Joe Biden Has Shut Down first summit of democracy, He summoned himself from the country of rhetoric. With a speech concluding two days of virtual discussions on issues such as anti-authoritarianism and anti-corruption, the President of the United States, in the absence of the kind of joint statements and big announcements that such diplomatic shows usually produce, contributed a lot of kind words and little business. His title was the final touch to a meeting Ending as it began: wrapped in controversy Because of the lack of specificity in its purposes and because of the list of 110 countries it was called (and above all, because of the excluded, China and Russia, among them). The American leader has postponed the results of that opening meeting To celebrate a new date, ideally in person, scheduled for next year and which one of these days seems to have been just a rehearsal.
The president defended the initiative, however, as “an opportunity to strengthen what unites us.” In the chapter on the facts, he explained that the meeting facilitated the meeting of mayors from all over the world, from Mesa, in Arizona, to Mannheim, in Germany (“they who are in the first line of defense of democracy”), as well as discussing the protection of press freedom and sharing challenges about Protection of women and children.
In an effort to add substance to the speech, the White House announced Thursday that Biden plans to work with Congress on a budget of approximately $424 million to support independent media abroad, provide support for human rights organizations and activists and promote the holding of the conference. Fair elections. It also concluded its own agreement reached in the days leading up to the summit between Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Panama to strengthen their institutions and cooperation in the region. “It’s the kind of commitment and collaboration that I hope we see more of in the future. So we can share that progress next year,” Biden said.
In an idea that was constantly repeated among the guests (presidents, prime ministers, or ambassadors of the countries convened, many of whom shared a recorded message), the American leader also emphasized the importance of working so that technology would be a tool that encourages, rather than hinders, democracy. In it agreed with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, who intervened at the top On the day of the 73rd anniversary of the Declaration of Human Rights while defending the regulation of the digital world to prevent it from inciting populism and authoritarianism.
Both phrases can be read in the context of the conversation The crisis erupted on Facebook by the disclosure of thousands of documents extracted from the company by former employee Frances Haugen It shows, among other things, that the social network preferred silencing opposition groups in Vietnam rather than losing business in a desirable market, that it fueled nationalist hatred in India for Narendra Modi, or that it did not do enough to reduce ethnic violence in Ethiopia. Guterres also lamented the exacerbation of these problems with the spread of the epidemic.
The absences in the guest list returned to the debate with the intervention of the President of Argentina, Alberto Fernandez, who defended Bolivia, one of the countries not summoned by Biden and whose exclusion caused the biggest surprise. Other countries excluded from the American continent include Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Mexico, for its part, intervened with its ambassador to the United States, Esteban Moctezuma
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With this meeting, Biden will have accomplished at least one of the tasks he set himself during the election that made him president: Organizing that democracy “is the ultimate challenge of our time” and, incidentally, pointing out the chasm between him. The rhetoric and rhetoric of his predecessor, Donald Trump, whose internal administration at times dealt with authoritarians and who cut bridges abroad with traditional allies and multilateral organizations and chose dictators from around the world as notorious allies. In his speech today, Biden acknowledged that these problems are also an internal matter, and committed to defending the “sacred right to vote freely” in the United States.
On the other hand, the Treasury Department announced, on Friday, imposing sanctions on companies and individuals from China, Myanmar, North Korea and Russia for “violations” of freedoms and human rights.
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