Original: Spanish
The Socialist International Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean, meeting in La Romana, Dominican Republic, on June 3-4, 2022, declares:
The Covid19 pandemic which has hit the entire planet since the first months of 2020, presents difficulties and challenges that should guide the social democratic priorities for the region in the construction of a post-pandemic scenario.
With regard to health, the nations of Latin America and the Caribbean must continue advancing in the reform, modernization and strengthening of their health systems. Coordinated efforts between the public and private sectors are needed to ensure access to vaccines and medicines, as well as timely and universal hospital coverage. Likewise, the pandemic has highlighted the need to strengthen the instances of multilateral cooperation and regional coordination to successfully face challenges of this magnitude.
The economic and social consequences of the pandemic have been very harsh for the region, with negative results in terms of employment, poverty and deep inequality. More recently, the conflict in Ukraine has meant a global increase in the price of food, energy and raw materials that has raised the cost of living in our countries and aggravated the crisis that the region is going through.
Democracy and its institutions have been challenged by populist and authoritarian proposals that promote simplistic and insufficient responses with the uncertain promise of quickly recovering a path of security and well-being in our countries. Blaming corruption and delinquency for today's problems has become commonplace in many of our nations and has won favour with the electorate in various recent polls. The Committee considers that these types of political proposals are negative, they often manipulate social discontent using disinformation or directly spreading false news. The social democratic response involves strengthening democracy and maintaining the trust of the people with programmes and public policies that promote economic recovery, with a hallmark of solidarity, of inclusion and social protection and of environmental justice.
Migration is a phenomenon that has also worsened with the deterioration of economic and political conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Committee underlines its commitment to migration policies that are regulated, orderly, safe and respectful of the human rights of migrants. The Committee recalls that migrants constitute an important factor for development in many of the countries of destination and an important source of economic remittances to their countries of origin. International coordination and addressing the phenomenon with a focus on co-responsibility between nations of origin, transit and final destination are aspects that the Committee considers essential to take into account in the formulation of progressive migration policies.
Finally, the Committee expresses that citizen security today represents another of the great challenges of the social democratic agenda in the region. The increase in crime has a direct relationship, although it is not its only cause, with the increase in poverty and exclusion. The Committee emphasises that the social democratic approach to responding to the population's legitimate demands for security must intelligently and appropriately reconcile preventive measures, such as the creation of job opportunities and the construction of more integrated societies, with efficient and professional methods to combat crime. In this sense, the Committee stressed that modern technologies today constitute a tool that can be decisive for the prevention and punishment of crime. The Committee concludes that the justice systems, the police forces and all the actors involved in matters of public security, must live up to the task incumbent on them to give peace of mind to our peoples within the framework of full respect for the fundamental rights of all.