Humanitas360 attends Latin American leaders meeting in Davos that recognizes the new Venezuelan president

The Humanitas360 Institute was present at the dinner for Latin American leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos. During the event, the presidents of Brazil and Colombia, along with several other heads of state of the continent, made the announcement that they recognized the president of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guaidó, as the interim president of the country, replacing Nicolás Maduro. For years, advocating for the rights and quality of life of the Venezuelan people has been a major concern of H360. The institute has already organized and supported initiatives that have fostered the reestablishment of democracy in the country.

After the dinner, the president of the Humanitas360 board and chairman at Itaú Latam, Ricardo Villela Marino, gave an interview to CNBC about the issue. “We believe that it is our duty to take a stand on what is taking place in Venezuela and help the people of that country, given the social, economic and political crisis that they are enduring. Now, it’s time to provide food, medicine, and help them to rebuild Venezuela in the coming years,” Marino said.

This is not the first time that Humanitas360 takes the opportunity to bring the Venezuelan issue to the World Economic Forum in order to attract attention to the crisis. In 2016, the Institute presented a series of news stories about the topic produced by Band TV in Brazil. However, the involvement of the institute with the issue had started even prior to that. In 2010, the president of Humanitas360, Patrícia Villela Marino, organized the first conference about the Venezuelan crisis, in which Manuela Bolívar, Yon Goicoechea, Marina Corina, Sara George, Ricardo Haussman and Moises Naim attended as speakers.

In 2016, as the humanitarian crisis of Venezuela dramatically worsened, Patrícia met with the then Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Serra, and the São Paulo State Deputy Carlos Bezerra Jr.(PSDB), who serves as the President of the Commission on Human Rights of the Legislative Assembly of São Paulo (ALESP, in the acronym in Portuguese)of the State of São Paulo, to seek support of Brazilian authorities for the Venezuelan people. In the same year, Humanitas360 supported a public hearing at ALESP. The session was attended by Venezuelan human rights activist Lilian Tintori and Maria Laura Canineu of Human Rights Watch.

In 2017, H360 organized in partnership with the Fernando Henrique Cardoso Foundation, the seminar “The Fight for Democracy in Venezuela and What Brazil Can Do.” The event included presentations and discussion panels, in which Brazilian ex-president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Venezuelan deputy Manuela Bolívar, Bolivian ex-president Jorge Quiroga, and the Human Rights Watch researcher Tamara Taraciuk, participated. In the same year, the vice-president of H360, Piero Bonadeo, was one of the speakers at the public hearing on the Venezuelan crisis organized by the Commission of Human Right of the Legislative Assembly of the State of São Paulo.

In 2018, the Humanitas360 Institute supported the Fernando Henrique Cardoso Foundation in organizing the panel discussion entitled “The Humanitarian Crisis in Venezuela and the Role of Brazil.” The event was attended by Venezuelan David Smolansky (elected mayor of El Hatillo in 2013, and removed from office by the regime of Nicolás Maduro in 2017) and the Brazilian general Eduardo Pazuello, coordinator of the Humanitarian Logistics Task Force in the State of Roraima (a state in the north of Brazil that borders Venezuela).