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The governor of Atlántico, Eduardo Verano, invited the 25 delegations of universities in the country participating in the XIX National Congress of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy, which, for three days, will discuss the topic ‘Democracy, Memory and Territory, in the northern headquarters of the Universidad del Atlántico, to the construction of social development processes that the territories require but that do not receive the appropriate responses due to the persistence of centralist policies.
Verano was part of the group of panelists who opened the congress, in which tribute was also paid to the career of more than 60 years of professional life of the lawyer and teacher Rafael Osorio Peña, together with the dean of the Faculty of Legal Sciences , Cristina Montalvo Velásquez; and the president of the Colombian Association of Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy, Asofides, Sergio De Zubiría Samper.
The significance of the event was highlighted by the governor and its coordinator, Uniatlántico teacher Javier Ferreira Ospino, who agreed that from jurisprudence, academia and the country’s thinkers can join in providing solutions to the requirements that are needed to that there are just, balanced and well-developed societies in everything that social and economic policies imply.
“It is an event of a high intellectual level and says a lot about how our own university is advancing. I had a presentation on the magic of words, the space territory of freedom, constitutional democracy and the constitutional rule of law as the guarantee of an open and pluralistic society, where we discussed, precisely, the principles, the foundations of our entire autonomous process,” said the president.
He added that the space fits within deep, clear philosophical parameters, which agree with the reason for seeking the region’s own autonomy, “if we want to govern our territory within parameters of independence, clarity, and economic growth such as the that we have been proposing.”
INVITATION TO CONVERSATION
Verano took advantage of his intervention to reiterate to those attending the Teatro de la Universidad del Atlántico the power that words have to overcome conceptual differences and seek solutions to conflicts, because it is a basic instrument in the search for coexistence and peace.
“Man has residence in the word. The richer and more decent the words with which the members of a civil society communicate, the more respect people have and their dignity is recognized. Respect for the word of others is an expression of recognition of their individuality and values. Listening to the other is seeing their reasons, because the word has light and helps us get out of the labyrinth that enslaves us and keeps us in the darkness,” noted the president.
Likewise, Verano explained the importance of knowing how to build territories, more than from its geographical and physical sense, from the point of view of community coexistence represented by the link between space, history and power.
“I invite you to talk about the territory as the space of our political power and our shared history, and for all our freedoms. Freedom is understood from several facets: those of modern freedom as autonomy, as the right of citizens themselves, of decentralized territorial entities of public law to exercise the government of their own affairs,” he noted.
He also insisted on analyzing the impact of the right to territorial autonomy, “which was stripped from us by political centralism through the destruction of the political sovereignty of the federal states, which is inalienable and does not prescribe; It is the right to sovereignty that is always in the spirit of the people. In other words, that we be treated as adults, as citizens in our own territories and not as subjects.”
Governor Verano also called for ideas to reestablish true democratic pluralism as a universal rule, aimed at achieving the transformations needed in the regions.
“The government of democracy needs multiple centers of power because democracy must be built from the bottom up and powers must be distributed. In this sense, democracy needs territorial autonomy for its functioning, legitimation and strength,” he stated.
He specified that a constitutional democracy constitutes the necessary condition for guaranteeing a plural and open society. “We are equal, but different. The tremendous inequality that reigns and governs our society has deep roots in the absence of the model of democracy that exists, a democracy that encourages and applauds the despotism of the majority.”
Governor Verano also referred to what the evolution of the Rule of Law represents, based on the universal culture of protection and guarantee of human rights for the construction of sovereignty and a universal culture of peace.
“It is a legal and political philosophy that states that the mission of the State is to be at the service of human rights, regardless of their different nature, and is based on recognizing that sovereignty resides only in the plural citizenship of society, and that citizenship “It has the ownership of a constituent power,” he said.
At the end of his participation in the beginning of the meeting of the country’s philosophers, Governor Eduardo Verano invited them to review the issue of memory in the territories, which contains aspects of injustice and authoritarianism.
“The departments were stripped of an inalienable right, such as sovereignty. As an act of justice with the memory of the victims, the citizens of the territories cry out and demand justice, and have their defense and promotion in the magic of the words of the philosophy of law, politics and social philosophy,” he concluded.
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