Foundation Seminars and Projects

The Grupo Vidanta Foundation, founded by Chavez Moran, funds projects and host international seminars on strategies to strengthen democracy, to promote economic and social development, and to reduce social inequality in Latin America. Recent projects include:

The Gap between Latin America and the United States: Political and institutional determinants of economic development.
Latin America: Integration or fragmentation?
The Bicentennial: Lessons and opportunities, 1910-2010
Contemporary Inter-American Relations

The Bicentennial Opportunity Project

The Grupo Vidanta Foundation sponsored this project designed to provide a critical evaluation of the road followed by Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Mexico over the last hundred years. Its aim is to identify common aspects as well as the differences that have characterized the historical evolution of these countries from 1910 to 2010. The research work had five main axes: politics, economy, society, international relations, and thought and culture. Additionally, the project aimed to provide an overview of current and future trends and prospects in each of the four countries in a number of fields.

The Foundation funded the project which included over forty studies presided over by Ricardo Lagos of the Fundación Democracia y Desarrollo. The national coordination of the projects in each of the four countries was entrusted to these renowned international universities and academic institutions:

Argentina Universidad Torcuato Di Tella
Chile Fundación Democracia y Desarrollo
Colombia Universidad Externado
México Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas

As the culmination of the project, the Grupo Vidanta Foundation sponsored the third international seminar titled “The Bicentennial Opportunity” on October 14th, 2010, in Mexico City. Seven books exploring the history of Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Mexico during the last century, as well as an analyzing the dilemmas and opportunities of the current time, were unveiled.

Speakers included dignitaries and former presidents of Chile, Colombia and Uruguay: Ricardo Lagos, César Gaviria and Julio Maria Sanguinetti, respectively; the Secretary General for the Organization of American States (OAS), Jose Miguel Insulza; the Secretary General of the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB), Enrique Iglesias; the president of the Carolina Foundation of Spain, Rosa Conde and the president of the Grupo Vidanta Foundation, Roberto Russell among others.

The seminar was held in conjunction with the Carolina Foundation of Spain, the Democracia y Desarrollo Foundation of Chile, the Center for Research and Teaching of Economics (CIDE) and the magazine Nexos.

Project books, edited by Editorial Santillana, were titled:

Argentina 1910-2010: Evaluation of the Century
Argentina 2010: Between Frustration and Hope
Chile: One Hundred Years of Light and Shadow (2 volumes)
Colombia 1910-2010
Mexico 1910-2010: The Trial of the Century
Mexico 2010: Mortgaging the Future

The seminar used these scholarly works as a background to propose a serious and open dialogue about the key challenges that lie ahead for Latin America in the coming years.

The Grupo Vidanta Foundation continues to sponsor other international seminars, conferences and projects to help develop a sustainable economic future for the people of Latin America.