Five former Latin America heads of state affirmed “the quality of democracy in Latin America has improved in the last decades, but it should be reinforced in order to avoid ‘ventures’ and to put a limit to corruption,” according to an El Confidencial report on November 12, 2015.

The former heads of state–Luis Alberto Lacalle and Carlos Mesa (Uruguay), Jaime Paz Zamora (Bolivia), Nicolás Ardito (Panama) and Vinicio Cerezo (Guatemala)–were addressing the Global Peace Leadership Conference in Brasilia, Brazil on November 12.

Carlos Mesa, former president of Bolivia (2003-2005), said “there is no credible republican process if there is a lack of separation of powers [among branches of government] and generalization of corruption.” He added, “Politicians don’t fall from Mars and they are always a product and reflection of societies.” He urged citizens to “understand that nobody is outside politics” and “the future of politics is everybody’s task.”

The conference, hosted at the University of Brasilia, was organized by the Global Peace Foundation and the Latin American Presidential Mission, which includes some twenty former presidents of the region.

For Full Report by Eduardo Davis in Spanish: