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In the 15 years between 2004 and 2017, most countries in the Region approved access laws incorporating the best international standards that were included in the .

This wave was a centerpiece of consolidating democratic systems in almost the entire Hemisphere. However, in more recent years, that wave seems to have ended and we have moved on to a stage, which several political scientists describe as a "democratic recession". The term encompasses the phenomenon of governments that come to power using democratic institutions, but then develop authoritarian traits that manifest themselves in concentrating power and dismantling systems of checks and matches, including the seizure of judicial power. Constitutional amendments have aimed at strengthening presidential power, including indefinite re-election and controlling electoral bodies. The picture is completed with the stigmatization, repression and annulment of opposition and critical voices.

In some countries of the Region, the authoritarian model has deepened in such a way that it is difficult to recognize any democratic element, and the possibility of having minimally competitive elections has been extinguished. In this context, among the rights most affected are those grouped under the concept of freedom of information, including freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and access to public information.

Although at the regional level, the OAS completed an important milestone by approving the to include the digital, open government environment, the truth is that has had significant setbacks that have made most of the legislation approved during the wave of previous advances a dead letter. This situation has been evident and is documented by civil society. During the pandemic, governments have shielded public information on the very management of the pandemic, on the management of the health system, on health-sector contracts. Invasive confidentiality clauses have been accepted and introduced in agreements with vaccine-producing laboratories. To all of which, we must add the confidential existence of VIP lists and, in general, the predominance of opacity in vaccination programs.

We could add more facts to this list, however, the important thing is to lay down the correlation between limiting democratic freedoms, states of exception and setbacks in civil and political liberties that we have observed during the last year and a half that we have had to face the spread of . Limits on become even more dangerous if we place them in the context of that other pandemic that the world has had to face: that of the infodemic and the disinfodemic. That is, on the one hand, saturation by low-quality information and, on the other, viralized disinformation, including conspiracy theories about vaccination.

Apparently, it has not been understood that, in the face of disinformation, the most effective antidote is greater access to public information. Rather, it has sought to combat the disinformation pandemic with proposals for legislation and restrictive measures.

In that context, the role of civil society and the media is becoming more important than ever. We can say that this role becomes critical to build walls of democracy to curb authoritarian advances, to demand transparency, access to information and accountability and to make visible the assaults made against these fundamental freedoms throughout the Region.

How to do it? With lucidity and courage. Knowing that, even in times of democratic recession, it is possible to continue proposing and thinking about the horizon of progress in terms of fundamental rights and applying the best international standards. As the old popular saying goes: "there is no evil that lasts 100 years". It is certain that sooner rather than later, the moment of stagnation and setbacks will pass to another boom of advances in access to public information. And for that we must reflect on and commemorate .