24/03/2021 – 20:43 Updated: 03/24/2021 – 21:55
–
–
The year in which the pandemic forced a large part of the planet’s population to take refuge inside their homes has accelerated a process that had been under way for some time and whose consequences are now impossible to ignore: the digital revolution. The challenges arising from this transformation are multiple and complex: from profound changes in the forms of communication and the functioning of democracies to the increase in inequality as a result of the digital divide. To these challenges must be added, in the case of the Latin American region, the international geopolitical context that conditions investment in infrastructure in the face of digitization.
In order to find answers to the difficult questions posed by the digital revolution, the Madrid office of the European Council on Foreign Relations held this Wednesday a virtual debate entitled “The European Union and Latin America: towards an inclusive technological alliance”, which had the participation of the former President of the Spanish Government Felipe González and the former Chilean President Ricardo Lagos (2000-2006), in addition to a wide panel of experts and political and business leaders who defended the importance of close collaboration between both regions, natural strategic allies, to achieve a successful transition to the new digital reality.
“Latin America is the laboratory of China’s geopolitical and geostrategic conflict with the United States. And whoever does not see it that way is missing a large part of history,” he said. Jose Juan Ruiz, president of the Elcano Royal Institute, who stressed the need for the European Union not to look the other way at a critical time for the future of the region. Similarly, it was pronounced Rebeca Grynspan, Ibero-American Secretary General and former Vice President of Costa Rica: “Our only way of not being at the center of the sandwich of a Cold War between the United States and China is Europe. We need that oxygen balloon. And Europe must question whether it is going to be absent in the forward opportunities of Latin America in terms of digitization or ecological transition, “he said.
In this regard, Eduardo Navarro, Director of Strategy and Corporate Affairs at Telefónica, pointed out how the impact of the pandemic in Brazil is sowing the seeds of greater influence from China, such as its main supplier of vaccines, in the technological transition of the country. “There was a tremendous ideological problem between Brazil and China. Now China is saying ‘Do you want the vaccine? Well, sit down and talk to me about technology,'” he explained.
González: “The democratic leadership is failing and we have a caudillismo proposal with left and right flags.”
During the debate between the ex-presidents, moderated by the journalist Carmen Ariestegui, González and Lagos focused on two consequences of the digital revolution: the crisis of representative democracy and the widening of inequality. Regarding the first, they highlighted the transformation of the traditional vertical political system, defined by large parties with an enormous capacity to control the message and with the media as the fourth power, to a horizontal one in which a single person, like Donald Trump, can storm the presidency and govern at the stroke of a tweet.
“Democratic leadership is failing and we have a proposal of caudillismo with flags of the left and right ”, indicated González, who pointed out that, years ago, if a political representative was caught lying, he paid an enormous cost. “But today, since he lies 20 times a day, trivialize the lie“. Lagos, for his part, pointed out that the great challenge is the development of new political institutions that respond to the new needs of voters that arise from this new digital reality in which citizens”ask to be heard in the period between election and election”.
The Wall Street Journal
–
The two former politicians agreed on the importance of closing the digital divide due to the effect it has on inequality. “There were children who they had to climb on the roofs of their homes for the internet to reach their homes“said Lagos about the experience in Chile.” This is as important as learning to read, and therefore the gap is everyone’s responsibility, especially the one who governs. “González was blunt:” This is going to leave many backward and displaced children and, therefore, increase inequality between them. ”
Lorena Boix Alonso, Director for the Digital Society, Trust and Cybersecurity of DG Connect, of the European Commission and who was also present at the event, also emphasized this point, emphasizing that “schools that were not prepared for digital education have not been able to continue educating “. He also briefly participated in the meeting Mariano Jabonero, Secretary General of the Organization of Ibero-American States, who described how during the pandemic the digital divide has caused what he described as a “generational disaster”. “We have done studies on the impact on these boys and girls who have lost school and are going to have serious negative effects when they are older and start working.”
–
