Ramon P. Díaz (1926-2017)

"Democracy is more than majority rule. I would like to stress that liberal democracies of the West have the rule of law and, particularly, an independent and competent judiciary, an expedient judiciary. Latin American countries don't, and we are tremendously at fault in having failed to produce this."

"I think it is inconceivable that we could have come to this special and privileged historical circumstance if the society had been made up of civil servants. Civil servants will not produce a society that upholds freedom. We have a character in this great play that is enacted in Western society, and this hero of our play is a property owner. Therefore, I think that we have to focus on the very special characteristics that have prevailed in the West which have produced a particular individual who thinks of himself as a separate private individual with property rights and not as an employee of the government."