G-20 countersummit kicks off in Buenos Aires

Several former Latin American presidents and progressive political activists are on hand in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to hold the First Forum of Critical Thinking, eleven days before the G20 summit begins on November 30.

The November 19-23 summit is organized by the Rio de Janeiro-based Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), and its current director, Argentine born Pablo Gentili.

Given the list of participants and their largely populist ideology, the meeting is widely considered this year's “G20 countersummit.” Organizers, however, noted that the event had been scheduled long in advance and is mainly academic.

The keynote speakers include former presidents Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (Argentina), José Mujica (Uruguay), Dilma Rousseff (Brazil), Ernesto Samper (Colombia), and Bolivia's current Vice President Álvaro García Linera.

Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who was ousted in a 2016 parliamentary coup, will address “Democracy, Citizenry, and the State of Exception (emergency),” while 2018 Brazilian Workers Party (PT) nominees Fernando Haddad and Manuela Davila will discuss their recent experience in elections won on October 28 won by fascist President-elect Jair Bolsonaro.

Former Argentine President Cristina Kirchner will address “Capitalism, Neoliberalism, and the Crisis of Democracy.”

Kirchner, 65, is widely expected to run next year against right-wing Argentine President Mauricio Macri or his stand-in amid an ongoing economic crisis. Polls show her winning by around 10 points in a hypothetical matchup.

Other figures headlining the event include Estela Barnes de Carlotto, head of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo; former Bogotá mayor and Colombian presidential candidate Gustavo Petro; the chairman of the Spain's Podemos, Juan Carlos Monedero; Nobel Peace Prize laureate Adolfo Pérez Esquivel; and former Spanish magistrate and human rights activist Baltasar Garzón.

The Critical Thinking summit recalls the 2005 Summit of the Americas in the Argentine seaside city of Mar del Plata, when efforts by U.S. President George W. Bush to convince his Latin American peers to adopt ALCA, a free trade area of the Americas, failed.

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Keynote speakers Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (Argentina), Dilma Rousseff (Brazil), José Mujica (Uruguay), Fernando Haddad (Brazil), and Álvaro García Linera (Bolivia).