MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Paraguayan FM seeks top OAS position

Trump apparently prefers Ramírez over the Surinamese contender

Paraguay's Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez Lezcano has become a strong contender to replace the Uruguayan Diego Almagro as Secretary-General of the Organization of American States (OAS) following talks with US President-elect Donald Trump and his future aide Elon Musk, it was reported through X.

 The three leaders discussed late Friday the situation in South America which includes dictatorial regimes in Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela as Ramírez expressed his intentions to succeed Almagro. His contender would be Minister Albert Ramdin of Suriname.

According to postings on X, discussions between Ramírez and Trump were a follow-up on what the Republican leader had already reviewed with Paraguayan President Santiago Peña.

Regarding the dictatorships in Latin America, Almagro issued a communiqué last week condemning Nicaragua's plans to reform the Constitution so that President Daniel Ortega and his acolytes can “perpetuate themselves in power.”

In Almagro's view, “the 'reform' document is illegitimate in form and content, it merely constitutes an aberrant form of institutionalization of the matrimonial dictatorship in the Central American country and is a definitive attack on the democratic rule of law.”

He also pointed out that “the people of Nicaragua need peace, democracy, and respect for human rights, they need authentic, legitimate, universal, and free elections. The Nicaraguan people need the end of the dictatorship.”

The Uruguayan diplomat also insisted that “the rejection of the dictatorship and its actions must remain total and diplomatic pressure on the dictatorial marital regime must be redoubled, so that there is justice for the people and punishment for those who have perpetrated this attack.”