MIAMI.- In alliance with the Miami Dade College and the Democratic Initiative of Spain and the Americas (IDEA)the Mezerhane Chairfounded in 2016, has annually promoted debate spaces to address topics of high educational impact on social, political and economic issues that affect Latin American countries.
Every year, notable figures such as former heads of state, opinion leaders and journalists from around the world meet in a forum to discuss trends in Democracy, Rule of Law and Human Rights in the region.
During these years, former presidents such as Felipe González and José María Aznar (from Spain), Miguel Ángel Rodríguez and Laura Chinchilla (Costa Rica), Andrés Pastrana (Colombia), Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle have participated in the presidential dialogues of IDEA and the MDC. (Chile), Jamil Mahuad and Osvaldo Hurtado (Ecuador), Luis Alberto Lacalle (Uruguay) and Jorge Tuto Quiroga (Bolivia), among others.
The topics discussed during this annual event organized by the Miami Dade College have been reflected in a collection of 10 books written in Spanish with translations into English, published under the motto Cátedra Mezerhane, in which the conclusions and opinions of the different personalities are developed and explored.
First Book
“Principles of the Rule of Law” It is the first book of the Mezerhane Chair. It is a historical review of the birth and consolidation of liberal democracies in the Western Hemisphere, written by Venezuelan lawyer and professor Allan R. Brewer Carías, one of the most important figures of public law in Latin America.
This first issue has an English edition of “Principles of the rules of law”, whose author is also Professor Allan R. Brewer Carías. In this version, Brewer Carías explains how the rule of law, as a system of political organization of contemporary society in the Western world, is governed by a Constitution, governing and exercising public power subject to controls in accordance with the principle of separation of powers, and with full subjection to the Constitution and the laws.
On the other hand, in the book “Independence and the Constitutional State in Venezuela: as the work of civilians” Essays by great figures such as Allan R. Brewer-Carías, Enrique Viloria and Asdrúbal Aguiar are compiled, about the beginning of the process of independence and construction of the Constitutional State in Venezuela and all of Hispanic America developed between 1810 and 1812. The text contains reflects that it was a process that was entirely a civil work and not a military one.
To the group of 10 study books of the Mezerhane Chair is added “The political city, the place of democracy in a globalized world”, an essay written by Lawyer and Master in Political Science Fortunato González Cruz. This edition is based on the hypothesis that the city is the main area of politics, because it is the place where the majority of the planet’s inhabitants live. Which means an individual and collective commitment of its inhabitants, which in the 21st century has become a challenge.
In this essay the author aims to reflect on the quality of the city and its politics, which compromise the well-being and prosperity of its inhabitants. He proposes that the city is a complex system of trustworthy relationships that involves behaviors typical of coexistence, which is trust, the sense of belonging and therefore commitment.
Democracy
Another of the books published under the seal of the Mezerhane Chair on this topic is called “The collapse of the rule of law and the fight for democracy in Venezuela”, also written by Professor Brewer-Carías. This brings together all the essays written in English during the last six years, which analyze the most important decisions that violate the Constitution and the rule of law, issued by the Venezuelan authoritarian regime through the Supreme Court of Justice ( TSJ).
In the book “Quality of democracy and expansion of human rights”the Venezuelan jurist, politician and writer Asdrúbal Aguiar supports an optimistic hypothesis regarding the crisis of democracy, and indicates that this “may be indicating, downstream and deep, the general disenchantment of people with politics, but in the positive, it can represent the demand for a better quality of democracy and politics.”
Among other notebooks is “Fake News- Threat to democracy?”, which features works by Luis Almagro, César Cansino, Ricardo Trotti and Asdrúbal Aguiar. As the title indicates, it addresses the potential that this phenomenon has to damage democratic systems, breaking into the social media scene, especially in electoral periods, through the spread of rumors or lies regarding political events.
Human rights
“The human right to peace”also written by the renowned Asdrúbal Aguiar, brings together two essays on this right: the first is a review and expansion carried out in 2000, on the texts of the speeches given by the author before the UN General Assembly in 1997 and in Geneva, in 1998, which concludes as a memory of his experience in leading the Drafting Committee appointed by UNESCO in order to debate a frustrated project for a universal declaration on peace as a human right.
The second contemplates a writing prepared ten years later, which was the result of the conference he gave at the request of the Venezuelan-Israeli Cultural Institute and the rector of the Metropolitan University, rereading the question of the human right to peace.
The book “Political reform – electoral and institutional innovation in Latin America (1978-2016)”written by the intellectual jurist and political scientist of Argentine origin Daniel Zovatto, who has a long professional career with experience in democracy, governance and elections in Latin America, is based on careful and in-depth research, which analyzes in detail the intense process of political reform -electoral and institutional innovation that has taken place in the 18 countries of Latin America since the beginning of the Third Democratic Wave in our region (1978) to December 31, 2016.
In the most recent of the copies “Loss and Recovery of the Essequibo”, by Professor Asdrúbal Aguiar, two essays or booklets are collected for educational purposes on the Loss and Recovery of the Essequibo. One is the article from Papel Literario published by the newspaper El Nacional of Caracas, which presents with the challenging title “This is how we lost the Essequibo”, how Venezuela’s eastern territorial side bordering British Guiana was taken away from Venezuela during the 19th century, after the Paris Arbitration Award of 1899.
The other is a detailed interpretation by the author of the 1966 Geneva Agreement, signed between Venezuela and Great Britain to resolve the territorial dispute currently raised before the International Court of Justice, in The Hague.
@Lydr05
Source: With information from the Mezerhane Chair and Diario las Américas
