Ariel Guarco unveiled a monument to Cooperative Fellowship in the city of Nova Petrópolis, Brazil, the country which was also hosted to the Congreso Nacional del Cooperativismo de Crédito (National Congress of Credit Cooperativism, in English) for some 2000 attendees. In the days before he also visited Riobamba, Ecuador; and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia.
His speeches also included the commitments the Americas region made at the close of its latest continental summit, held at the end of October in Buenos Aires, Argentina. These commitments were, specifically, defending the planet; financial democratisation; and sectoral integration; under the framework of the Global Alliance for Sustainable Development as outlined in SDG 17.
"We need to place the economy in the hands of the community, of those who work, consume, and produce in the territory. That way we can build another type of globalisation" he said in Bolivia on 14 November, where he was invited to be the keynote speaker at the celebration of 56 years of the Cooperativa Rural de Electrificación's (Rural Electrification Cooperative, in English) institutional life.
In Ecuador, where he gave a lecture on financial sustainability and social responsibility, he advocated "building a plural cooperative movement, becoming increasingly integrated and committed". This was on 16 November, at the Foro Internacional sobre Nuevo Pensamiento y Liderazgo Cooperativo para el Desarrollo de la Economía Popular y Solidaria (International forum on new thinking and cooperative leadership, for the development of the popular and solidarity-based economy, in English) organised by the Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito Riobamba (Riobamba Savings and Credit Cooperative) on its fortieth anniversary.
"We cooperatives have not achieved financial inclusion. We want to know what financial system they want us to be included in. That's why we talk about financial inclusion, but also financial democratisation", he said during his speech at the Brazilian Congress on credit cooperatives, in the city of Florianópolis on 22 November, with the slogan Prominence and Synergy in a Context of Change.
The following day he was a special guest in Nova Petrópolis to unveil the monument A Irmandade Cooperativa, which highlights the special relationship between this city in the South of Brazil, capital of Brazilian cooperativism; and Sunchales, Argentina's cooperative capital.
