On Tuesday, Jesus Gracia, Spain's secretary of state for international cooperation and for Ibero-America, named what he thinks are the biggest problems facing Latin American democracies.

Gracia made an opening speech at the 25th anniversary of Spain's Aecid international development agency, EFE reports. The company held a forum on Latin America's democratic governability.

"There is a trend toward populism, toward easy solutions," Gracia said. "We're in a world that is more difficult to manage each day."

According to the Spanish official, governments in Latin America are finding it hard to agree. And according to Gracia, working on politics is needed to empower the democracies in Latin America.

"The governments are not what they were because power is more divided, and it's more difficult to create majorities and agreements," Gracia said.

Gracia also discussed the problem of inequality.

"It's a matter that concerns us all, a great universal problem," he said. "That is contrary to the stability of countries, of the middle class."

A third threat, Gracia said, is a lack of security. He said that the issue must be handled more "in the future" if Latin American democracies are going to have "quality."

"Unfortunately, security continues to be an enormous problem throughout Latin America," he said. "We see it in Mexico in the Iguala massacres. Governments and security forces are needed; there is a sensation of impunity."

In addition to Mexico, Gracia said violence from lack of security has entered the Southern Cone, including Argentina and Brazil, as well as Central America and Colombia.

Meanwhile, developers in Uruguay have found one way to combat crime: a mobile app called CityCop. CityCop allows users to send reports and photos to community members about various crimes, including robberies, vandalism, drugs and violence. Users can also speak with one another to learn more about reported dangerous activity. The app has its highest number of users in Uruguay, followed by Argentina with around 40,000 users, and then Brazil.

Ways to encourage democracy, fight poverty and defend human rights in Latin America will be discussed for the remainder of Aecid's two-day seminar.

---
Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

Related