The OAS opens its General Assembly in Lima in difficult times

First modification: 05/10/2022 – 15:22

“The theme of the Assembly is very important: against inequality, against all kinds of discrimination,” said the Secretary General of the OAS, the Uruguayan Luis Almagro, who will open the meeting in the afternoon together with the president of Peru, the leftist Pedro Castillo. .

The three-day conclave of the Organization of American States (OAS), which will take place at the Lima Convention Center, will be joined on Thursday by the head of US diplomacy, Anthony Blinken.

The Assembly is taking place at “a difficult moment in terms of the accumulation of problems” and the distrust of Latin American countries towards the United States, according to Manuel Orozco, of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank in Washington.

“Blinken knows that the countries in the region have distanced themselves from the United States, in part because this country has also not been proactive in the region in recent years,” Orozco told AFP.

For Blinken, “the goal is to rebuild trust by approaching several countries, such as Colombia, Peru, Chile [que visita este miércoles]and try to identify tokens of trust by working on common tasks,” he added.

“I don’t trust the OAS”

In Lima, the American foreign ministers will debate various draft resolutions and declarations, mainly on Nicaragua and the security situation in Haiti.

They will also discuss Venezuelan migration and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a conflict that causes headaches in Washington and threatens food security in Latin America.

Peru put the fight against discrimination on the agenda, which stirred the waters in Lima.

The ultra-conservative Peruvian legislator Alejandro Muñante called for a protest in the Manco Cápac square in Lima this Thursday to reject the “progressive agenda of the OAS.”

In addition, a truck bearing the sign “OAS: Women are defined by biology, not ideology” was parked in front of the Peruvian Congress building on Monday, rejecting the assembly’s addressing the rights of sexual minorities.

Muñante is a member of the ultra-conservative Popular Renovation party led by the virtual new mayor of Lima, businessman Rafael López Aliaga, who declared on Tuesday: “I don’t trust OAS officials.”

López Aliaga, who heads the scrutiny in Lima of Sunday’s municipal elections, does not forgive that OAS observers dismissed allegations of “fraud” in the 2021 presidential ballot, won by Castillo.

Until a few years ago, those who protested against the OAS were leftist movements, which accused it of being an instrument of the United States, a country that contributes more than 50% of its annual budget.

“We need help”

At the proposal of Peru, the 52nd General Assembly will also address food security, threatened by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The OAS called in March for an end to possible “war crimes” in Ukraine and in April suspended Russia as a permanent observer.

On the sidelines of the OAS, Blinken will co-chair a meeting on migration, a big problem for the United States on the border with Mexico.

Migration also worries Panama, which is why its foreign minister, Erika Mouynes, plans to speak in Lima with her counterparts from Costa Rica and Colombia.

“Once again we have an increase in migration and Panama cannot assume this responsibility alone. We need help and we are going to demand it,” said the minister.

Nicaragua

The situation in Nicaragua is another complicated challenge for the OAS, due to the isolation of the Daniel Ortega regime, questioned for his fourth consecutive term obtained in 2021, with his rivals imprisoned or in exile.

In November 2021, Managua announced its withdrawal from the OAS and five months later closed the agency’s office in Managua. A few days ago he deepened his isolation by expelling the European Union ambassador, breaking diplomatic ties with the Netherlands and rejecting the arrival of the new US ambassador. Both the EU and Washington have imposed sanctions against the Ortega government.

The Assembly must also examine a declaration on human rights in Venezuela, said the person in charge of US diplomacy for the Americas, Brian Nichols.

Another issue that may fly over the Assembly is the process of electing the new president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), opened last week after the dismissal of the American Mauricio Claver-Carone for ethical questions.

His appointment in 2020, at the impulse of then US President Donald Trump, broke the tradition of the IDB being led by a Latin American.