Credit: OAS /  Luis Almagro ,  Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington D.C.

By Gary Raynaldo         DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

The Council on Hemispheric Affairs in Washington, DC (COHA) expressed its “deep concern” over the recent controversial re-election of Luis Almagro as Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS). Luis Almagro was re-elected as Secretary General of the OAS March 20 to serve  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.  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.

“Luis Almagro’s re-election as Secretary General of the OAS reminds us of the darkest days of the hemisphere when the organization closely mirrored the divisive foreign policy of the US during the Cold War. COHA calls upon all members of the Permanent Council to carefully examine the many improprieties carried out by Almagro.”

-COHA Editorial  Board statement 

“There is no doubt that Almagro’s tenure at the head of the OAS has been one of the most controversial, criticized and inconsistent with the Inter-American Democratic Charter of the past few decades. The list of irregularities is quite long,” COAH stated.

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

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 Is Not Playing a Constructive Role in the Venezuela Crisis:  COAH

“Almagro has never said anything against the United States’ illegal sanctions on Venezuela and Cuba and has never defended the majority of United Nations member states that vote repeatedly to end the U.S. blockade on Cuba. And under his leadership the OAS has never played a constructive role in the various efforts at dialogue between the Venezuelan government and its opposition over recent years, despite the fact that the Vatican and various governments from Europe and the Americas have done so. In a sharp departure from the hemisphere’s institutional framework, he even called for military intervention in Venezuela.”  – COAH