We trust in Brazil and the Brazilians!

Brazilian men and women are not the only ones who are surprised by the constant revelations of deep and extensive financing relationships of certain private groups with many of the Brazilian political parties and leaders. That feeling is shared by all of us who accompanied and collaborated in the great and solid advances in social, environmental and political rights that the country had won in recent years.

That those hard-won gains appear to be put at risk by the violation of the necessary independence of interests between the world of politics and that of private initiative is a red flag for all the democracies on our continent.

In all organizations in Latin America committed to sustainable, inclusive and just development, we support Brazilian men and women in building new models to demonstrate the viability of a political practice that is truly participative, transparent, inclusive and just.

But, more especially, we are confident that Brazilian organizations will ensure that the practice of politics is effectively oriented and controlled by democratic rules and institutions solidly anchored in the citizens’ Constitución of 1988 and in the legal structure that protects the functioning of the State of Law in the country. Nothing less than that is acceptable for a Brazil that has historically faced, with courage and creativity, inequality, extreme poverty, deforestation and violence, among so many other serious challenges.

Those institutional structures and mechanisms that safeguard the legality of public and private practices must be strengthened to allow them to investigate fully and in accordance with law such crimes as are committed, and penalize those responsible, regardless of who or where they may be. There should be a strengthening of the national reflection on the legitimacy of any stay in power, necessarily deriving from the origin of the public mandate and from the actions vested therein. A great number of lessons from Latin America’s recent history show us the effects of criminalizing and repressing the universal right to demonstrate, contrary to channeling it through mechanisms of public debate and deliberation.

That process should result in both the perfecting of legal and administrative regulations and a greater cohesion of the national social fabric, necessary to prevent this sort of violations of the political-democratic rules of the game that only penalize the most vulnerable.

At this time, together with the Ethos Institute and other organizations in the public, private and organized civil society sectors, Fundación Avina is co-creating the participatory design of a system of Integrity for Brazil, proactive in the betterment of Democratic and Republican processes of planning and implementation of public policies, by consolidating advances and correcting the numerous flaws of a clientelistic and opportunist culture that still shapes many dimensions of the country’s political system.

The same type of example emerges from the numerous processes of political innovation taking place in Brazil and throughout Latin America, spearheaded by young people who wish to recover the democratic promise under other premises, other practices and other values. Far from anti-politics, they speak of how to recover politics.

At the Fundación Avina, we understand that this is one of the most critical moments – an unparalleled opportunity – for an innovative pact among the more than 210 million Brazilian men and women concerning a project for the country to actually ensure hope, incomes, inclusion, voice, education, health, environment and public assets for all.

We and all of Latin America want the innovative and creative Brazil that has always inspired us!