Duque calls presidency a success; leaders point out perils to Latin democracies at Miami summit

With only 24 days left in his term in office, President Iván Duque of Colombia went over the achievements of his administration, saying he was able to successfully overcome some of the major challenges in his country’s recent history, including the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the inflow of more than 1.8 million Venezuelans seeking to escape the dictatorship next door.

Duque, who spoke at the Concordia Americas Summit being held Wednesday and Thursday at the University of Miami, said that these events had a large impact on Colombia’s economy, while critics warned that allowing hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans to stay would lead to massive unemployment and the collapse of social services.

But even so, his administration was able to reach its goals and promote employment and economic growth even while facing strong economic headwinds from the coronavirus pandemic, he said.

“Gladly I can say that we have passed through many complicated things, but we feel proud that 90 percent of the plan that we presented before the Colombian electorate has been met and we feel proud that during our administration we were able to promote the private sector [and] a generous and sustainable social policy,” Duque said.

Highlighting that Colombia saw the largest increase in the country’s minimum wage and the creation of the largest number of jobs during his administration, Duque admitted that these achievements at times came at the cost of policies that were unpopular.

These were later exploited by groups wanting to destabilize his government by organizing at times violent protests, but Duque said they were the right policies for the country and that leadership is not a popularity contest.

Even so, he said his government was successful in confronting the dangers that threatened the country’s democratic stability.

“We have defended democracy in Colombia and we are not going to allow anyone to take away our democracy,” he emphasized.

Duque is scheduled to hand over the reins of government on Aug. 7 to former Colombian guerrilla Gustavo Petro, who won the presidential election in July running on a platform that advocated a radical change for Colombia, a country governed for decades by conservative and moderate parties.

Duque faced massive protests that at times turned violent during his administration, and his presidency will come to an end next month with very low popularity levels.

Shortly before delivering his speech, Duque received the 2022 Leadership Award from the Concordia organization, among other things for allowing almost 2 million Venezuelans fleeing the Nicolás Maduro regime to remain in Colombia and for promoting environmental sustainability.

The event marked the sixth time that the organizers have held the summit to assess the progress, problems and threats facing democracies in the region.

Several of the participants pointed out that Latin America today is under threat from the growing power of organized crime and from the efforts of extreme-left organizations that promote discontent and disillusionment toward their democratic systems in order to promote socialist autocracies.

The secretary general of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, said the region’s ruling class must do all it can to ensure that the population has a greater participation in their democratic systems, but also emphasized the need for democratic institutions to do better in addressing the problems and challenges inside their countries.

“Our institutions have to face the challenges of the 21st century. We have never been able to make the great leap to development in Latin America. We have been stagnant for a long time. Sometimes right on the border, sometimes turning back,” Almagro said. “We often talk about lost decades, but we have had 200 years of lost decades in our hemisphere related to our development.”

Almagro said that each country faces its own set of problems, but one common threat is the difficulty of democratic institutions in providing answers.

Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, meanwhile, warned about the risks that illicit economies and organized crime are posing in the region, saying these present great risk to the rule of law.

Uribe also questioned the obstacles imposed by some countries to the development of the private sector and said this was a great mistake because it hinders prosperity and economic development.

Former Uruguayan President Luis Alberto Lacalle added that prosperity is one of the necessary elements that is almost never mentioned when talking about the sustainability of democracies in the region.

The emphasis is always placed on the strength of democratic institutions, on respect for human rights and freedom of the press, “but where is trade?” asked Lacalle, before saying it is essential to promote prosperity and the stability of democratic regimes.

Lacalle also insisted that Latin Americans must be aware that their democracies are under siege by extreme leftist groups that have been organizing rebellions and street protests against democratic governments throughout the region.

“You have to pay attention to the fact that there are organized negative forces dedicated to the destruction of democracies,” he said.

He added that these organizations only seek to erode the people’s faith in their democracies and then encourage the emergence of populist movements.