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New Permanent Representative of Chile Presented Credentials

The new Permanent Representative of Chile to the Organization of American States (OAS), Juan Pablo Lira, today presented his credentials to the Secretary General, José Miguel Insulza, during a ceremony held in the Hall of Heroes at the headquarters of the hemispheric institution in Washington, DC.

During the ceremony, the diplomat said that he has "clear and direct instructions" from the government of President Michelle Bachelet "to ratify the commitment of Chile to the Inter-American System." Ambassador Lira said that his country is "a strong supporter of multilateralism in the Hemisphere, as the main mechanism of cooperation for the promotion of peace, security, democracy, human rights and fundamental international principles and rights."

The new Chilean representative stressed the role of the Organization in the region and said "today, more than ever, our Hemisphere needs a strengthened and active OAS. We face new challenges that make it essential that the Inter-American System recognizes them and resolves them proactively and with the necessary measures." He further expressed the support of his government to the "process leading to the successful production of what is known as the Strategic Vision, for which we recognize the continuing value of the four pillars of the institution, human rights, democracy, security and development. On this basis, we believe that our Organization needs to achieve its goals by addressing the new political, economic and financial realities we face."

In conclusion, the Chilean representative called on Member Countries to be "capable of enhancing the synergies that these new schemes can deliver for the benefit of our peoples, working together, not separately."

For his part, the Secretary General thanked the Chilean government for the appointment of Ambassador Lira to the OAS "in a complex moment, because we have an upcoming General Assembly," in which the central theme is "Development with Social Inclusion.” "This gives us the difficult task as an Organization to open a path and consider ideas not only in order to have an economic debate, but to do so considering the many dimensions of inequality facing our region," said Insulza.

The OAS leader agreed with Ambassador Lira in highlighting that the pillars of the OAS "are permanent, are the tasks for which our Organization was born and created, and our challenge is really to keep that in mind, setting the priorities that are appropriate today in terms of democracy, human rights, security and development and make it as efficient as possible, which is not an easy job.”

"We have before us some very important tasks and have the support of Chile, my country, which has always been linked to the Organization, which has provided a lot of support with a very frank, very clear, very open and very effective multilateral policy. We are sure Ambassador, that we are going to be able to count on you and I want to welcome you as a friend first, a very dear friend, and wish you the greatest success in your mission with us," concluded Secretary General Insulza.

Present at the ceremony were the Chair of the Permanent Council and Permanent Representative of Saint Kitts and Nevis, Jacinth Lorna Henry-Martin; the Assistant Secretary General, Albert Ramdin and several Permanent Representatives accredited to the OAS.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

The B-Roll of the event is available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-190/14