MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bush to speak at OAS session June 6

The White House confirmed that President Bush will speak at the Fort Lauderdale General Assembly of the Organization of American States next month.

President Bush will be in Fort Lauderdale June 6 to address the Organization of American States, the White House said Friday.

The president is lending his weight to efforts to strengthen democracy in the Americas and approve a critical free-trade agreement.

Bush will address the 34 foreign ministers from the Americas who are expected to attend the annual OAS General Assembly, raising the profile of the three-day meeting that will be chaired by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

White House spokesman Taylor Gross said Bush will use the occasion to promote a free-trade agreement with Central America and the Dominican Republic known as CAFTA-DR. The pact was signed more than a year ago but has not yet been sent to the U.S. Congress for ratification because of strong opposition.

Bush will meet Tuesday with the new OAS Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza, at the White House to discuss the Fort Lauderdale assembly and the role of the OAS in supporting democracy and promoting prosperity in the hemisphere.

Insulza was sworn in Thursday after a contentious election process in which the U.S. government backed the two losing candidates -- El Salvador's former president Francisco Flores and Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez -- before finally embracing Insulza.

He succeeds former Costa Rican president Miguel Angel Rodríguez, who resigned suddenly in October amid a corruption scandal in his native country.

Bush's appearance had been widely expected but was not been confirmed by the White House until Friday.

Top administration officials have stepped up their contacts with Latin American leaders in Bush's second term. Last month, Rice traveled to Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador and Chile, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has visited the region twice since Bush was reelected.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutíerrez will also attend a side event related to the OAS assembly, the first time the United States is hosting the General Assembly since 1974.

Bush recently has been stepping up his lobbying efforts on behalf of the Central American trade deal, considered by many as a prelude to more ambitious trade pacts like the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

Earlier this month, he hosted the presidents of five Central American countries and the Dominican Republic in an effort to drum up U.S. support for the pact.

The administration has made strengthening democracy the main item of the OAS assembly's agenda, as popular discontent has led to the early departure of elected presidents in countries such as Argentina and Ecuador. Presidents also are under fire in Bolivia and Nicaragua.

In his May 12 meeting with the six presidents, Bush equated passage of CAFTA-DR with his campaign to spread democracy and freedom around the world. The free-trade pact is opposed by a combination of labor groups, sugar industry lobbyists and environmental groups.