On 24 January 2023, the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM) held a public debate in Polish entitled “Where is Latin America heading? Social, economic, and political challenges in selected countries of the region”. Justyna Szczudlik, deputy head of the PISM Research Office, opened the event by pointing out why it was worth looking at Latin America from Poland’s and, more broadly, from the European Union’s perspective.

The debate consisted of two sessions. The first one was devoted to the domestic challenges for Latin American countries, such as economic and social difficulties (e.g., inequality and hunger), as well as the specifics of their political changes. Latin American scholars Magdalena Lisińska from Jagiellonian University in Kraków and Katarzyna Dembicz and Joanna Gocłowska-Bolek from the University of Warsaw joined the discussion along with Bartłomiej Znojek, Latin America analyst at PISM, who moderated the panel.

In the second part, moderated by Damian Wnukowski, the head of the Asia-Pacific Programme at PISM, the participants debated the foreign policy dimension. Anita Oberda-Monkiewicz, a Latin America scholar from the University of Warsaw, Krzysztof Jacek Hinz, a former ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Brazil and Venezuela, and PISM’s Znojek spoke on the panel. The topics included the 7^th CELAC summit (the date of which coincided with the debate at PISM), Latin American countries’ positions on the U.S. and China, as well as the prospects for strengthening cooperation between the EU, including Poland, and Latin American partners.

The debate was streamed live on PISM’s YouTube channel and the full recorded video of the meeting can be accessed there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7pBm85rOYM

Prepared by Bartłomiej Znojek