Thank you all for an incredible conference – to all of our delegates, advisors, and staff: congratulations on an incredible job well done.

The final two editions of The Delegate and El Delegado are presented here:

Issue II: The Delegate_II, DELEGADO_II

Issue III: The Delegate_III, DELEGADO_III

We look forward to seeing you next year! Here’s to continued friendships, collaborations, and learning. We are confident that our delegates will be the future leaders of Central and South America, as well as the world.

We hope you have been enjoying the second day of HACIAXIX; resolutions are being passed, discussions are heated, and friendships are being made.

Please feel free to follow us on twitter (@HACIA_democracy) for the latest updates, or tweet with the hashtag #HACIAXIX to join the conversation.

The Press Corps & NGOs have been hard at work and have released issues of The Delegate_I and El Delegado_I; we hope you were able to pick up a copy, or to read it online. This year we have created a separate online media blog, www.the-delegate.tumblr.com. If you’ve taken any great pictures, and would like to see them showcase, please e-mail them to presscorps@hacia-democracy.org.

We’re excited to hear your feedback, and we hope you’re having a wonderful second day!

Welcome to HACIA XIX! The conference has officially begun, and we are so excited to see all of the delegates and advisors. We want to thank you for all of your hard work thus far, and we are so excited for the next few days. Please check back here for updates throughout the conference. Please feel free to follow us on twitter at @HACIA_democracy as well.

We are excited to announce the following winners of HACIA Democracy XIX Essay Competition:

The HACIA Democracy XIX President’s Award for Excellence in Essay Composition to Marines Chinchilla from Colegio Internacional Montessori for her essay “Las Dos Caras de la Moneda“

AND

The HACIA Democracy XIX Honorable Mention for Excellence in Essay Composition to Kevin Wolfson from the Escola Graduada de São Paulo for his essay “Paraisopolis Is Not Paradise“

Congratulations!

If you missed our Opening Ceremonies, you can read HACIA XIX President Rodolfo Diaz’s speech here.

Dear Delegates, Faculty Advisors and friends of HACIA,

On behalf of the HACIA Democracy Board of Directors and Staff, it is my great pleasure
to welcome you to the 18th annual installment of the Summit of the Americas. My name is
Rodolfo A. Díaz and it is an honor for me to serve as HACIA 2013′s President.
Last March, more than 700 high-school students, teachers and parents from all across the
Americas attended the annual HACIA Democracy Summit of the Americas in Panama City,
Panama.

It is a pleasure to announce that the HACIA Democracy 2013 Summit of the Americas will
take place March 14th-17th, 2013, at the Hard Rock Hotel Punta Cana. After bringing the
conference back to Central America and organizing the largest conference in our history; this year we have decided to bring HACIA to the Caribbean for the first time.

Over the last nineteen years, HACIA Democracy has consolidated itself as the most
prestigious OAS simulation on the continent. We truly believe that HACIA Democracy is an
unparalleled forum for students across the continent to learn and debate about the problems that affect the region and thus prepare themselves to be the future leaders of the Americas.

I would like to invite you to browse through this website and take a look at our committee
options. Over the next few weeks, we will be updating the website with more committee and logistical information. Please take the time to review our website do come back for updates! Do not hesitate to contact me, I will be more than happy to answer any questions. I look forward to seeing you at HACIA 2013!

Sincerely,
Rodolfo A. Díaz
President, HACIA Democracy 2013

Harvard Association Cultivating Inter-American Democracy is devoted to strengthening and promoting democracy throughout the Western Hemisphere; the acronym HACIA is Spanish for “towards.” Thus, our name helps to convey our main objective: moving countries in the Americas towards stronger democracies. HACIA is committed to constructing a high quality conference which stimulates both domestic and international democratic institutions, provides participants with a first-hand opportunity to experience the advantages of democratic institutions, and offers a forum for participants to critically analyze, discuss, and debate current issues that affect states in the Americas domestically and regionally.

This year, our conference will be held between March 14th and 17th, 2013 in the beautiful Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. We invite you to read more about our conference, to register, and to join us for HACIA 2013.