The president of the United States says that the world is at a turning point and there may be setbacks on issues of rights and democracy.
This Thursday the president of the United States, Joe Biden, began what he has called the Summit for Democracy, to which he invited dozens of heads of governments from around the world in order to recover leadership spaces in international politics.
Democracy faces “continuous and alarming challenges” around the world, said Biden when opening the summit, which will last until Friday in a virtual way with representatives of some 100 countries -including Ecuador-, as well as NGOs, companies and organizations. philanthropic, according to AFP.
Biden estimated that the trend “is largely pointing in the wrong direction” and that democracy needs “champions.”
“We are at a turning point,” added the Democratic leader. “Will we allow the decline in rights and democracy to continue rampant?”
“Make no mistake, we are at a time of democratic evaluation,” said Uzra Zeya, Undersecretary of State for Civil Security, Democracy and Human Rights. “Countries in practically all regions of the world have experienced degrees of democratic backsliding,” he warned.
China and Russia, which Biden considers autocracies, were deliberately left out, which – according to these countries – fuels an “ideological gap.” “No country has the right to judge the vast and varied political landscape of the world with a single criterion,” wrote the Russian ambassador, Anatoly Antonov, and the Chinese Qin Gang.
What ended up exasperating Beijing was that the US government invited Taiwan, an island with a Western-style government, which mainland Communist China considers part of its territory, even though it has not been under its control since the Communist Party arrived. to the power.
Washington also announced on Monday that it would not send government officials to the Beijing Winter Olympics in February to protest human rights violations in China, including the “genocide” against the ethnic minority group of Uyghurs, in the western region of Xinjiang.
Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada have joined the diplomatic boycott, although their athletes will attend the competition. And once again, Russia joined China in criticizing the decision.
Deciding when other countries should be excluded from the summit for human rights violations or electoral fraud has been just as complicated.
For example, Pakistan and the Philippines are in, while the nationalist government of Hungary, a member of the European Union, has been left out. The Brazilian far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, has been invited, while the president of Turkey – a member of NATO – and staunch defender of Islam, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was rejected.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, the governments of eight countries have been excluded: Nicaragua, Cuba, Bolivia, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Haiti, and Venezuela -several are on the left and other problems of corruption or in their democratic system-, although Juan Guaidó, an opposition leader who faced the Venezuelan socialist ruler Nicolás Maduro, has been invited.
Aid to journalism
In the framework of the summit, Biden announced that the United States will give 424 million dollars for aid programs for the fight against corruption, the promotion of independent media and the defense of free and fair elections, collects EFE.
The White House said in a statement that these funds, which will be disbursed in 2022, represent a “significant expansion” of the United States’ efforts to “support and increase the resistance” of democracies to authoritarianism around the world.
“Not only is this the right thing to do, it is in the interest of US national security, as strong, rights-defending democracies are more peaceful, prosperous and stable,” the note said.
The US initiative includes $ 30 million to ensure the viability of independent media, especially in fragile contexts and few resources, among other items.
It also allocates an additional 15 million dollars to fight against international money laundering and facilitate the coordination of global anti-corruption measures and another 17.5 million for a Democratic Elections Defense Fund with the aim of combating interference and reinforcing security in the electoral processes.
Problems within the United States
For the White House, the summit embodies the leadership of the United States in an existential struggle between democracies and dictatorships or autocracies.
Biden is struggling to restore faith in democracy in his own country.
Trump refuses to acknowledge the results of the 2020 elections, in which he lost, and with the help of the conservative media, including the powerful network Fox News, The former Republican president continues to spread lies about fraud among his tens of millions of followers.
And while the images of the violent invasion of Congress, carried out on January 6 in Washington by hundreds of Trump supporters with a toll of five dead and dozens of injured, are still very much present – there are growing fears about the legislative elections of 2022 and the 2024 presidential elections to which Trump wants to run again.
Bruce Jentleson, Professor of Political Science at Duke University, said this summit “was never a good idea.”
“Our problems here are far worse than in any other Western democracy. Our Capitol (Congress) was attacked, an attempted coup. We have not seen that happen in Paris, or in the Bundestag (German Parliament) or at the EU headquarters in Brussels ”, he adds.
“If we want to compete, we have to do our best and that depends more on us in the country than on somehow bringing together 100 leaders and saying ‘we like democracy,'” he remarked. (I)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
