Letter to the ICANN Board of Directors concerning Global Meetings in the Latin America and Caribbean Region

May 4th., 2016

Dr. Steve Crocker
Chair
ICANN Board of Directors

The Board of Directors of the Latin America and Caribbean Internet Addresses Registry, LACNIC, the Board of Directors of the Latin America and Caribbean TLD Association, and the Board of Directors of the Latin America and Caribbean Association of Internet Exchange Points, LAC-IX, wish to express their deepest concern about the cancellation of meetings scheduled by the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), in the Caribbean and Central America regions, the one which was due to take place during the month of June, 2016, in Panama City, and the current discussion about the cancellation of the October, 2016, meeting in Puerto Rico.

We wish to point out that, according to our experience, there have been no obstacles whatever that would impede all our regional organizations from holding our meetings normally, in any of the territories of the above mentioned region.

In addition, the signing organizations wish to inform you that the cancellation of the Panama meeting, and the eventual cancellation of the meeting in Puerto Rico scheduled for the end of October of this year, have a direct negative impact on the participation of our communities in the region, since they view these meetings as favorable opportunities to get together for the development of their respective work agendas, leveraging geographic and cultural proximity. This has a direct effect on the development of the Internet in our regions.

To date, only one of each six meetings that were held and scheduled, have taken place in the LAC region, whereas the agreement is that it would be one in five, and there is no evidence that this proportion will be fulfilled in the near future.

For ICANN to become a truly global organization, it must take upon itself to modify its expectations and improve its understanding of the challenges to holding meetings in our region. In the event of grave risk, we consider that our organizations in the region can provide relevant information and local understanding that can contribute to determine the dimension of such risk, and allow ICANN to take a better decision.

We wish to express our willingness to work collaboratively on an adequate evaluation of the circumstances that might generate some risk for our communities.

Wardner Maia
Presidente de LACNIC

Eduardo Santoyo
Presidente de LACTLD

Ariel Graizer
Presidente de LAC-IX