Roundtable
Thursday, October 29
6:00 pm
Hesburgh Center Auditorium
Reception to follow
“Latin American Democracy: Under Fire?”
What are the prospects for democracy in Latin America? More than a quarter century after democratization swept across the region, many Latin Americans feel democracy does not address their urgent, everyday needs. Growth rates are anemic, poverty and inequality widespread. Dissatisfied with conventional political leadership, some countries wrestle with new models of democratic governance while experts bemoan the loss of democratic checks and balances.
Four distinguished panelists come together to discuss if Latin American democracy is truly under fire—or if a new, Latin American form of democracy is rising to meet the region’s challenges.
Carolina Barco Isakson, Colombian Ambassador to the US and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Colombia
Daniel Brinks, Associate Professor of Political Science and Kellogg Institute for International Studies Faculty Fellow
Luis Cosenza, Hewlett Visiting Fellow for Public Policy, Kellogg Institute for International Studies, and Former Minister of the Presidency, Honduras (moderator & discussant)
Luis Ernesto Derbez Bautista, President, University of the Americas, Puebla, and former Minister of the Economy, Mexico
Biographies
Carolina Barco
Colombian Ambassador to the United States
Carolina Barco, Colombia’s ambassador to the United States since 2006, previously served as minister of foreign affairs. She has been director of city planning in Bogotá and adviser to the ministries of Development, Culture, and the Environment, as well as to the National Planning Department and Bogotá’s Mayor’s Office.
A consultant to the United Nations Development Program, she was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She holds a BA from Wellesley College and master’s degrees from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and the Instituto de Empresas de Madrid.
Daniel Brinks
Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame
Daniel Brinks works in comparative politics and public law, specializing in the role of the law and courts in guaranteeing democratic and constitutional rights. An associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, he has a primary regional interest in Latin America and is a faculty fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies.
He has published on issues such as judicial responses to police violence, the enforcement of social and economic rights, judicial independence, and the spread of democracy around the world.
Luis Cosenza
Hewlett Visiting Fellow for Public Policy, Kellogg Institute for International Studies
Luis Cosenza, the Hewlett Visiting Fellow for Public Policy at the Kellogg Institute, was previously minister of the presidency in Honduras. With 16 years of experience with development banks in Latin America and Africa, Cosenza was executive director for Central America and Belize on the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and worked with the World Bank. The former CEO of the Honduran state-owned power utility, Cosenza earned both his BA and PhD from the University of Notre Dame.
Luis Ernesto Derbez
President, University of the Americas, Puebla
Luis Ernesto Derbez is the president of the University of the Americas, Puebla, one of Mexico’s top institutions of higher education. He was Mexico’s minister of the economy (2000–02) and minister of foreign affairs (2003–06). More recently, he was president of the Center for Globalization, Competitiveness and Democracy at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey.
Derbez has worked and consulted for the World Bank Group, the Inter-American Development Bank, and an array of Mexican and international corporations. A member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, he holds a PhD in economics from the Iowa State University of Science and Technology.
