Democracy and inequality in Latin America and the Middle East 

Casa Árabe is taking part in this colloquium organized by Lebanon’s USEK on the dates of October 1-2.

The opening ceremony was presided over by the Rector of the USEK (Université de Saint Esprit de Kaslik), Georges Hobeika, as well as by Hoda Nehmé and Roberto Khatlab, of that university’s School of Philosophy. Karim Hauser, who is responsible for Casa Árabe’s Governance Area, underlined Spain’s importance as a facilitator of relations between Latin Americans and Arabs and reiterated the wide range of activities and publications that have been produced within this context. Attending the event were the Latin American ambassadors with accreditation in Lebanon, members of the academic community and students from undergraduate and graduate programs.

During his speech, the main speaker, Rafael Rosell Aiqal, former rector of the Universidad Central de Chile, insisted upon the need to contribute to academic exchanges between different societies, using the EU’s Erasmus Program as an example. Other participants included Alberto de Silva Moreira and Valmor da Silva, of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Goiás in Brazil; Manuel Chávez Angeles, of the Universidad de la Sierra Sur in Mexico; Sergio Moya Mena, of the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, and Angéla Kahil, of the USEK.

The topics discussed ranged from the contribution of liberation theology in decreasing the inequality gap in Brazil, democracy viewed from the perspective of access to information and digital technology in Mexico, to the quality of democracy in Central America and the participation of Lebanese political parties in the country’s social security system.