The presidential candidate for the PRD and the Acuerdo de Santo Domingo, José Francisco Peña Gómez, said upon opening the Conferencia del Comité de la Internacional Socialista para America Latina y el Caribe, over which he presides, that if the unequal distribution of wealth and poverty continues to grow, it will bring the threat of more social unrest, as can be read from data of the United Nations. Participating in the conference were Luis Ayala, Rodrígo Borja Ceballos, former president of Ecuador, Rolando Araya, president of the Partido de Liberación Nacional de Costa Rica, Alfonso Guerra, ex-vice president of Spain, and Raul Alfonsín, former president of Argentina.
In his speech Dr Peña related the history of the Internacional Socialista, reminding his audience of the previous meeting held in Santo Domingo 16 years ago. He also spoke strongly against neo-liberal policies, saying that they have failed in Latin American and Eastern Europe. He commented on how in Eastern Europe the countries abandoned communism for a primitive and savage capitalism that has eliminated the limited social conquests that balanced the lack of privacy and liberty tolerated by citizens under the communist regimes. He said that the return of the former communists to power with the principals of social democracy is a proof that liberal policies are not enough to satisfy the aspirations for justice among people, if these are not accompanied by measures that foster the welfare of the citizens.