Defending
Human Rights and Democracy in Latin America
Panelists
H.E.
Adolfo Aguilar Zinser (to be confirmed)
Mexico's Permanent Ambassador to the United Nations
H.E. Juan
Gabriel Valdés
Chile's Permanent Ambassador to the United Nations
Discussant
Professor Rosario Espinal
Director of the Latin American Studies Center
Temple University
WHEN: Tuesday, May 14, 4 P.M.
WHERE: Skylight
Conference Room
The Graduate Center
City University of New York
365 Fifth Avenue (5th @34th St., across from Empire State Bldg.)
This panel discussion probes the new activism in Latin America with regard
to human rights and democracy and its implications for regional political
dynamics in the Western Hemisphere. Processes of democratization provide
the basic context for new democratic activism and help explain it. Against
that context, the promotion of human rights and democratic governance has
emerged as an important issue and priority in several international forums,
including various 'democratic clauses' adopted by integration and cooperative
agreements, the recent Madrid summit on democratic transition and consolidation,
several Ibero-American summits, several inter-American organizations, and
the United Nations.
About Adolfo Aguilar Zinser (to be confirmed)
Mexico's Permanent Ambassador to the United Nations
Prior
to his selection as Mexico's ambassador to the United Nations, H.E. Adolfo
Aguilar Zinser was National Security Advisor and Commissioner of Law and
Order in the administration of President Vicente Fox. These appointments
reflected recognition as a champion of democratization and human rights
in Mexico. In 1997, he was elected Senator as an independent candidate of
the Partido Verde Ecologista Mexicano (PVEM). Earlier, he had been elected
to a seat in Congress as a member of the Partido de la Revolución
Democrática (PRD), following his role as spokesperson for the Cuauhtémoc
Cárdenas 1993 campaign for the presidency. Ambassador Aguilar Zinser's
public and political roles build on a distinguished career as professor
and researcher at UNAM, CIDE and several other Mexican and international
institutions. His published work includes several books and major essays,
as well as a long list of newpaper articles. He holds a M.A. from Harvard
University's J.F. Kennedy School of Government and a BA from El Colegio
de México.
About Juan
Gabriel Valdés
Chile's Permanent Ambassador to the United Nations
and Former Foreign Minister
Ambassador Juan Gabriel Valdés has held diverse positions in Chile,
including Head of the Vice Ministry for International Economic Affairs;
Director of the International Division of the Ministry of Finance; Coordinator
of the NAFTA Negotiating Team; and Lead Negotiator of the trade agreement
between Chile and Canada. Dr. Valdés holds a Ph.D. from Princeton
University, where he wrote a dissertation on the economic model implemented
in Chile during the Pinochet regime. He experienced exile in the United
States during Chile's military dictatorship. In Washington, he worked with
Chile's Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Orlando Letelier at the Institute
for Policy Studies. He taught and conducted research in Mexico's Latin American
Institute for Transnational Studies, the Economic Research and Development
Center (CIDE), and other institutions. After returning to Chile, he combined
professional and academic activities with active participation in the political
struggle for democracy. Dr. Valdés has worked as a consultant for
the UN's Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL)
and the UN Program for Development (PNUD). He has published several papers
on international relations, including relations between the United States
and Chile.
About Rosario Espinal
Rosario Espinal is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Latin American
Studies Center at Temple University in Philadelphia. She has published extensively
on democratization in Latin America, with an emphasis on the case of the
Dominican Republic. She is the author of Authoritarismo y Democracia en
la Política Dominicana (1987, 1994), co-editor of La República
Dominicana en el Umbral del Siglo XXI:Cultura, Política y Cambio
Social (1999), and the author of over 50 articles published in academic
journals and books in English, Spanish and French. She has been a research
fellow at the Swedish Institute for Social Research at the University of
Stockholm, a faculty fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies
at the University of Notre Dame, and a teaching fellow at the Latin American
Studies Center at Oxford University in England. She has been a Fulbright
Fellow to Argentina, Brazil and Peru, and she is currently an elected member
of the Executive Council of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA).
Prior registration is required: to reserve, reply to bildner@gc.cuny.edu
OR call 212 817-2096.
For information about the Bildner Center, visit
bildner.org.
Please let us know if you want names added or removed from this list.
