Credit:   Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS  /  Luis Almagro  re-elected as OAS  Secretary General March 20, 2020 at the organization’s headquarters in Washington D.C.  for the 2020-2025 period.

By Gary Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC TIMES

Luis Almagro was re-elected as Secretary General of the Organization of American States Friday  for the 2020-2025 period.  Almargo received 23 votes, defeating challenger María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, former President of the powerful United Nations General Assembly, who garnered 10 votes.   Espinosa Garcés,  an Ecuadorian politician, diplomat, professor, and poet, sought to become the first woman CEO of the OAS in its nearly 100 year history.  Initially Almargo pledged not to run for a second term.  Espinosa Garcés was nominated as OAS SG candidate  by Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Antigua and Barbuda.   Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno lent strong support for Almagro’s re-election.  The 54th Special General Assembly of the OAS today also re-elected Nestor Mendez as Assistant Secretary General of the Organization.  Secretary General Almagro, from Uruguay, was re-elected with 23 of the 33 votes cast by member state.

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

“I will continue to dedicate all efforts to ensure more rights for more people in all the 34 member states.”

-Secretary General Almagro vowed after being re-elected. 

Credit: Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS /  Counting the Votes at the  Fifty-fourth Special General Assembly to elect the Secretary General and the Assistant Secretary General March 20, 2020 Washington DC.  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Inspected Facilities for OAS Special Assembly.

Credit: Juan Manuel Herrera/OAS /  Member States  cast their Votes at the  Fifty-fourth Special General Assembly to elect the Secretary General and the Assistant Secretary General March 20, 2020 Washington DC.

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

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 OAS Secretary General is supposed to be an impartial moderator of political issues. 

‘The OAS Has a Lot to Answer For’: New Study Disputes Key Claim That Paved Way for Right-Wing Coup in Bolivia

The Organization of American States “greatly misled the media and the public about what happened in Bolivia’s elections.” – Common Dreams.    “A new study released by a pair of MIT researchers Thursday reveals that, contrary to claims from the U.S.-backed Organization of American States, there was no fraud in Bolivia’s October 20, 2019 elections—an accusation used by the OAS and others as a pretext for supporting the coup in the country that deposed President Evo Morales and replaced him with an unelected right-wing government,”  Common Dreams reported. 

Both Secretary General Almagro and Assistant Secretary General Mendez will fulfill their second mandate for five years starting May 26, 2020. Neither of them will be eligible for re-election once they complete their second term.