Tag Archives: Latin America

Lula demarcates six indigenous territories in Brazil, the first in five years

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article fromIstoé (translation by CPNN)

President Lula signed, this Friday (April 28), decrees demarcating six new territories for indigenous peoples, the first since 2018 and one of them in a vast territory in the Amazon, during a meeting with representatives of indigenous peoples in Brasília.

These new reserves, which guarantee indigenous people the exclusive use of natural resources while preserving their traditional way of life, are considered by scientists as one of the main barriers against deforestation in the Amazon, whose control is one of the government’s priority objectives.



Video from Terra Livre Camp

“It is a somewhat lengthy process, it has to go through many hands, but we are going to work hard so that it can demarcate the largest possible number of Indigenous Lands”, said the president.

Lula made the announcement on the occasion of the closing of the 19th edition of the “Terra Livre” camp, an annual meeting that brought together thousands of indigenous people from all over the country in Brasília this week.

“It was like lifting a weight off our shoulders, like music to our ears,” Claudia Tomás, 44, from the Baré ethnic group, whose lands were included in the demarcations, told AFP.

No new indigenous lands were demarcated during the mandate of Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), who had promised, before coming to power, “not to give any centimeter” to the original peoples.

Tehe Pataxó, a 29-year-old girl with her face painted in red and black lines, said she was relieved by the conquest for the native peoples: “It was four years suffering with militiamen in our Pataxó territory in the south of Bahia, where indigenous people were murdered”.

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(Click here for the original Portuguese version of this article.)

Question for this article

Indigenous peoples, Are they the true guardians of nature?

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During Bolsonaro’s tenure, average annual deforestation increased by 75% compared to the previous decade.

The last approval had been on April 26, 2018, under the presidency of Michel Temer (2016-2018), referring to the Baía do Guató indigenous land, an area of 20,000 hectares in Mato Grosso.

Two of the six new approved reserves are located in the Amazon, including the largest, called Unieuxi, intended for 249 indigenous Maku and Tukano peoples, on more than 550,000 hectares in the Amazon.

Two other reserves are located in the northeast of the country, one in the south and the other in the center-west.

Lula signed the decrees alongside prominent indigenous leaders, such as the iconic chief Raoni Metuktire, who thanked him and placed a traditional headdress of blue and red feathers on the president’s head.

“In four years we will do more (for the indigenous peoples) than in the eight years we have already governed the country (2003-2010)”, promised the president.

– New territories –

According to the last census, in 2010, approximately 800,000 indigenous people live in Brazil, the majority in reserves, which occupy 13.75% of the territory.

“When they say that you occupy 14% of the territory, and you think that’s a lot, you need to know that, before the Portuguese, you occupied 100% of that territory”, completed Lula.

It is anticipated that new demarcations will be approved soon.

Last month, the Minister of Indigenous Peoples, Sonia Guajajara, announced that 14 territories (including the six approved this Friday) were ready to be legalized, totaling around 900,000 hectares.

“We are going to write a new history, for the good of all humanity, of our planet”, said the minister this Friday, shortly before the signing of the decrees.

Latin America, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

FARC dissident group says to start peace talks with Colombian government in May

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION . .

An article by Julia Symmes Cobb published by Reuters

Dissident FARC rebels who rejected a landmark peace agreement in 2016 said on Sunday (April 16) they are ready to set up a dialogue with the government on May 16 to begin peace talks to bring their group, the Estado Mayor Central (EMC), out of the armed conflict.


Nestor Gregorio Vera Fernandez, alias Ivan Mordisco, head of the Central General Staff of the FARC dissidents, attends a meeting with peasant communities in Yari, Colombia April 16, 2023. REUTERS/Mario Quintero

Leftist President Gustavo Petro – a former member of the urban guerrilla group M-19 – pledged to end six decades of an armed conflict that has left more than 450,000 dead by signing peace or surrender agreements with rebels and criminal gangs, in addition to fully implementing the pact with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

The EMC is one of two breakaway factions of the FARC and is made up of former leaders and fighters who did not accept the peace deal, which allowed in 2016 the reincorporation into civilian life of 13,000 people who formed a political party and received 10 seats in Congress.

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Questions related to this article:

What is happening in Colombia, Is peace possible?

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“We announce before the whole world that our delegates to the dialogue table with the Colombian state, headed by the national government, are already ready for May 16 of this year,” Ángela Izquierdo, spokeswoman for the armed group, told journalists.

There were no immediate comments from government officials.

Attorney General Francisco Barbosa suspended arrest warrants against more than 20 EMC members in early March, which facilitated the start of peace talks to be held in the Llano del Yari, on the border between the departments of Meta and Caqueta, in the south of the country.

The group, made up of 3,530 people – 2,180 combatants and 1,350 auxiliaries – has maintained a bilateral ceasefire with the Colombian government since the beginning of the year.

The other dissident FARC faction is the Segunda Marquetalia, which in August 2019 returned to the armed struggle, claiming that the state failed to comply with the peace agreement.

Petro’s government reestablished peace talks with the rebels of the National Liberation Army (ELN) and the two parties seek to advance towards a bilateral ceasefire agreement in a third round of talks to begin soon in Cuba.

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Latin America

Brazil: Lula creates working group to combat violence in schools

. EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article from Migalhas (translation by CPNN)

President Lula has signed a decree creating an inter-ministerial working group, with the aim of implementing policies to prevent and confront violence in schools.

The decree was published in the DOU, this Thursday, 6. The measure was created after the massacre at a day care center in Blumenau/SC, where four children died.

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(Click here for the original article in Portuguese.)

Question related to this article:
 
What is the relation between peace and education?

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The working group will be coordinated by the Ministry of Education and involves seven additional ministries and two secretariats. With an initial duration of 90 days, the group must propose various measures, including the eventual publication of decrees and bills to combat these crimes. One focus could be internet regulation mechanisms, where hate groups that encourage this type of attack proliferate.

Other measures

The Minister of Justice and Public Security, Flávio Dino, announced the release of R$ 150 million to expand school patrols across the country, amid the wave of attacks on schools and day care centers.

Another measure is to intensify the monitoring of threats and planning on the internet for attacks on schools. According to Flávio Dino, 50 federal police officers will exclusively monitor this type of crime, from a center at Diop – Integrated Operations Division, linked to Senasp – National Secretariat for Public Security of the ministry, with direct support from the state police . Until now, there were 10 police officers involved in this work.

Culture of peace

The Minister of Justice also defended the involvement of the media and private entities and civil society in a major national mobilization in favor of a culture of peace, which includes, for example, the adoption of protocols in cases like this, to avoid a excessive exposure of the perpetrators of this type of attack, who seek precisely the spotlight.

Here is the decree in full.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Latin America

Azueï: the union of Dominicans and Haitians through art

TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An article by María Luisa López in Acento

For a group of Dominicans and Haitians to come together to create art may seem unusual, given the complex relationship between the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

However, in August 2015, a small group of people decided to come together to create a project that would promote a culture of peace and thus guarantee a space for dialogue through art and culture between the two peoples.


Here is the wall painted on the border by graffiti artists from the Azueï movement. Photo: Josué Azor

The meeting took place on the shores of the lake that separates Haiti from the Dominican Republic: Azueï. From there arose the name of this movement between local artists and from the neighboring country with which they also seek to undo prejudices, value the wealth of the island’s heritage and the proximity of both cultures.

“We decided to create a movement to have another way of doing things with each other. To strengthen the culture between the two nations, create joint works and through this common creation we are discovering each other”, Rachèle Magloire, president of the Azueï association in Haiti, told ACENTO.

In this regard, the filmmaker also narrates her own experience: “I particularly never had a Dominican friend. That never even occurred to me. The dynamics of collaboration and solidarity between the two countries had been completely broken. Now I even speak a little Spanish and I have Dominican friends.”

Younès Karroum, a founding member of the movement, explains that Azueï is multidisciplinary, since it is made up of musicians, graffiti artists, filmmakers and social activists.

When asked about the complexity that uniting citizens of both nations can entail, due to the cultural differences of each one, Karroum highlights artistry and trust.

“The keys to how to generate trust do not lie in the discourse, but in how to work in the arts; to find, first, a common language to be able to build whatever. For that, you have to identify the other as someone with whom I can share, I can work, and this is built through practice and the dynamics of creation… ”, he says.

To this he adds that, many times, the complex thing is to put aside the national reading that one can have when going from one country to another.

“In other words, when we have these meetings, these moments, I take off this contextual reading cap that I can have from my country and I take the gaze of the other and try to have another vision. Open your mind. And this works in Azueï. Azueï artists have developed this new identity that “we are Azueï”. And the discourse of the artists themselves has evolved a lot in these seven years because we already assume things from the other that we did not assume before ”, she specifies.

(Click here for the original version in Spanish.)

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Question related to this article:

Solidarity across national borders, What are some good examples?

Do the arts create a basis for a culture of peace?

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An island united by art

Both Magloire and Karroum agree that art is the most suitable way to unite both peoples, and they assure that the key that has worked for them is to do it from a constructive position.

They define art as a key tool to change mentalities, both Dominicans and Haitians, and the perception they have of each other.

“Because I think that, in the end, there have been voluntary policies to paint a neighbor in a way for political interests and this with many resources, in the Dominican Republic in particular. This has generated the establishment of a mentality towards the other based only on these criteria, not based on day-to-day reality. In the Dominican Republic there is a lot of interaction with Haitians. There are many examples of solidarity. There are many organizations working on the issue, there are many cases of positive relationship”, indicates Karroum.
.
On his side, Magloire also puts the issue of discrimination in context and assures that it not only occurs towards Haitians, but also towards Dominicans.

“We also see discrimination against Haitians because our artists were imprisoned or mistreated. We have some who live here. But we also discovered discrimination against Dominicans. Racism is not only against Haitians. There is deep racism here (on the island), which is not talked about,” he indicates.

Activities in the country

These days, Azueï is immersed in a tour of the Dominican Republic that has included demonstrations, workshops, rehearsals, recording of documentaries and music sessions.

“The activities began in February with a residency at Xiomara Fortuna’s Campeche ecological ranch with the graffiti artists from the Azueï team, and representatives of Haitian and Dominican cultural organizations that we have financed within the QuisqueyArt project to encourage exchanges beyond us. Other organizations are invited to undertake these cultural exchanges. Because in the Dominican there is a need for cultural projects with Haiti, and just as in Haiti this connection is needed”, Karroum points out.

He explains that their residence, carried out as a dynamic of conflict transformation through the arts, worked on the concept for a mural on the border between Dajabón and Juana Méndez.

Among the activities of the tour in the country they also included a conversation
with the entire team of the movement in El Portal Cultural, in the Colonial City.
In the same place on Friday, they will have a session with all the Azueï musicians for those who want to go and play with them.

And to close the tour they will perform a concert at the Cultural Center of Spain, in the Colonial City, at 8:00 p.m., in which they will play all the songs from their album Artybonito.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Latin America, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Mexico: 175 organizations and groups convene a National Peace Conference

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION

An article from Artículo 9 (Licencia Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial 2.5)

Mexico City March 15, 2023.- Counteracting the different types of violence that the country is experiencing, 175 organizations and groups are convening a National Peace Conference. We believe that fighting against the causes of violence is a shared responsibility: as long as it continues to be believed that it should only be the task of the government, there will be no peace. It is urgent to stop the violence, all of it, at all levels of our lives.

We see with concern that, despite all the attacks that accumulate day by day, we do not yet have a national consensus to build a culture of peace from all possible fronts. Instead, we observe that the various forms of violence are being used more and more to deepen the differences that are separating us. If we do nothing, the year 2024 could be even worse.

That is why we have decided to convene a National Peace Conference, bringing together all the voices and all the groups that have experienced violence firsthand, as well as those of us who have dedicated a fundamental part of our lives to building a culture of peace.

We want to talk to each other, listen to each other, understand each other, support each other. We want to imagine and build all possible safeguards to face violence and find all the paths to peace.

(Click here for the original article in Spanish.)

Questions related to this article:

Is there progress towards a culture of peace in Mexico?

The Conference will take place at the Museum of Memory and Tolerance in Mexico City on March 22, 23 and 24, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

We will listen to and share the proposals of people and groups that have experienced violence and those who are threatened by different forms of violence. The first day we will talk about femicides, forced disappearance, violence against girls, boys and adolescents, indigenous peoples, day laborers, migrants and defenders of the territory. The second day, of the groups that live under different modalities of threat, such as journalists, patients without medication, the LGTBQ+ community, academics and students, sex workers, domestic workers, delivery men, as well as people in social reintegration, homeless and consumers. of drugs. During the third day we will listen to the organizations that have worked in defense of these groups and in the construction of peace.

The Peace Conference will also be broadcast on March 22, 23 and 24 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. live on Facebook Live at @NosotrxsMX and on YouTube at Nosotrxs Movimiento.

More information and list of convening organizations here

We would love for you to join the number of convening organizations! If you are interested in joining your organization, please fill out the following form.

Promoting Organizations

Acción Ciudadana Frente a la Pobreza 
Artículo 19
EDUCA-Oaxaca
Fondo Semillas
Fundación Friedrich Ebert
IBERO- Ciudad de México
Incide Social
MUCD
Nosotrxs
RENACE San Luis Potosí
Revista Proceso
Red VIRAL
World Justice Project

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, Latin America

Mexico: Meeting for a culture of peace in teacher training schools held in San Lázaro

. EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article from Canal del Congress

The “2nd International Meeting for a Culture of Peace in Normal Schools”, (teachers training schools) was held in the Chamber of Deputies, where cultural authorities from the legislature and students from Mexico and Colombia agreed on the need to implement actions to eradicate conflicts. inside and outside normal schools.

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(Click here for the original article in Spanish.)

Question related to this article:
 
What is the relation between peace and education?

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In this regard, the coordinator of Information Services, Libraries and Museums, Carolina Alonso Peñafiel, pointed out that it should be a priority to strengthen human rights and competencies in terms of peaceful relations and conflict prevention, so it is necessary to establish solutions as an integral part of educational programs.

Meanwhile, the director of Libraries, María Vázquez Valdez, said that this meeting represents an opportunity to establish ties, strategies and reflections to develop a fabric on peace between Mexico and Colombia, in order to open a peaceful path in schools and communities, to sow peace and overcome violence.

The event was attended by students and professors from normal schools in Mexico and Colombia, who exchanged ideas to help eradicate acts of violence within their institutions and thereby build safe communities. In their interventions, they proposed awareness and sensitization workshops, to create communication networks between students and to reinforce respect for cultures and ideologies, generating environments of peace, harmony and allocating resources to safe spaces for students with disabilities.

Meanwhile, teachers and students from normal schools in Colombia indicated that, given the contexts in which their institutions are developed, it is necessary to eradicate violence and move towards building peace inside and outside the schools, through inclusion and interculturality within the framework of peace.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Latin America

Colombia: Secretaries of culture meet in Villavicencio to build a Culture of Peace’

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article from Periódico del Meta (translation by CPNN)

During the first day of the ‘Meeting of Culture Managers 2023’, the culture secretaries of the country’s 32 departments, capital cities and some districts, as well as the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Knowledge, arrived in Villavicencio in order to build joint agendas through the exchange of experiences regarding the Culture of Peace in the territories.


Meeting of Culture Secretaries. Photo: @Corcumvi

“This meeting is very important because in the 25 years of the Ministry of Culture, it is the first time that an event has been held in southern Colombia. This department and municipality have been selected for the diversity that they represent.. They suffered from the war, and now they seek to develop their culture and the arts”, explained Edith Agudelo, director of Corcumvi.

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(Click here for the original Spanish version of this article.)

Question for this article:

Do the arts create a basis for a culture of peace?

What is happening in Colombia, Is peace possible?

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Likewise, the Vice Minister of Regional Development and Heritage (e), Adriana Molano Arenas, explained that one of the strategic axes of the Ministry of Culture is to build a Culture of Peace throughout the country, mainly in territories that have been culturally forgotten.

“The way in which it is going to be distributed is what we have to design together. However, we want to make it clear that within the framework of our axes of transformation of the Government of social justice and cultural justice, our distribution will take them all into account, but it will have a priority in the municipalities that have been forgotten and marginalized from cultural policies in the past”, stated Molano.

Some of the issues that are on the agenda are heritage, libraries, artistic training, the National Concertation Program, the dignity of artists, ancestral cultures and finally, peasant cultures, one of the priorities of the Ministry of Culture.

“One of the ministry’s priorities is the development of a peasant culture program, we are doing it together with the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and in coordination with various ministries, such as agriculture and the environment,” added the official.

During the meeting, the Minister of Culture (e.), Jorge Ignacio Zorro Sánchez, stressed their intention to generate a change in the country, through agreements that have been planned together.

“This meeting confirms previous agreements that have been determined jointly with the regions. We are sure that this will be the best path for the change and transformations that the nation requires, because it is built collectively with all of them, valuing our differences as an enriching element of democratic societies”, said Jorge Zorro.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Latin America

Mexico: Tlaxcala has first place in the list of Women Builders of Peace

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article by Arled Jarillo in El Sol de Tlaxcala

As of February 9, 2023, Tlaxcala occupies the first national place, out of 28 states that participate in the program Women Builders of Peace (Mucpaz), with 214 networks in the 60 municipalities, integrating 8,208 women and allies,


Photo: Courtesy – State Government

(Click here for the original article in Spanish.)

Questions related to this article:

Protecting women and girls against violence, Is progress being made?

Is there progress towards a culture of peace in Mexico?

Those responsible for installing, training and monitoring all the networks that are carried out in the state are the Executive Commission of the State Public Security System, as it forms part of the “Prevention of Family and Gender Violence” project, of the National Institute of Women and the Executive Secretariat of the National Public Security System.

Read more: Sesnsp recognizes Tlaxcala as example of peace-building in the country.

Making women aware of their rights, promoting gender equality, detecting the main problems in each environment, proposing solutions, promoting solidarity and community work, among other actions, are the main work of these networks.

The municipalities with the most networks are: Huamantla, with 27; Tlaxcala, with 24; Ixtacuixtla, with 23; Tlaxco, with 13 and Apetatitlán, with nine. 32 municipalities have from seven to two, and 23 only one.

Other Mucpaz networks are those of policewomen, civil protection, at the National Pedagogical University of Apetatitlán, another at the Tetlatlahuca Technical High School 47, in addition to that of women with relatives with autism. All of them share the purpose of preventing family violence. and gender, through strategies focused on creating environments free of violence and promoting a culture of peace.

Latin America, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

Havana Book Fair urges a culture of peace for the development of peoples

EDUCATION FOR PEACE .

An article from TV Santiago

A panel on the intellectual production of the South was held today (February 12) at the XXXI International Book Fair in Havana, Cuba. It stressed the need to build a culture of peace based on the progress of the nations of the world.

Taking place at the Nicolás Guillén Hall of the San Carlos de La Cabaña Fortress, the conversation included the interventions of Patricia Ariza Flórez, Minister of Culture, Arts and Knowledge of Colombia; Aliou Sow, Minister of Culture and Historical Heritage of Senegal, and Enrique Ubieta, director of Cuba Socialista magazine.

Ariza Flórez pointed out that there cannot be a social change without a cultural change and that the government of Gustavo Petro is in this endeavor because it pursues, in addition to improvements in people’s living conditions, the search for peace.

She commented that in the South American country the war sustained by the State and armed groups for 60 years caused a fragmentation of the social fabric of Colombia as a nation.

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(Click here for the original Spanish version of this article.)

Question for this article:

Do the arts create a basis for a culture of peace?

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The actress and theater director also stressed that the construction of a culture of peace is essential to repair the damage that violence and massacres left on her land and that, for this, the knowledge of indigenous and Afro-descendant populations must be taken into account. .

“We want peace to become a way of being, staying and reacting, and in this sense the Group of 77 plus China, with Cuba at the forefront, has to work to stop regional and world conflicts such as the one between Russia and Ukraine,” she insisted.

Colombia, assured Ariza Flórez, has sufficient authority to speak of peace because it is building it.

She said that through art, which she considers an exercise in freedom and also responsibility, one can contribute to eliminating stigmas, mitigating the complex climatic situation that the planet is experiencing, and recognizing the contribution of the plurality of cultures on the continent.

Aliou Sow, the head of Senegalese Culture and Historical Heritage, explained that the arts can generate solutions to the problems of humanity, beyond serving as a way of denouncing.

She stressed that nations must get to know each other without superficialities in order to work together, honestly and freely for the sake of sustainable development.

She asserted that each culture must be considered dignified, without one prevailing over another, and all people dedicated to this sector must be involved in the fight against the problems that affect humanity. Responses and alternatives should be based on the most positive values.

The XXXI International Book Fair of Havana will take place until February 19 and, later, it will be transferred to the rest of the national territory to culminate on March 19 in Santiago de Cuba.

EDUCATION FOR PEACE, Latin America

Mexico: Initiative for a Law on Peace in Durango

.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..

An article by Juan Cardénas in El Siglo de Durango (translation by CPNN)

In order to strengthen respect for human rights, security and justice for all the people of Durango and to ensure that no place is left for violence, the State Congress will analyze an initiative to create the State Law for the Culture of Peace, as well as the creation of two Councils on the matter.


The peace agenda is part of the issues that are being considered by local deputies for the current regular session.

“It is not enough to increase the sanctions or aggravate punishments, but we must attack the origin of the criminal acts and provide the State and society with useful tools that guide us effectively to live in peace,” said local deputy Verónica Pérez Herrera .
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(Click here for the Spanish original of this article)

Questions for this article:

How can culture of peace be developed at the municipal level?

Is there progress towards a culture of peace in Mexico?

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Expanding the reasons for her initiative, the legislator referred to the culture of peace fostering values, attitudes and behaviors of respect, tolerance, equality, solidarity, dialogue and negotiation, strengthening harmonious coexistence and ties between individuals of the community and promoting a perspective that contributes to the construction of a just society.

“Peace not only consists in the absence of conflict but also its prevention, so it is up to all members of a society without distinction to seek and preserve respect and justice to achieve peace,” Pérez Herrera said before the meeting of the Congress.

The initiative seeks to establish a State Council that would be headed by the Secretary General of the Government and that groups together the public entities that have a direct impact on the formation of a culture of peace in society. These include the State Attorney General’s Office, the State Commission for Human Rights, the State Institute for Women, the Secretary of Public Security and the DIF System; as well as representatives of the private sector and civil society.

Also proposed is a Citizen Advisory Council for the Observance of the Culture of Peace, made up of citizens with experience in the matter, which will provide the organization with moral quality to issue opinions and recommendations regarding the actions to be carried out.

These will lead to the creation of the State Commission for the Promotion and Diffusion of the Culture of Peace, which will exercise the actions, plans, programs, projects and measures approved by the State Council and the Consultative Council, made up of representatives of both Councils.

DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION, Latin America