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Miami became the stage for Atlas Network’s traditional Liberty Forum & Freedom Dinner, an event that brings together pro-freedom leaders to discuss how to defeat bureaucracy, communism, undemocratic ideas.
In an exclusive interview with El American, Roberto Salinas, executive director of the Atlas Network’s Latin American Center, spoke about the scope of the forum, which brings together personalities such as Cuban activist Rosa María Payá, Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, Cuban singer Yotuel, Grammy winner for the song Patria y Vida (Homeland and Life), as well as a wide range of specialists in political, economic and social matters.
Salinas explained that the event has a Latin American focus, which is why he considers Miami to be the perfect location.
Liberty Forum Freedom Dinner: Atlas Network’s forum against autocracy
The Atlas Network executive highlighted the importance of starting the event with “the way forward to regain freedom,” after the Covid-19 pandemic recrudesced the autocratic instinct in the region.
“We have seen an extremely challenging environment, an economic collapse like nowhere else in the world; Latin America was the region that suffered the most from a collapse not only of our healthcare system and our social safety nets, but of that autocratic instinct that has emerged and that we see replicating with almost the same speed as Covid-19 itself,” he said.
Moreover, he added that autocracy “is no longer a right-wing or left-wing thing.” “We saw it in the elections in Honduras, in El Salvador with the crazy things Bukele is doing; in Mexico with Andrés Manuel López Obrador radicalizing his talking points; in Argentina with measures such as banning the purchase of airline tickets with credit cards. We are seeing a pure and simple autocracy.”
Salinas pointed out that, in addition to autocracy, bureaucracy is also sweeping the world and countries such as the United States are no exception to this. “We entered a zombie economy scenario. Several countries undertook a fiscal experiment that we had not seen before and this is beginning to affect inflation, restricting our freedom. It is already being experienced in Latin America and other arts of the world and now it is being seen in the United States.”
“Our goal is to start this conversation and begin to talk about the way forward on how to recover reason and high public debate. Personally, my hope is rooted in how to help our brothers and sisters in Cuba so that they can finally embark on the road to a free Cuba,” he concluded.
Sabrina Martín Rondon is a Venezuelan journalist. Her source is politics and economics. She is a specialist in corporate communications and is committed to the task of dismantling the supposed benefits of socialism // Sabrina Martín Rondon es periodista venezolana. Su fuente es la política y economía. Es especialista en comunicaciones corporativas y se ha comprometido con la tarea de desmontar las supuestas bondades del socialismo