:: Puente Democrático ::

Puente Democrático is a project within the area "International Promotion of Human Rights" of the Center for Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL). Its objective is to realize international acts of solidarity and to support the efforts of the democratic people who live within dictatorial countries as well as to influence the implementation of a foreign policy that is committed to Human Rights on the part of the Latin American countries.

Backgrounds of the project ''Puente Democrático''

All the countries that once lived under dictatorship needed a certain pressure from the democratic community to free themselves. These signals of solidarity served as much for the denunciation of abuses as well as to claim respect for the fundamental liberties and the democratic opening.

Therefore, countries like Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, that under their dictatorships received so many proofs of international solidarity, have a moral obligation to help those that nowadays and in various parts of the world live under regimes that repress fundamental democratic liberties.

The democratic countries, especially the ones in Latin America, generally legitimize dictatorships, shielding themselves with the obsolete Estrada Doctrine "not to intervene in internal affairs", hence tolerating repressive practices and offering the tyrants acknowledgement they do not deserve, because the functions they hold are illegitimate as they did not emerge from free and competitive elections. In this sense it is also inconsistent pointing out that within these countries "self-determination of the people" exists. Could anybody justify or remain indifferent given the aberration of Nazi-Germany arguing with both, "not to intervene into internal affairs" and "the self-determination of the people"?

It should be clear that the UNIVERSAL character of human rights obligates democratic countries to have an active agenda regarding its international commitments to civil liberties and the most essential politics. This means: not to remain neutral towards the violation of human rights (Theo Van Boven) and, in doing so, not to be accomplices of the silence the dictatorships are seeking (Héctor Timerman).

In the end, the project "Puente Democrático" of the Center for Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL) advances both, the international solidarity with the ones who live under regimes that repress fundamental democratic liberties as well as an active agenda within the foreign policy on the part of Latin America, regarding human rights.