Washington. The Organization of American States (OAS) is preparing to choose the new general secretary on Monday. The competition was reduced to a single candidate after Paraguay withdrew the candidacy of its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Rubén Ramírez Lezcano, which proposed a reengineering of the OAS to get it afloat in its financial crisis.
Surinam Foreign Minister Albert Ramdin arrives at the General Assembly of the agency in Washington without opponents in the competition to occupy the position that Luis Almagro had for 10 years.
However, the OAS, recalls that the day the vote the Member States have the right to “present candidacies for the charges”, both of the holder and the deputy secretary, those who may arise the same day of the General Assembly.
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In statements given to the press during the Presentation of its proposals to direct the agency Regional, in recent February, Foreign Minister Ramdin said that, until that moment he had the support of 14 members of the Caribbean community (Caricom) and that the Surinam government was in negotiations with other countries in the region to ensure its election.
The 33 OAS member countries must vote on the day. Nicaragua and Venezuela are Be the organism by self -examination.
Support withdrawal
Paraguayan President Santiago Peña criticized his South American neighbors for the retirement of support to his candidate, Foreign Minister Rubén Darío Ramírez Lezcano, to direct the OAS. The votes committed in favor of Ramírez Lezcano were in descent.
“In recent days and in an abrupt and inexplicable way, Paraguay was informed by friends of the region, with whom we shared a common space and history, which modified their initial commitment to our country and decided not to finally accompany Paraguay’s proposal,” to direct the OAS, the presidency of that country said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Paraguayan executive insisted that the change in support would be based on a “particular situation”, rather than the “high principles and values” that the South American country defends before organisms such as the OAS and the United Nations system.
Paraguay was perceived among the diplomatic world, as an ally of the United States for the election of the Secretary General, according to South American media; this at times that Washington tense relationships With some countries in the region, especially in issues such as dutymigratory policies and their commitment to Recover the Panama Canal That the administration of President Trump says corresponds to the United States.
New block configuration
The Southiname Foreign Minister would have capitalized strong support beyond the Caribbean region, and the date other votes from different countries of continental land would already be compromised.
It has transpired that Costa Rica, Ecuador and Dominican Republic joined in the last hours to support the candidacy of Foreign Minister Albert Ramdin, added to the Block of Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Bolivia Colombia and Mexico.
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The president of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, had committed to support Paraguay, but on a mini summit held last weekend during the investiture acts of the president of Uruguay, Yamandú Orsi, in Montevideo, the Brazilian president met with his homologues from Chile, Gabriel Buric and Colombia, Gustavo Petro, more the host to rethink support.
The South American media have recorded that the decision was based in response to the “Agenda that develops” the president of the United States, Donald Trump, with Latin America.
The new block around Foreign Minister Ramdin would seek – according to informative means – generate a counterweight from the OAS to unify a regional policy before the Trump administration.
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Canada, another of the countries with the right to vote in the agency, has not yet announced its support for Monday’s vote, but the northern neighbor has also expressed strong differences With Washington the week that ends by the topic of tariffs and President Trump’s previous statements to attach Canada as another state of the American Union.
Foreign Minister Ramdin was the Deputy Secretary of the OAS during the two mandates of the Chilean José Miguel Insulza who directed the regional agency in Washington from 2005 to 2015.