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Fernandez receives Institute’s Award for Democracy and PeaceLA JOLLA – Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernandez was honored September 27 with the Institute of the Americas’ Award for Democracy and Peace during a ceremony attended by more than 200 people from 19 countries in the Western Hemisphere.

Institute President Jeffrey Davidow said Fernandez was chosen to receive the award “for his efforts to develop the economy of his own country and for his focus on reducing the negative effects of poverty on the Dominican people.”

Fernandez was the 12th Latin American president to receive the award since 1987, when Argentine President Raul Alfonsin received the Institute’s highest honor. Fernandez received the award during the inauguration of a week-long professional workshop at the Institute of the Americas focusing on 200 years of independence in Latin America. Almost 50 participants – government officials, academics, journalists and representatives of NGOs – from 15 countries in the region attended the seminar.

During the award ceremony, Davidow said Fernandez was being recognized “for his contributions to promoting democracy and the rule of law in the Dominican Republic, for his leadership in facilitating peaceful resolutions to conflicts in the region and in promoting rapid and effective assistance to Haiti in the wake of its devastating earthquake.”

Fernandez, one of the leading political figures in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, said “the transition to democracy has been a success story for all of Latin America.”

But he acknowledged that “democracy is in its infancy in Latin America. We are still beginning, still in a learning process.”

Fernandez receives Institute’s Award for Democracy and Peace“As the years have passed, there has been some disappointment by the people toward democratic governance,” Fernandez said. “Now, it doesn’t have to do with human rights. It doesn’t have to do with free and fair elections, which now take place regularly. It doesn’t have to do with freedom of movement. We have freedom of expression, constitutional rights, the participation of the opposition. All this is place in Latin America.”

“Now people want economic progress. What is missing in Latin America at this moment is a combination of the principles of liberal democracy with the aspiration of social justice. This means that we have to be effective in eradicating, or at least mitigating poverty, creating opportunities for all.”

Fernandez said Latin America must “work toward the continued strengthening of our democratic institutions that can guarantee us peace, that guarantees us democratic access to power, so that people like myself who come from humble origins, from low-income families, eventually become president.

“Latin America still remains the most unequal region in the world. We have become divided societies – wealth for the few and poverty for the majority,” Fernandez said. “We have to create a system of sustained economic growth that can transform into sustained economic development, with social well-being for the people. This is our challenge.”