Dear Colleagues and friends, We meet again after our very

Dear Colleagues and friends,
We meet again after our very successful congress in Rotterdam, this time in a part of
the world that I feel very close to me, Latin America. Throughout the years I have
travelled extensively throughout the region, both as Foreign Minister of my country
for the regular Iberian American summits, and when I was younger on a bicycle
through North and Central America or walking the beautiful region of the Andes
further down. Agradecemos muchisimo a nuestros amigos Mexicanos de Nueva
Alianza y de Caminos por la Libertad su gran acogida en Mexico, y en su capital
Mexico Distrito Federal, donde nos sentimos como en casa. En nombre de los
muchos liberales del mundo aqui representados en este sexagesimo congreso de la
Internacional Liberal deseo que este congreso represente un antes y un despues en
el pensamiento liberal y en nuestro objetivo de encontrar soluciones liberales a los
retos del siglo XXI.
We gather in a proud and vibrant city with a long history. A multicultural symbol of
the history of the world, with its violent encounters, its wars, its empires. Liberal
International, founded two years after the end of World War II and at the outset of
the Cold War is an organization that offers a new path and new ideas of human
coexistence for the world, of trade and openness, of equality of opportunity, of
respect for and promotion of individual liberties and human rights. Mexico city is
also at the heart of a republic and of a continent that cherishes liberal principles and
values even if the struggle to achieve them in full has sometimes been hard. I remind
my colleagues that the world liberal in a political context originated in the Cadiz
Cortes over two hundred years ago when representatives from all the Latin
American world gathered and enacted a Liberal Constitution. We are here to be
inspired by all our Latin American liberal friends and to inspire; we are here today
to learn from each other and to exchange experiences, knowledge, good practices,
and liberal ideas.
Our 60th congress’ theme is Liberalism in the XXIst Century. In my speech in
Rotterdam I announced that we would gather at Oxford to reflect on the challenges
and opportunities that this new epoch brings to Liberals. We have done that, thanks
particularly to the Friedrich Naumann Foundation who have also worked tirelessly
to make this Congress in Mexico City a success. I thank them wholeheartedly. We
face, ladies and gentleman, new forms of philosophy that are constructed in
opposition to the liberal paradigms that have been so good for mankind. Some minidictators of the apprentice variety argue for illiberal democracy, and consider that
once we have elected (more or less freely) a leader there is no accountability or
freedoms to be sought. Others in the name of some twisted concept of religion want
to cancel any appeal to reason and glorify suffering and death. Many use populism to
lure fellow human beings into poverty. We must proclaim high and loud our liberal
credo, one that is easy to understand: one of freedom for people in their lives, one of
freedom of expression, of thought, of religion, of the press, of trade. Nations who
trade together, who depend on each other, have a much more difficult time to go to
war with each other. I encouraged you in the course of the following days to reflect
on these issues and renew our message of freedom, our liberal message for the XXIst
century.
Thank you very much.
Juli Minoves
President, Liberal International