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OAS GENERAL ASSEMBLY OPENS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic—The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, opened the thirty-sixth regular session of the General Assembly this evening, in the presence of President Leonel Fernández of the Dominican Republic and the region’s foreign ministers. Insulza said technological and scientific progress should be one of the main goals for Latin America and the Caribbean, in order to bring about development that helps strengthen democracy and create equitable economic growth.

The central theme of this meeting—“Good Governance and Development in the Knowledge-based Society”—“underscores the connection between two of the larger issues we have identified as major challenges to the achievement of full democracy in our hemisphere: economic growth with equity and implementation of good practices in government administration; and technological development as one of the major needs of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean,” Insulza said during the ceremony held in the National Theater.

In this regard, he said, “new technologies can and should be employed to improve the quality of public administration, specifically development policies, and thus contribute to improving the lives of citizens in our nations and to strengthening democracy.”

Insulza, who has just completed his first year at the helm of the OAS, stressed the absence of political crises in the region at this time and noted the role the Organization has played in the process of normalizing situations in four countries that had faced institutional instability in recent months.

The Secretary General said the results of the first year of his administration had been “highly positive,” pointing out that the OAS helped resolve crises in Bolivia, Ecuador, Haiti and Nicaragua. “A look at the situation as we gather for this session of the Assembly shows clear progress. The crises in those four countries were dealt with democratically, and no similar cases of instability have arisen in the region,” he said. Insulza also stressed the “soundness of democratic development” in the region, as seen this year “in a succession of electoral processes unprecedented in our recent history.”

He also talked about the participation of the OAS in the peace process in Colombia, where he said “we face a challenge whose magnitude calls for hemispheric solidarity.”

“Achieving that peace means no more and no less than putting an end to the oldest armed conflict in the Americas, one which has dragged on for nearly 50 years,” he added about the situation in Colombia. Despite delays and difficulties, Insulza said, “the progress is undeniable: violence has diminished and demobilization has been accomplished, despite the persistence of certain armed criminal groups.”

Despite his generally positive assessment, Insulza recognized that a number of problems that have arisen recently in the region “do nothing to contribute to the unity so essential within our hemisphere.” He stressed that the OAS is not an organization of right-wing, left-wing or centrist governments, but of democratic states that practice democracy within the framework of the founding OAS Charter and the Inter-American Democratic Charter. Economic and public-policy decisions that the states adopt are within the purview of their governments, “and the decisions of peoples regarding whom they elect as their leaders are fully respected in this Organization. All that is required here is that, where democracy is concerned, we abide by the common principles on which we have agreed.”

Speaking to the 34 heads of delegation who are meeting today through Tuesday in the Dominican capital, the Secretary General said the countries of the region must be able to overcome their differences in the area of trade and continue to move forward with integration processes, with each country maintaining its own vision and discussing differences in a spirit of mutual respect and hemispheric unity. “My hope is that this Assembly will disprove the stories in the international press that speak of division in Latin America and that, here in Santo Domingo, we will reassert our democratic convictions and our total allegiance to the principles of nonintervention and mutual respect that must guide our relations.”

Insulza noted that there are some issues that the OAS political bodies almost never address, despite their increasing importance to the region. “Such is the case of immigration, whose importance on this year’s agenda is undeniable and yet which fails to receive the importance it deserves in our deliberations and the work of the Secretariat,” he said. Without making any specific proposals, he urged the foreign ministers to “include the issue on our agenda of concerns.”

The Secretary General referred to the valuable work the OAS has done in combating drug trafficking and reiterated his proposal to allocate to the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission a small percentage of seized assets, in accordance with each country’s laws, to help maintain and broaden OAS anti-drug programs. He also talked about progress the Inter-American Committee against Terrorism has made in strengthening the region’s terrorism prevention efforts.

In closing his speech, the Secretary General said that “over the past year we have taken important steps toward achieving a stronger, more efficient, more participatory and more single-minded OAS. I believe in reason and consensus as the only ways to progress toward the achievement of our objectives.”

Reference: E-005AG36