Researchers from Jesuit think-tank Centro Juan Montalvo say they would like the government to make gestures that demonstrate that it is sincere and truthful about its intentions for the proposed summit. The researchers say that these signs would be an explicit commitment by the government to revise the budget and postpone discussions on constitutional reform. The think-tank is concerned that it will be all talk and no action on the part of the government, as has happened in the past. For the Centro Montalvo, “the current crisis and its causes are not only the result of international factors, but they are also tied to the way the authorities are handling themselves: the corruption, failure to fulfill the laws and low social investment.”
They attributed this to public skepticism after having suffered the frustration of seeing how the authorities systematically break all agreements they reach – including many proposals for constitutional reform, the National Dialogue, Ten-Year Education Plan, commitment to increase 1% of the GDP for social reform made in the fiscal reform of 2005, the social security law, and the 2007 austerity law.
Centro Montalvo also said that contrary to the spirit of the summit are the government pardons that contradict the nation’s desire to put a stop to corruption, the 123 vice consuls appointed at the NY City Consulate, that contradict the need for austerity in a time of crisis and the national desire to fight clientelism, the call for a Congressional assembly to pass constitutional reform at a time when there are pressing national problems and the lack of regulation of the summit with the national budget.
“We believe that the summit should have been called in December, so that the proposals could be funded in the budget,” he said.