Eduardo González
Mariano Jabonero (San Martín de Valdeiglesias, Madrid, June 22, 1953) has a degree in Philosophy and Education Sciences from the Complutense University of Madrid, a faculty where he was also a professor. At different times and with different programs, he has worked in all Ibero-American countries as a consultant or expert for UNESCO, UNDP, OAS and OEI. He has received numerous awards for his dedication to education and culture, including the Order of Alfonso X El Sabio, the Honorary Medal of the University of Alcalá de Henares and the Doctorate Honoris Causa from the Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia de Colombia (UNAD).
Since 2018, Jabonero has served as Secretary General of the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI), an organization with headquarters in Madrid, which, with its 75 years of existence, is the largest and oldest multilateral cooperation body between Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking Ibero-American countries. The OEI, which works directly with the governments of its 23 member states, has been awarded this year with the Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation “for the fruitful work of promoting Ibero-American multilateralism and for representing a significant bridge in the relations between Europe and Ibero-America”.
Q – On October 26, the Organization of Ibero-American States celebrates its 75th anniversary. The event will be accompanied by institutional celebrations and cultural events throughout the region. What will they consist of?
A – There will be activities in almost all of the OEI member countries. In each of them there will be some activity that will be in line with the local agenda, here in Spain we will have two very relevant ones. The first, I think the most important, will be the presentation of the 2024 Princess of Asturias Award for international cooperation to the OEI, which will take place on October 25 in Oviedo, with the presence of the King and Queen of Spain, the Princess of Asturias and the President of the Principality. It is important because of the prestige of this award, which has been received by, for example, the OAS, or figures such as Nelson Mandela, Helmut Kohl, the UN blue helmets or Luiz Inázio Lula Da Silva. For us it is a moment of corporate pride: on our behalf, on behalf of all those who have collaborated and continue to collaborate with the OEI for 75 years and on behalf of all the member countries, which are those who, with their commitment and support, have made our trajectory and reputation in the region possible.
The second important moment will be on November 6, when we will hold a celebration event that will take place at the Teatro Real, with the attendance of the entire Ibero-American Community in Madrid. Embassies, Ibero-American organizations, the Government of Spain, companies, media, academics, among others. It will be a great meeting and we will share this anniversary with everyone.
In addition, in Spain, we will hold two associated events that I consider important to highlight. One is the Board of Directors, a governing body of the OEI, made up of the Ministers of Education of the 23 member countries, whose objective is to approve the Program-Budget for the following two years, 2025 and 2026.
In addition to that, we also have another event that will be held at the Ortega-Marañón Foundation, which will be a chapter of the chair that we have agreed upon with Georgetown University, in Washington, United States, one of the universities with which we have work agreements and with which we are doing studies and research on issues that have to do with the Hispanic population in the United States, which already amounts to 62 million people, and also with the migrations that occur between Latin America and the United States and with Spain.
Q – Can education and culture really change the world or are they just going to fall behind?
A – Education, culture and science have changed the world, and will continue to change it. Human beings are more human when they are more cultured, more educated and more intellectually restless.
Culture, in addition to wealth, provides well-being, identity, a sense of cohesion, of belonging and in the case of Latin America it has a very special value: it is what best defines what we call “Latin American citizenship”.
As for education, I believe that, if it were not for education, the human race would live in barbarism as it did thousands of years ago. Thanks to education, human beings have changed, they have created more prosperous, happier societies, they have generated a higher level of well-being and freedom. I also believe that education has another value, a very important value that I emphasize: talent is distributed more or less equally for everyone, opportunities are not. That is why a person with a good education, who has been fully trained and has acquired knowledge and skills, will have more and better opportunities in life, and a person who does not have that training and skills will find it difficult to have opportunities.
In the middle of the last century, organizations were created, such as UNESCO and OEI, whose promising objectives were to build a new world through education, science and culture, a world in which the barbarities recently suffered in the world would be impossible. That hope continues to guide us.
Q – The anniversary of the OEI comes at a particularly turbulent time in the world and in the region, as we are seeing, for example, now in Venezuela, or the political evolution of other countries. In that context, what role do you think international organizations, more specifically the OEI, can play in the defense of democracy, human rights and international order?
A – First of all, to contribute through education and culture to strengthen what we consider to be ethical commitments to equal rights and respect for human rights: without equality there is no freedom. Equality strengthens democracies. Democracy is not a static fact, it is not “we have a democracy and that’s it, that’s it.” We have to defend it and develop it day by day, a task that can only be done from a cohesive, educated, participatory civil society with a democratic commitment. That is the first element of value that we can contribute at this time when there are tensions in the region.
The second important aspect is to generate a feeling of consensus and that is something that we are proud of at the OEI because of the great capacity for consensus that we have always achieved. Our budgets and the decisions adopted in the assemblies have always been approved unanimously with the vote in favor of 23 very heterogeneous countries in every sense. Thus, reaching a consensus on something that unites us and on which we are willing to work and build together is very important. And that has been a common occurrence in the history of the OEI: I will never forget that I was elected with the unanimous vote of the 23 countries in my re-election, for which I am extremely grateful to all our governments.
On the other hand, we also contribute to promoting peaceful transitions. Democracy involves alternation, a change that often generates some tensions between the old and the new, crises of change that are common everywhere. We often promote a smoother transition, highlighting what has been done with positive results and, at the same time, supporting the new initiatives that new governments elected by the votes of their citizens want to implement. We try to support more participatory, calmer, safer and more rational transitions, an experience that I believe is a value that we can contribute from the OEI. We have made transitions in countries that have emerged from civil wars, in the worst possible situation, and that have moved to democratic systems and we have been there, in between, promoting that process.
Q – Last April, the OEI launched the campaign ‘A future for what matters’, whose objective is to contribute to generating greater awareness about the importance of defending democracy in Latin America. One of the questions that the campaign aims to answer is what relationship does disaffection with democracy have with the problems that affect today’s society. What is your answer to that question?
A – I think that disaffection with democracy has several causes and I think that, in addition, it is a very studied problem and there are many publications on the subject. There is one cause that I consider quite easy to explain: if a citizen has voted for a government option that offers better social benefits, better education, better health, better roads, when that citizen perceives that this is not fulfilled, he distrusts democracy. He should distrust that government option and not democracy, because democracy offers him other possible alternatives. However, I think that there is a failure to comply with well-being and that generates extensive, and unfair, doubts about democracy.
Secondly, I think there is another element that affects this disaffection in one way or another, and it is what can be defined as “in the face of the complex problems we have, there are simple solutions.” This has been raised in political options of all kinds, when the problems we have in the region are very complex problems that will never be solved by supposed “enlightened” saviors.
On the other hand, we must also value what information means. We must bear in mind that all the values of democracy require very strong information support. We must value what unites us, which is much and very strong and very important: it is much more than what separates us. Delving into particularisms does not contribute to the collective good, nor does building opinion based on the banality of social networks.
Q – This campaign was led precisely by the Ibero-American Program for Human Rights, Democracy and Equality of the OEI, which the organization has launched since March; The Ibero-American Network for Education and Democratic Coexistence is another of its initiatives. What results are expected from this Network? And what results have there been, if any?
A – Yes, there have been results, and in a very short time. There has been greater mobilization and high participation by countries and communities. I will give as an example the Ibero-American Prize for Education in Human Rights Óscar Arnulfo Romero, a prize that we have already awarded five times and that receives hundreds of applications, not from government bodies but from civil society, which thus demonstrates its vitality. This year alone we received nearly five thousand applications from social organizations, schools, communities, NGOs, which shows that the sensitivity of the region in this regard is very strong and that this mobilization also has to do with generating greater interest on the part of governments.
I would like to remind you that democracy and human rights are an unfinished task and that there are human rights that are not in the Declaration of Human Rights. They are new generation rights, because no constitution, no country has yet established them as a fundamental right: the right to gender equality, to environmental sustainability, etc., are new rights that still need to be built.
Q – The motto of the next Ibero-American Summit to be held in Ecuador in November is ‘Innovation, inclusion and sustainability’. How can we ensure that this motto does not remain just words and that it really means something?, especially with regard to the lines of work of the OEI.
A – At the OEI we have a particularity, not very common, and that is that we have a presence on the ground and in all the countries of the region. Thousands of people collaborate with the OEI, millions of Americans benefit from the cooperation of the OEI. Therefore, all this is achieved by being and working on the ground, in a true South-South cooperation model. I think that this is one of our most important values. The declaration is a declaration of principles, which is fine, but what we really bet on is cooperation programs on the ground that are built in agreement with governments, in agreement with multilateral banks, in agreement with cooperation agencies, working together with everyone for the benefit of people.
I would like to remind you that the Ibero-American cooperation system is a very complex system, something that we sometimes forget. The system is made up of the United Nations agencies – UNESCO, UNICEF, ILO…; there are NGOs, many of which are very powerful in the region; there is the multilateral development bank – IDB, CAF and the BCIE; we are the OEI, the OIJ, the OISS and the COMJIB, bilateral cooperation, etc. And so, I think that thinking about this future of innovation, of change, means thinking, in addition to governments, also together with the important actors who are working day by day in favor of our nations and our citizens.
Q – What can the award of the 2024 Princess of Asturias Award for Cooperation mean for the work of the OEI?
A – It is a source of great pride and joy, and it has been a recognition that we are deeply grateful for, because it is an award that recognises, as I said before, the 23 countries of the region, which have always had a strong commitment to the OEI for 75 years. It is an award that recognises the commitment of thousands of people who work and have worked with us, and that of numerous social actors and governments in the region. In short, I think that all of this comes to recognise a persevering collective task, attached to the people and committed. I often say that the OEI is a regional public good, in accordance with that the award recognises the work, the trajectory and the prestige of a regional public good.
On the other hand, I can add a question of sensitivity: I have never seen such an emotional meeting among the OEI officials as when they awarded us the award, an exciting moment that is already one of the happiest moments of my life.
Q – And the last question: You yourself have offered the technical and operational capacity of the organisation to the Barcelona City Council for the celebration of Mondiacult 2025, which will be held in Barcelona during the second half of next year. What do you expect from this event and what are the main objectives of the OEI in Barcelona?
A – We want to contribute content to this event. We will contribute experiences not only with the Barcelona City Council, but also with other types of entities with which we are working very intensively on cultural issues. I spoke directly with UNESCO, with whom we have a magnificent collaborative relationship, to make this offer.
In addition, there are areas in which we believe we have a lot to say. There are experiences such as, for example, the case of Brazil, where we are leaders in heritage and museum management, an experience that is unique in the region. Also, everything that has to do with the Spanish and Portuguese languages, I think that culture has a very important transmission effect through language, and this is a very important aspect to contribute and, finally, everything that has to do with the creation of digital culture, which is the most expansive area due to the growth of digital consumption of culture, so we are working on everything that has to do with intellectual property rights and the protection of the artist. These areas are the ones that for us may be most interesting and I think that at this moment they have great potential in the region.
