The leaders invited this Thursday at the Summit for Democracy, organized by U.S, agreed to highlight the urgent need to renew and reinforce the democratic model “the great challenge of our time” in the face of the growing threat from authoritarian governments, in the words of Joe Biden.
“Sustained and alarming challenges to democracy and human rights around the world make democracy need defenders,” said the US president in the opening speech from the White House of this virtual event that brings together more than a hundred countries , with the notable absences of China and Russia.
Neither have a member of the European Union (EU), Hungary, and one of NATO, Turkey, been invited.
Biden also stressed that democracies are systems that need constant work and that “do not happen by accident”, and reinforcing them, he insisted, is “the great challenge of our time.”
From Brussels, the president of the European Commission (EC), Úrsula von der Leyen, warned that “the erosion of democracy and the silent spread of autocracies can occur very quickly.”
“The most fertile ground for this,” he said, “is one in which disinformation skews the way we see democracy and perceive the world.”
Within the framework of the summit, the White House announced 424 million dollars in aid programs for the fight against corruption, the promotion of independent media and the defense of free and fair elections.
Controversial guest list
The diverse guest list has caused a stir, since although it includes countries considered solid democracies such as the majority of the EU, and traditional partners such as Israel and Australia, there are also others with more dubious credentials such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq and Pakistan and others that have shown setbacks in recent years, such as Brazil, India and the Philippines.
Likewise, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras were not invited from Latin America, countries considered key by Washington to confront the massive migratory flow to the United States, and neither do Bolivia, Nicaragua and Cuba participate.
The meeting also takes place amid growing US tensions with Russia, due to its concentration of troops on the border with Ukraine, and with China, due to the movements and threatening rhetoric on Taiwan.
Precisely, Taiwan is one of the invited countries, which has caused anger on the part of Beijing.
From Moscow, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, regretted a week ago that with the call “unfortunately, the United States prefers to create new dividing lines” and separate “the countries into good and bad, according to its criteria.”
In addition, Peskov accused the US of trying to “privatize the word ‘democracy’”, and criticized that for Washington democracy is only what conforms to its understanding.
US self-criticism
Despite the attacks for having drawn a set of “good and bad” countries, the US has insisted that the convening of the summit had been planned from “humility”, in the words of its Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
In this sense, the US president recognized in his opening speech that his own country is not alien to the challenges facing democracy today.
“Here in the United States we know better than anyone that renewing our democracy and strengthening our democratic institutions requires constant effort,” said Biden, referring to the little-veiled assault on Capitol Hill by a mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump (2017-2021). ) during the 2020 election certification process.
In the same vein, her Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, admitted that her country is, at the moment, “the best place to hide and launder illicit profits” through shell companies because of the ease with which they can be created. this type of signature.
Yellen pointed out that states such as Delaware, Nevada, Montana, Wyoming and, especially in recent years, South Dakota, operate as tax havens in which it is very easy to create a shell company to evade paying taxes and launder money. , above even in volume of operations of classics such as Malta, Switzerland, the Bahamas, Luxembourg and Panama.
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