The United States
defended this Thursday the role of the Organization of American States (OAS) as the most important forum
to resolve the region's problems, when a CELAC summit has just ended in Buenos Aires, an organization that seeks to disempower the the oldest continental organization based in Washington.
The representative of the United States to the OAS, Ambassador
Francisco Mora,
offered a press conference to mark the objectives of his country in America, among which he highlighted the defense of democracy and human rights.
“The OAS is an indispensable multilateral organization,” he
said.
“It is the only organization where the democratically elected countries have representatives and
all are committed to defending democracy and human rights,”
said Mora, adding that “at a time when we are seeing the erosion of democracy and violations of rights in the region Human rights is now more important than ever.
Three continental regimes do not currently have representation in the OAS: Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.
Asked about the vision of the United States on CELAC, the organization created in 2010 that seeks to undermine the power of the OAS, which they consider to have too much influence from Washington, Mora pointed out that in Latin America there were a series of regional cooperation organizations such as Caricom or Unasur.
“But I am going to reiterate something:
there is no other organization where all the democratically elected countries of the hemisphere have a presence and have the capacity to solve many of the problems we face like the OAS,” he
said.
Mora highlighted the
"structure"
that the continental organization has, such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an autonomous entity that does "a very important job of warning about human rights violations."
“There is no other organization where you work so closely together, collaborating, despite the differences.”
And he added:
“There is a purpose, a common commitment to defend the values of democracy and to respect human rights.
That is unique in the region.”
“You have to demonstrate its relevance.
I think it is essential to deal with transnational issues,” she added.
33 countries of the region are represented in CELAC, including Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.
Many of the members want this forum to reduce the influence of the OAS, which they see as very inclined to favor the interests of the United States.
In fact, Secretary Luis Almagro was not invited to the meeting in Argentina.
The CELA summit culminated in Buenos Aires with a document in which it declared itself in favor of democracy and human rights without much detail, but there were strong debates about the authoritarian regimes in the region.
Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega did not travel and Nicolás Maduro gave up at the last minute amid threats of arrest and strong protests over his presence.
"There are countries here that do not respect democracy, nor institutions, nor human rights," Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou said at the time, while Alberto Fernández or Luiz Lula Da Silva avoided condemning regimes accused of violating human rights.