Liberals Worldwide Assemble in Dominican Republic

The Caribbean country of Dominican Republic played host to hundreds of liberals across the world during the congress and assembly of the Red Liberal de America Latina (RELIAL), a regional network of more than 30 organizations in around 17 countries.

Held on 11-14 October 2018, the congress and assembly took place at a time when a number of Latin American countries are experiencing crises – from the rise of far-right populism in Brazil, the widespread human rights violations in Nicaragua, to the astonishing economic collapse of Venezuela.

Amidst these crises, the delegates were reminded of the wise words of respected Latin American liberal and former RELIAL President Ricardo Lopez Murphy: “Political freedom, tolerance, the market economy have been the irreplaceable components of open and successful societies.  Their loss is a sufficient sign of the risk of authoritarianism and the lack of respect for human rights, which characterize the most ignoble experiments that have marked human experience.”

Inspired by the belief that liberal and democratic values can point the way forward amidst existing crises, RELIAL thought of bringing together liberals from North America, Central America, the Caribbean, South America, Europe and Asia to learn from their experiences in addressing populism, authoritarianism and illiberalism.

CALD Executive Director Celito Arlegue represented CALD in the inter-liberal network panel, where he discussed the recent successes and challenges of the Asian political party network.  Apart from CALD and RELIAL, Liberal International, Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, International Federation of the Liberal Youth, Alliance for Central America and Atlas Network made presentations in the panel.

“The journey of CALD, like that of liberal democracy in Asia, appears to be one step forward, two steps back”, said Arlegue in his intervention. “Despite this, we continue to press on in advancing our goal of protecting and promoting liberal democratic institutions, processes and values in the Asian region.  We have been doing that in the past twenty-five years, and we will continue to do so in the next twenty-five years and more if needed.”