The regional team for Democracy, Citizenship, Human Rights and Peacebuilding will hold its annual meeting from May 1 to 6 in Panama City. On this occasion, an important milestone for Cáritas Latin America and the Caribbean will be the Electoral Observation Day of the presidential elections in Panama, which will take place on Sunday, May 5. The observer participants will come from Paraguay, Venezuela, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Honduras and the host country.

The objective of the meeting is to strengthen the team's identity and commitments to the team's work plan; develop a training process and knowledge of the significant experiences of each country on the issues of democracy, citizenship, peace and human rights, so that they can be transferred and systematized. In addition, it is also expected to train and train the members of the electoral observation work team, to transfer the capacity to the participating Caritas.

Commitment to democracy

The Panamanian Episcopal Conference has issued a communicated on Sunday, April 28, indicating its commitment to guide and train citizens, strengthening them, and for that it will have almost 4 thousand electoral observers from the Catholic Church, including those from Cáritas Latin America and the Caribbean, who will have the mission to monitor the electoral process.

“In this historic time we are going to decide if we are really committed to generating the changes that will make possible a more supportive, fair, equitable Panama, with the inclusion of everyone, without exclusion of anyone,” affirm the bishops.

For the coordinator of the regional team, Iván Camilo Vargas (Cáritas Colombia), the issue of electoral observation is an important scenario to accompany the democratic processes of civil society. “And I also believe that mediated by the political context that Panama has had in recent months where civil society has also mobilized and has been very active to make itself heard regarding structural situations where civil society has wanted to make itself heard.”

Regional strengthening

In 2024, six Latin American countries will hold their elections. El Salvador was the first country, with elections held in February. After Panama, the elections in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Venezuela and Uruguay follow.

Iván highlights the importance of the Church's more active support in electoral processes with analysis that allows the democratic context in each country to be evaluated, "not so much in influencing the result or influencing the favoring of a political sector, but rather in guaranteeing transparency and trust on the part of all sectors of civil society so that the Church can be a guarantor in these democratic processes and citizen participation for the search for the common good and the achievement of the desired future for all."