(QCOSTARICA) President Carlos Alvarado called on Tuesday, September 15, during the celebration of Independence, to protect democratic institutions.
“We do not want to have the absence of things to say ‘too bad we didn’t fight for them before.’ It is a moment to preserve our democratic institutions with force, democracy as a central element of our human development.”
“We must protect the independence of powers, respect between powers and joint work between powers as something that makes our democracy great. We must respect judicial independence because it is also one of the strengths of our democratic system; and the first power of the Republic (Congress) must continue to represent the citizenship in the plurality that this country has, a country with different creeds, different ethnic groups, the first power of the Republic must pick up those wishes,” said the president.
“Among the three powers of the Republic, added to the electoral power, we must be aware of our responsibility and not to overstep our powers while complying with democracy,” said Alvarado.
After those words, the president also spoke about the role of the press in democracy.
“The other great power of the Republic, one that is not reflected as such, but that we see in communication, today has another of those great challenges. We live in times when truthful, real, useful communication has to compete with false information, with phenomena that affect democracy”.
“Today, more than ever, the exercise of communication and the exercise of journalism is a fight for and for democracy, and it is an exercise that is at risk.
“The veracity, the opposition of ideas, the healthiest democratic exercise is today as necessary as those who understood not only the importance of the separation of powers, and the balance between them, but the need for a press and communication that is there for and for the people, for and for transparency, for and for the truth,” concluded President Alvarado.
The ceremony commemorating 199 years of Costa Rica’s independence took place Tuesday morning in the Parque Nacional (National Park) in San Jose.
Monday night, Alvarado, the First Lady and his two Vice-Presidents, held a virtual cabinet session from the city of Cartago, following the arrival of the Independence Torch.
Traditionally, the full cabinet and honored guests attend the ceremony, but COVID has changed that this year.
The moment when the tallest building in the world, as of 2020, Burj Khalifa, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, at 828-meter (2,717 ft) tall, is illuminated with the flag of Costa Rica in commemoration of the 199 years of Costa Rican independence.
Momento en que el edificio más alto del mundo se ilumina con la bandera de Costa Rica en conmemoración de los 199 años de independencia costarricense. Lea más en https://t.co/3PycGSDz69 Video: Burj Khalifa pic.twitter.com/mJn6dpxGhW
— La Nación (@nacion) September 15, 2020
Looking forward to 2021, for the 200th!
