MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Governance and stability.

Democratic governance as essential for institutional stability will be the main point of the coming Organization of American States General Assembly agenda that is scheduled to take place in Santiago de Chile. Delegations representing 34 countries of the three Americas are expected including US Secretary of State Colin Powell.

"We expect the general assembly to become an opportunity for reflection regarding democratic governance in the Americas given the changes occurred in the international arena", said Ambassador Carlos Portales, Chile's Foreign Office Director General of Foreign Policy.

"Governance in the Americas will be top of the agenda", indicated Mr. Portales highlighting that in spite of the fact most governments in the region are democratic, "a lot of problems still persist".

"It's not enough to have democratic governments, it's essential to improve relations between governments and their own societies".

Ambassador Portales added that democratic governance is closely linked with programs to reinforce political parties, judicial reforms, a greater participation of the community to ensure trust, fighting corruption and drug trafficking.

An extraordinary summit of heads of government and state to address a similar agenda is also scheduled for the second half of 2003 in Mexico, and its organization will be considered in Santiago. The previous Summit of the Americas was held in Quebec in 2001 and the following should take place in Buenos Aires in 2005.

A special resolution for the promotion and strengthening of democracy, in line with the 2001 Inter-american Democratic Chart, will be under consideration at the Santiago assembly that besides convening 34 delegations includes observers from 48 countries.

The assembly will also receive reports from the Interamerican Human Rights Committee, Interamerican Court of Justice, Interamerican Committee against Terrorism and the Interamerican Program to combat corruption.

Chilean president Ricardo Lagos and OAS Secretary General César Gaviria will be officially opening the ceremony on June 8th. Santiago previously hosted the OAS assembly in 1976, during the Pinochet regime and in 1991 immediately after the return of democracy.