Credit: Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS /  María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, Candidate for the position of Secretary General of the Organization of American States.

By Gary Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, former President of the powerful United Nations General Assembly is seeking to make history again.  Espinosa Garcés was first Latina to ever lead the UN General Assembly, serving for the 73rd session, office  September 2018 to September  2019.  Now Espinosa Garcés is a candidate for  the position of Secretary General of the Organization of American States.  If elected,  Espinosa Garcés,  an Ecuadorian politician, diplomat, professor, and poet, would be the first woman CEO of the OAS in its nearly 100 year history. This year, the vote is scheduled for March 20 and will take place during an Extraordinary General Assembly in Washington D.C., in which OAS member states will cast their votes. The winner must secure at least 18 votes to fill the position. Once elected, he or she will be responsible for leading the OAS from 2020 to 2025,

“My election on March 20th would mark the first time in the 71-year history of the organization in which a woman would become chief executive officer. As I have pointed out on several occasions, my election would constitute recognition of the abilities and merits of women.”

María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, Candidate for the position of Secretary General of the Organization of American States, in response to questions by WOLA. 

She has served as Ecuador’s Minister of Foreign Relations  (twice), Minister of National Defense, and Minister of Natural and Cultural Heritage.  Espinosa Garcés said she will draw on her international career as a diplomat and heading the UN General Assembly said she  will be able to delver on promises for the OAS as she has done in another global positions.

Gender Parity Was A Big Priority For Espinosa Garcés During Her Presidency of UN General Assembly 

Credit:  by Gary Raynaldo /   Then-President of UN  General Assembly María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés in June 2019.

“My candidacy is precisely a response to a conscious evaluation of the challenges facing the hemisphere and the
organization, and the profile and characteristics of the person who will serve as Secretary General. From 1990 to today, I have followed an intense path of training and experience that gives me the necessary credentials to fill this position. My professional training and my national and international experience allow me to understand not only what the OAS requires here and now, and the role that I will have to play as its new Secretary General, but also to know how to do it,” María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, Candidate for the position of Secretary General of the Organization of American States, in response to questions by WOLA. 

OAS Region Became Polarized Under Leadership of  Luis Almagro With His Obsession With Venezuela in backing  Opposition Leader Juan Guaido as “Interium President”

Credit:   Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS  /  Current  OAS  Secretary General Luis Almagro, Candidate for the position of  OAS SG.

Many critics maintain that the OAS became a tool of U.S. foreign influence, particularly with regard to Venezuela during  the past year, under the leadership of former Uruguayan Foreign Minister Luis Almagro, who became Secretary General of the Organization in 2015.  The OAS is a regional forum of 34 states that acts similar to the United Nations of the Americas. It is supposed to be politically neutral. But in recent years, there has been creeping U.S. influence on it, as the U.S. provides 60 percent of the OAS  annual budget as of 2018.

“The job of the Secretary-General of any multi-national or international oganisation is to represent the positions of the collective membership of the organisation  either after direction by the appropriate governing bodies or after discussion with them that establishes a consensus. Almost from the day of his installation, Mr. Almagro has steadfastly ignored any such requirements,” said  Sir Ronald Sanders in a Jan. 21, 2019  article in The Tribune.

“In his latest overreach,  Mr. Almagro has taken upon  himself to unilaterally and publicly anoint an “Interim President” of  Venezuela.  Almago’s selection is Juan Guaido who was elected by the  National General Assembly- made up of only Opposition party representatives – as its President “for a year”.  No official organ of the  OAS has made any such decision or even discussed it and none has authorized Mr. Almagro to make it.”

Sir Ronald Sanders in a Jan. 21, 2019  article in The Tribune. 

As such,  sanders maintains that the   OAS is “Dangerously in Disarray” 

Ambassador Hugo de Zela Martínez, Candidate for the position of Secretary General

Credit:  Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS  /  Ambassador Hugo de Zela Martínez, Candidate for the position of Secretary General

Hugo de Zela is the acting Peruvian Ambassador to the United States. He has occupied various positions in the Peruvian government.

“My candidacy proposes to strengthen the OAS as a forum for  dialogue and consensus in order to respond effectively to the principle challenges of the region.”

-Ambassador Hugo de Zela Martínez, Candidate for the position of Secretary General

Created in 1948, the OAS gathers state representatives from across the hemisphere in Washington, D.C. to foster a space for governance and multilateral dialogue. It also includes the main organs of the Inter-American System for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights—the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Inter-American Court of Human Rights.