2020 Latin America Liberty Forum: videos, articles, and more!

Missed the 2020 Latin America Liberty Forum Online? We've got you covered! Check out the highlights here.

Challenges and Opportunities for Freedom in the Wake of COVID-19

The global pandemic has changed the public policy landscape in dramatic ways. How can the liberty movement answer the new challenges? Are the new opportunities to push for deregulation, transparency, and fiscal responsibility?

Presenters: Dr. Roberto Salinas León (Atlas Network, Mexico) • Rómulo López (Atlas Network, United States) • Gabriela Calderón de Burgos (ElCato.org, Ecuador) • Manuel Molano (Instituto Mexicano para la Competitividad, Mexico) • Ignacio Munyo (Centro de Economía, Sociedad y Empresa, Uruguay)

Powerful Pivots During A Pandemic

Atlas Network’s partners are refocusing their efforts to provide policy solutions to the COVID-19 crisis that prioritize health and safety while respecting human freedom and dignity. Learn about three innovative projects that have been launched in recent months by partners of Atlas Network.

Facilitator: Gonzalo Schwarz (Archbridge Institute, United States)

Presenters: Guillermo Peña Panting (Fundación Eléutera, Honduras) • Alejandro Bongiovanni (Fundación Libertad, Argentina) • Fernanda Ballesteros (México Evalúa, Mexico)

Reviving Liberalism for the 2020's For too long our movement has been mischaracterized by our enemies as protecting privileges when our movement is, in fact, about ending cronyism and insisting on dignity and opportunity for everyone. Can we seize the present moment and reset the narrative as we work to constructively engage the specific challenges of COVID-19?

​Co-sponsored by Fundación Internacional para la Libertad

A special announcement on the new Mario Vargas Llosa Chair by Gerardo Bongiovanni (Fundación Internacional para la Libertad)

Presenters: Dr. Roberto Salinas León (Atlas Network, Mexico) • Álvaro Vargas Llosa (Fundación Internacional para la Libertad, Peru)

Liberalism in the Face of Widespread Uncertainty

During a pandemic, as economies crumble, in the midst of a cacophony of information and disinformation, citizens are particularly vulnerable to demagogues who promise results in exchange for more power. How can our liberal community be more effective in warning about these new roads to serfdom?

Speakers: Rómulo López (Atlas Network, United States) • Ricardo Gomes (Red Liberal de América Latina, Brazil) • Gonzalo Schwarz (Archbridge Institute, United States) • Axel Kaiser (Fundación para el Progreso, Chile)

Prosperity Solutions in a post-COVID World

The economic response to COVID has created serious hardship for many. Not all government policy aimed at alleviating that pain is advisable, particularly if it has lasting unintended consequences.

Speakers: Matt Warner (Atlas Network, United States) • Mónika Melo Guerrero (Instituto OMG, Dominican Republic) • José Beteta (Peruvian Taxpayers Association, Perú) • Agustín Etchebarne (Fundación Libertad y Progreso, Argentina)

Liberal Democracy in Crisis (Concurrent Breakout Session)

In his keynote talk at last year’s Latin America Liberty Forum, Manuel Hinds warned of a “weakening commitment to liberal democracy” throughout the region. The sudden shock of the pandemic, and the economic catastrophes in the region's most vulnerable societies, has fueled a full-fledged onslaught against human freedom, amid a wave of authoritarianism that is threatening the freedoms that underpin an open society. What are our partners and allies doing to challenge the emergence of this pernicious rise in autocracies and to offer a positive road back to liberal democracies?

Speakers: Antonella Marty (Atlas Network, Argentina) • Jhanisse Vaca Daza (Human Rights Foundation, Bolivia) • Félix Maradiaga (Fundación Libertad, Nicaragua) • Rocío Marina Guijarro (CEDICE Libertad, Venezuela)

Shifting the Currents of Culture toward Liberty (Concurrent Breakout Session)

One of the great challenges facing the voices of liberty is the development of new narratives and meta-narratives to embrace spaces in everyday culture about how freedom spurs innovation, progress and empowers everyday citizens with dignity. The time is now for channeling imagination, creativity and storytelling in new media, in literature and the arts, in convincing icons of culture to seize the day in becoming champions of freedom

Presenters: Ricardo Neumann (Fundación para el Progreso, Chile) • José Torra (Caminos de la Libertad, Mexico) • Dr. Gabriel Calzada (UFM, Spain) • Laided Salazar (Exiled Venezuelan; member of Fundación para el Avance de la Libertad, Spain)

Latin America Liberty Awards Announcement and Special Closing Message by Juan José Daboub (El Salvador)