On March 16, 2021, the Inter-American Dialogue, Fundamedios, and the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Americas at the University of Miami, hosted Media and Democracy in the Americas IV, a conference that convened journalists, academics, and prominent researchers from Latin America and the United States.
“I was held at three concentration camps for more than one year; the key was to survive. Then I was expelled and I lived in exile for 10 years, barred from returning to the country. Many suffered much more than I did. […] During those years, I learned another lesson: If you allow yourself to sink into the justified bitterness and let your spirit to become contaminated with a negative animus, you cannot persuade and help mobilize others to build a better society. Therefore, the task was to build a new political and social force, and to battle for a better world, in liberty, without dictatorship.” Sergio Bitar receiving the Guillermo el O´Donnell Democracy Award and Lectureship 2017