MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay's minister Almagro presents his program for a renewed OAS

“The Americas have been divided, it is time to heal the wounds of the past and build an Americas that is united and for everyone,” he added.

The Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) received a presentation by Uruguay's foreign minister Luis Almagro, in his capacity as candidate for Secretary General of the Organization, in a special meeting that took place at the headquarters of the OAS in Washington DC.

 Upon opening his address, Almagro said to the Permanent Representatives to the hemispheric body “Together we can build, step by step, a common agenda based on solutions for development and hemispheric security,” and emphasized that “the OAS of the 21st century must be global, must go out into the world, have relations with strategic countries and environments, with global and regional multilateral bodies, must be efficient and improve those areas where it adds value.”

“The Americas have been divided, it is time to heal the wounds of the past and build an Americas that is united and for everyone,” he added.

The Uruguayan diplomat mentioned as examples of issues in which OAS has an added value the political articulation of citizen security; the management of natural disasters in Central America and the Caribbean; and the creation of an Inter-American system of prevention of social conflicts.

Almagro presented his vision based on the four pillars of the OAS: democracy, human rights, integral development and multidimensional security. On democracy, he said “the OAS must equip itself with tools that allow it to have advance knowledge of eventual crises to act in a coordinated way with the states, on the basis of dialogue, to avoid anti-democratic outcomes.”

In the area of human rights, Almagro proposed the creation of “an Inter-American System of Prevention of Social Conflicts, as an active system that allows for the reinforcement of local capacity, not only at the governmental level but also from the private sector and social movements, in order to avoid eventual clashes arising from the installation of productive and extractive projects, to moderate their impact and to attend to the needs and demands of local communities.”

On the issue of development, the minister explained that, if he is elected as Secretary General, he would propose three initiatives in the area of development: first, a contingency fund for natural disasters with particular emphasis on Central America and the Caribbean; second, an Interconnectivity Fund for the Caribbean “which can overcome structural weaknesses, either in terms of logistics and information and communications technology, and increase the employment potential for youth;” and third, an Inter-American initiative on climate change “that can reach a consensus on the position of the Hemisphere ahead of Paris 2015.”

In terms of multidimensional security, Almagro proposed the generation of “a regional initiative to strengthen citizen security in the Hemisphere,” including the participation of multilateral and global organizations, the private sector and civil society. In addition, he presented his intention, if elected to begin the publication of an Annual Report on Citizen Security, which would allow “for the realization of a true diagnostic of the situation in each of the regions, sub-regions and countries of this Hemisphere.”

Next, Almagro expressed his belief that the member states of the Organization should find a viable and consensual way for the “effective re-entry” of Cuba to the OAS, and that the next Summit of the Americas in Panama in April “will be historic in that it will become a landmark due to the presence of Cuba.”

In his conclusion, Almagro emphasized that “This Organization we belong to has an irreplaceable accumulated history; it's an Organization that, because of its wealth and experience, allows us to be confident in building on what has already been done to create a mutually beneficial future for our countries.”

The Chair of the Permanent Council and Permanent Representative of Suriname to the OAS, Ambassador Niermala Badrising, welcomed the Minister of Uruguay on behalf of the body she leads.

The election of the Secretary General will take place on March 18. According to the rules of the OAS, candidates can be presented until the same day as the election.

The presentation by Minister Almagro was followed by a question and answer session with the member states, in which the representatives of Brazil, El Salvador, Haiti, Paraguay, Venezuela, The Bahamas, Dominica, Belize, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Mexico, Jamaica, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, the United States, Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala and Guyana took the floor.