Santiago, 05/07/2023 (II mandato)
Madam Rector, Professor Rosa Devés Alessandri,
Mister Minister,
Madam Prorector, Professor Alejandra Mizala Salces,
Mesdames and Misters Vice Rectors,
Dear Mesdames and Misters Deans,
Members of the Faculty,
Dear students,
I am glad to be here amongst you as a guest of such a prestigious and long-standing academic institution and the bulwark of the republican values of Chile and of the Americas ever since its foundation in 1842.
In this respect, let me point out that 21 out of the 33 Presidents of the Republic of Chile – including the two Presidents Alessandri, forebears ofMadam Rector – were educated in these classrooms.
The first Rector Magnificus, Andrés Bello, was one of the most eminent humanists – legislator and fine jurist – that Latin America has had in the 19th century. His Civil Code represents one of America’s most innovative and influential legal endeavors of the time.
Thank you for the courteous words addressed to me.
It is an honor for me to be here in Santiago and it will be a great pleasure to visit Punta Arenas this afternoon, on the southern tip of this marvelously longitudinal Country.
Academic authorities,
Dear students,
Italy has always had a profound friendship with Chile, also nurtured by the presence of a large community of Italian descent, which is an integral part of the Chilean people, as well as by shared democratic values and the Rule of Law and a common action to protect human rights, also at international level.
In this respect, allow me to recall the Museum of Memory and Human Rights promoted by Presidents Bachelet and Lagos.
We are here referring to universal values that have dramatically marked the history of this Country.
A history that, fifty years ago, interlaced with that of the Italian Republic, merging with it to form a memory that is today our common heritage. It goes to prove the intensity with which the Italian people experienced the serious violation of people’s freedoms and rights committed by the military dictatorship.
Many citizens of my Country, especially youths, as well as large portions of Europe’s democratic public opinion, was profoundly struck by the Chilean events of the time.
I consider it an honor to be able to bear witness to the slaughter of President Salvador Allende at only two months from the 50th anniversary of his death.
I would also like to acknowledge the great significance of the progressive return to democracy following the referendum of October 1988, and of the Operation Truth on the places of illegal detention and torture.
The value of memory in the history of a Country – any country – is a founding element of its identity. So, in Europe as in Latin America, it is necessary to forcefully say No to all forms of negationism, the breeding ground for authoritarian nostalgia; the “never again!” that follows a mature Nation’s conscious realization must always go hand in hand with the courage of truth.
Starting from that 11th of September 1973, the Italian democracy’spolitical forces and institutions lived side-by-side with the Chilean people and their woes, not forgoing diplomatic sanctions but making sure that the Italian Embassy here in Santiago continued to be fully operational thus becoming, in the years following the golpe, a point of reference for thehundreds of people persecuted, offering them refuge and saving their lives.
Allow me to recall a telegram – at the time classified and dated 14 October 1973 – from Aldo Moro, the then Italian Foreign Minister, to the Italian Embassy in Chile giving authorization to offer asylum also to non-Italians, contravening routine procedures.
For many Chileans, reference to Santiago’s toponymy – such as Calles Miguel Claro or Clemente Fabres – became synonymous to asylum, protection against torture and repression, of a path – painful but life-saving – towards exile.
While formally speaking, the ties between the Republic of Chile and the Republic of Italy, suffered a downturn, human relationships became stronger day by day.
Our media, our Parliament, political parties and trade unions, civil society movements, and the Catholic Church, feverishly followed the news coming out of your Country.
Numerous were the opportunities for Italians to hear the voice of exiles who later became full members of the ruling classes of Chile’s democracy while intellectuals and famous Chilean musical groups contributed to keeping alive the image of a Chile other than that of the military dictatorship.
Today, at the Italian Embassy, we will commemorate the victims of the repression with a heart-felt homage to the memory of Lumi Videla, a student precisely of this University who was barbarically killed by order of the dictatorship and thrown over the fence surrounding the seat of our diplomatic mission as if her tortured body were tantamount to waste to be discarded.
Madam Rector,
Dear professors,
Dear students,
Chile and Europe – and especially Italy – have always had close intellectual ties which turned out to be mutually beneficial through their respective exchanges and contributions.
Historical ties, deeply rooted in the life and memory of our peoples,unite the two continents.
Without falling in the stereotype of seeing Latin America as the “extreme West” but, on the contrary, capturing all its complexity, which also derives from the heritage and presence of native peoples, it is easy to see that the two continents seem to be mutually complementary.
Europe, which owes much of its development to Latin America, has not always been capable of looking at this continent with sufficient far-sightedness and perceptiveness.
Certainly not in the 20th century, burdened by two bloody European wars which nonetheless, over the decades, led to conceiving the first League of Nations (with the Republic of Chile among the founding members) and later, to disentitle the causes that had led European nations to wage war against each other, and to develop the integration process that has given life to the modern-day European Union.
The socio-political scene is often late in realizing new situations and acknowledging deep-reaching changes.
This is what largely happened with globalization.
And I’m not especially referring to the more important issue of trade.
Free trade is of course a relevant part of the liberties that nurture the relations between Countries; and it is the element that increases the interdependence between States and returns conflict to its authenticallyreckless nature.
We can witness it today, in the consequences of the geopolitical tensions that derive from the Russian Federation’s senseless aggression against Ukraine.
Rather, I am referring to the global dimension of information that has been definitively advanced through the development of telecommunications and information and digital technologies, the elements that have dampened if not annulled the traditional limitations and notionsof space and place, turning events into contemporary live experiences for people all over the world.
We have had to first suffer through the negative experience of the pandemic and then of the war before understanding that distances become insignificant in such an interconnected world and that global crises – no matter where they originate – reverberate on everybody, with consequences that are difficult to forecast and that require measures to be adopted by entities such as the World Health Organization, or concerted between the authorities of different countries.
The continuously unfolding change processes that are ongoing amongst public opinions, influenced by Over The Top command decisions, even within international fronts, need to reaffirm common rules based on the respect for the dignity of people and communities.
We need advocates for good causes, capable of standing up to thechallenges posed to the survival of the whole of humankind, shunning the mere logic of conflict and the drive towards military confrontation, such as in the case of Russia’s recent aggression against the independence of Ukraine, which divert huge resources needed for human development.
It is a test of responsibility especially addressing situations that, as in the European Union and Latin America, can and must express messages and initiatives of peace, compliance with international law, and respect for social justice and development.
Latin America and Europe together can become these advocates for good causes as they share a vision of the world in which international relations are based on a multilateral approach and on building common institutions.
Multipolarity proposes bilateral dialogue and cooperation with giants such as the USA or China.
Everyone is quite aware of the potential value, in the outcome ofinternational events, of profiling a partnership between the nations of the two continents that share the same values and have common multilateral experiences based on equality and mutual respect.
Latin America and Europe together configure key players.
Ever since it was born, the European Union has been able to disseminate stability, and the value of democracy, peace, and prosperity beyond its original nucleus, by progressively expanding the participation of its citizens and strengthening their sense of unity and by acting as an experience to be taken as reference also for other parts of the world, such as in the case of the African Union.
Latin America succeeded to spearhead peace efforts through thetreaty signed after the 1962 Cuba crisis, which turned the continent into the world’s largest nuclear-free zone. OPANAL, the Agency for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean that was established under the Treaty of Tlatelolco in 1967, was quite exceptionally also ratified by Countries that, like the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Russia, possess nuclear weapons although they committed to comply with the Treaty and not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against the parties to that Treaty.
This is the value of enhancing and strengthening political dialogue between the two continents and 2023 offers the opportunity that we must grasp to re-establish a dialogue that we would like to be more intense and constant.
In a little over a week, the Summit of the Heads of State and Governments of the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) is scheduled to be held on the 17th and 18th of July.
Italy feels committed to converting this meeting into a turning point in the strategic partnership between our continents to tackle the challenges,present and future, consistently with its own sensitivity towards Latin America, which led to the establishment of the Italo-Latin American International Organization (IILA) in 1966.
Latin America and the European Union comprise a third of the members of the United Nations Assembly and share similar sensitivities in international fora: multilateralism, human rights, free economy, social inclusion, and sustainable development to fight climate change.
In a world of giants, Latin America and the European Union represent 14% of the world population and 21% of the gross world product.
The two continents are among the leading producers of food products and are jointly responsible for assuring food security to all the people in the world.
Europe’s impressive tightly knit network of commercial and political partnership agreements with 27 of the 33 Latin American and Caribbean States has succeeded to boost trade between the two regions by 40% in the four-year period from 2018 to 2022.
Foreign direct investment by EU members in Latin America amounted to almost 700 billion in 2021, thus exceeding that of China, India, Japan, and Russia taken together.
It is a fact that we must keep more closely in mind and that deserves a quantum leap at political and institutional level.
Now is the time for a strategic partnership; the time is ripe.
The challenges that we must meet on both fronts are urgent, global, and multifaceted.
The two continents together can vouch for liberty and progress in this multipolar world.
The proposal that the European Union calls the “New agenda for EU and Latin America and the Caribbean relations” to be presented at the CELAC-EU Summit arises from these simple considerations.
First of all, it is necessary to boost the mutual political commitment through open, constant, and high-level dialogue at summits, but also in theexchange of visits, points of view and talks.
The visit recently paid here in Santiago and across the region by thePresident of the European Commission, Von der Leyen, goes in the right direction.
If, in these past few years, many circumstances underlie the lessamount of dynamism in seeking opportunities to meet, the situation must now be remedied.
Secondly, it is necessary to strengthen the legal architecture of our relationship, quickly and successfully finalizing the partnership agreements currently being negotiated in addition to the ones already closed and awaiting ratification.
These agreements are not only commercial in nature but can have a strategic reach in the global order of the future if we succeed to fully exploit their potential.
But we have to go even further than that.
I am confident about the process to update the Partnership Agreement between Chile and the European Union, which we hope will be signed by the end of the year. I hope it will be used to drive and serve as a model to make more speedy progress also in the negotiations with Mexico and in the contracts with Mercosur.
There is one aspect of the Santiago-Brussels Agreement that, in my opinion, deserves to be highlighted: I am referring to the fact that the economic clauses need to be accompanied by joint commitments and objectives, for example, promoting on-the-job safety and social standards, effective gender equality, a greater and more inclusive participation of civil society, and higher environmental standards.
All this makes it all the more evident that we are aware that the partnership we are aiming for in the present and future is broader, more ambitious and articulate in scope than in the past. It is grounded on the shared values of open and democratic societies as well as on the protection of civil, social, and environmental rights.
The governments and the enterprises of the private sector must undertake this path together in order to create a socially equitable and sustainable wellbeing.
The poverty that we all want to combat does not only imply a lack of means.
It also implies lacking protection against the effects of climate change.
If we want to avoid its gloomy consequences; if we want to hand down to future generations a planet in which humanity can live and prosper in peace, we must, as of now, make decisive progress towards a sustainable economy, free of net greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
Several tools are already available: the EU’s “Global Gateway” for example will enable the achievement of an ambitious agenda financed with public and private investments to promote tangible objectives such as expanding 5G to the most remote areas of Latin America, designing eco-friendly means of transport, improving health facilities, and increasing joint research efforts.
We have before us numerous cooperation opportunities. Chile is undoubtedly committed to combating climate change and we are very much impressed by President Boric’s project to make the Country carbon-neutral by 2050.
Together with Chile and our other Latin American partners, we wish to accelerate the twin transition as a long-lasting and sustainable solution to make all Countries resilient.
We share the interest for the potential of green hydrogen, for example, and for the development of shared technologies contributing to maximize Chile’s extraordinary resources.
We can similarly tighten our cooperation in the truly strategic field of the value chain of minerals that are crucial for the transition.
Creating reliable and sustainable supply chains that respect the ecosystems from which we extract these valuable raw materials is in our common interest and is a key element in producing the renewable energy that we have promised young generations.
Last but not least, Latin America and Europe are called upon to make a greater joint effort in favor of the application of the Rule of Law, aware that there can be no sustainable, equitable, and inclusive development without justice and security.
It is now evident that globalization and interconnectivity do not only refer to the life of States, peoples, and social societies. Criminal organizations of all types have surreptitiously infiltrated the folds of globalization by creating networks and alliances that undermine the growth perspectives of our Countries. All of them, not one excluded.
It is therefore our common interest to consolidate the Rule of Law, making public institutions stronger and more resilient in order to be better protected against the pressure of corruption, and therefore freer and more transparent in meeting the expectations of our citizens.
Together with Latin American Countries, we have dedicated an Italian legal diplomacy program to the memory of judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, who, before others, understood the transnational nature of organized crime and its perniciously fatal effect on a system – democracy – that is based on the trust between voters and the elected.
It makes up a heritage of experiences that the Italian Republic is willing to make available to friendly Countries, either on a bilateral basisor in the broader context of the EU’s support programs.
Only if we join forces will we succeed to squash the pervasive, ill-omened influence of criminal infiltrations.
Madam Rector,
Academic Authorities,
Dear students,
The present global scenario is very uncertain. We are witnessing the multiplication of crises, attempts to undermine our international order grounded on rules and multilateralism.
The challenges are not limited to international peacekeeping and security but pervade several sectors: energy, food, lawfulness, the Rule of Law, correct information, and the protection of fundamental liberties.
In the face of challenges of this entity, no one is capable of coming up with effective answers without a context of a broad and deep-reaching cooperation.
Today, there are numerous crisis zones in the world. The causes of instability are deep-rooted.
Together we can promote an approach to peace capable of englobing the complexity of the present time.
Together, Latin America and the European Union, will succeed to reaffirm the urgency of inclusive peace processes, the centrality of the United Nations, and the effectiveness of multilateralism.
Madam Rector,
Dear Professors,
Dear students,
as indicated by Gabriela Mistral, an extraordinary Chilean writer and the first Latin American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (Consul of the Republic of Chile in Naples in 1951, after the Fascist regime had denied her credentials for Genoa twenty years earlier, in 1931, for being a woman), we can have “the strength of the waves of the sea, which make each retreat a new starting point.”
I like to think that this 2023 can represent a new starting point for us.
Latin America, Italy, and Europe not only share a past rich in common memories.
Their relationships are characterized by a present of converging sensitivities and interests and a future of mutual wellbeing.
We have to work on this together.
Thank you for your kind attention.