Venezuelan platform Ideas para la Democracia organizes discussion supported by WOLA on democracy promotion in the region

WOLA

Team WOLA

In March 2024, the platform Ideas for Democracy, alongside WOLA, held an event in Washington titled “Ideas for Democracy: Challenges and Opportunities in the Americas”. The goal of the event was to bring together a group of experts working on democracy promotion in the region to discuss the status of democracy and the protection of human rights, not only in Venezuela, but throughout the Americas. The aim was to create a space for debate and discussion with the objective of generating good practice guidelines for the collaboration of civil society in the region in the promotion of democracy. 

Ideas for Democracy is a platform of Venezuelan civil society organizations dedicated to the promotion of civic participation and a democratic society. The platform grew out of an initiative to connect various Venezuelan civil society groups working on the electoral road to democracy in November 2022, and WOLA has continued to work closely with the group. 

This event featured the participation of several regional experts, including Beatriz Borges, Director of Cepaz; Laura Dib, Director for Venezuela at WOLA; Ana María Méndez Dardon, Director for Central America at WOLA; José Luis Sanz, Washington D.C. Correspondent of El Faro; Gimena Sánchez, Director for the Andes at WOLA; Stephanie Brewer, Director for Mexico at WOLA; Deborah Van Berkel, representative of Ideas for Democracy; José Antonio Pedraza, Member of the Council of Experts on Electoral Transparency; Griselda Colina, Director of the Global Observatory on Communication and Democracy. With this diverse participation, the event included different perspectives on the re-democratization process and the defense of human rights, highlighting obstacles shared throughout the region, such as corruption, lack of transparency, and institutional weakness. 

Ideas for Democracy, WOLA, and the other participating organizations remain concerned about the rise of authoritarian tendencies throughout the region. This event with Ideas for Democracy marks the beginning of a collaboration between these organizations. WOLA will continue to open spaces of encounter to strengthen the debate and the generation of lines of action towards the promotion of democratic values in the Americas.

Click here to watch a playlist of five clips (in Spanish) recorded during the event and produced by Ideas para la democracia, featuring Director for Venezuela, Laura Dib and Director for Central America, Ana María Méndez Dardón.

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