependence. We must appreciate that leaders not only have followers but also the commitment to assume responsibility with society, responsibility with human beings, to create new leaders with transparency for the future.