On Friday March 23, 2018, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) hosted a special session to commemorate the “International Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Slavery and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade,” within the framework of the Plan of Action for the
Decade for Persons of Afro Descent in the Americas (2016-2025). The panel organized by the Permanent Council included the Secretary of the District of Columbia, Lauren C Vaughan; author and Harold Paul Green Research Professor of Law at George Washington University in Washington, DC, Dr Robert Cottrol; and Deputy Director of the Washington DC Mayor's Office on Latino Affairs (MOLA) Julio Guity-Guevara.
During the session, Julio recognized and congratulated the Mexican government for including the variable of Afro-Descendants in the 2015 survey conducted as preparation for the Census for 2020. He stated that Mexico recognizing Afro-Descendants is something we need to celebrate because in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region, efforts such as this have taken many years to implement. Similarly, he also sent a message to all local, national and international governments about the need to continue collecting data that will allow for the identification of Afro-Descendant communities in the LAC region. Although we have made significant advances in recent years, there is still much to do. In the Mexico survey, the government was able to identify about 1.3 million Afro-Descendants. There is great potential that this number will continue to increase in years to come as it has happened in other countries, such as: Columbia, Brazil, Honduras, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Panama.
Pictures courtesy of the OAS Flicker/ You can write to Julio at julio@guity.org
