CIAO DATE: 12/2009
January 2006
Historically, democracy in Latin America has tended towards crises and discord. Since the late twentieth century, however, a powerful current began to prevail over the closed visions of sovereign states. The globalization of democracy took over, and at the United Nations democracy was described as a human right. It is in this spirit that the Organization of American States has been seeking consensus and the most appropriate mechanisms by which to defend democracy in the region. In the framework of the Inter-American democratic system, the hemispheric community drew up and implemented several instruments that were also intended as a call for joint action in defense of democracy.
Resource link: Collective Defense of Democracy: Concepts and Procedures [PDF] - 262K