Former Chilean President Speaks at Salve

By: Sarah Araujo
Posted In: Campus News

On Sept. 29, 2009, Ricardo Lagos Escobar, former president of Chile, presented a lecture entitled “Today’s Latin American Challenges: What Lies Ahead after the Crisis?” as part of the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy’s lecture series.

A variety of people composed the audience. The ages ranged from teenage to older adult, from Salve Regina students to outside spectators. Mostly every seat in the room was filled, with a few reserved seats in the front. The atmosphere was formal and professional. Many people were honored to see, and hear from Escobar.

According to SalveToday, Escobar served as president of Chile from 2000-2006. He is currently a university professor-at-large at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies. During his term as president, Lagos aggressively pursued free-trade agreements, improved health care and education legislation and addressed the crimes of Augusto Pinochet’s military regime. In 2006, Escobar founded the Fundacion Democracia y Desarrollo (Foundation for Democracy and Development) and currently serves as its president. He also heads the Club of Madrid, an organization of former presidents whose mission is to promote democracy, and is a U.N. special envoy for climate change.

Escobar opened by stating that Latin America has so many crises; one could say it has a “PHD in crises.” His lecture focused on six primary challenges. These challenges included: democracy, security, technology and innovations, economic growth, education and health care and diversity. The challenge of democracy focused on the choice of who Escobar referred to as “actors,” the people involved in the role of government and globalization. Security was focused on the protection of individual countries from others and protection from terrorism. The economy, health care and education were noted as each needing to be reformed. Thankfully, this progression has recently been started. An interesting fact made by Escobar was that 70% of students at universities were the first generation in their families to attend college. In short, the last issue of diversity focused on gender, the debate on keeping the language of an area and the magnitude of migration.

Escobar concluded his lecture by noting the importance of the principles of our founding fathers. These principles include: truth, freedom, and justice. Comments and questions from the audience concluded the presentation and a reception outside of the lecture room followed.