This week, Cuba's Raul Roa Garcia Higher Institute of International Relations, ISRI, organized and hosted debates concerning the challenges faced by the left in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Researchers from the Center for International Policy Research, the Center for Hemispheric Studies and the United States and the Institute of Philosophy, among others, participated in the event.
Today's roundtable discussions focused on how to counter the oligarchs and imperialism who accompany the rise of far-right wing politicians. Cuban researchers emphasized how the academy can be used in a regional context to resist these anti-democratic forces.
Despite the success of revolutionary and anti-neoliberal governments in Latin America and the Caribbean over the past two decades, conference attendees agreed that the region continues to be plagued by grave inequality. More than 175 million people remain in abject poverty in the region, Prensa Latina reported.
Additionally, they reiterated that progressive forces in the geographical region are under threat from renewed attacks by a conjunction of imperialists and oligarchs increasingly divorced from national projects or the Latin American compass.
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Isabel Allende, director of ISRI, stated that due to the complexities facing the subcontinent, the Cuban academy must continue to take a pro-active stance in its analysis of the social atmosphere.
She stressed that people of the region must contribute with their weapons, which are those of peace, to achieve unification of the forces of progress and integration to deal with hegemonic domination and threats against revolutionary processes.
ISRI, founded in 1981 and accredited by Cuba's Ministry of Higher Education, is a non-profit public higher education institution in Havana. It offers courses and programs leading to officially recognized higher degrees in several areas of study related to international relations.