Media Center

Press Release

UPCOMING SECURITY CONFERENCE WILL SPOTLIGHT
HEMISPHERE’S COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE

Cooperation is key in confronting threats in the Hemisphere, international experts underscored at an Organization of American States meeting, ahead of the regional security conference to be held in Mexico City from May 6 to 8.

The delegates also viewed the Mexico City Conference as a unique opportunity to highlight the region’s comparative advantage as regards strengthening democratic systems, the role of the armed forces and confidence- and security-building measures.

“After two decades, the process of formal subordination of the armed forces to their respective civilian commanders is now the general reality around the Hemisphere,” Jaime Garreta, President of the Regional Security Strategy 2000 organization, told a meeting of the OAS Committee on Hemispheric Security, chaired by Mexico’s Ambassador Miguel Ruiz-Cabañas.

As regards how civilian leadership of the armed forces influences hemispheric security concepts, practices and plans, Garreta said Latin America has been undergoing profound institutional change towards stronger democracy in recent decades. “But we must ask whether these changes alone can guarantee a ‘never again’ attitude to the old authoritarian practices.”

Francisco Rojas, Director of the Chile-based Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO), stressed that the upcoming Special Conference on Security “is all the more important given current international developments and the difficulties in achieving consensus at the United Nations.” He said the Political Declaration from the Mexico City meeting “will be a milestone in the process of security in the Americas.”

In his presentation, Joseph Tulchin, Director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center’s Latin America Program, discussed the “asymmetry of power” he said has become more prominent since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, when the role of the Inter-American Treaty of Mutual Assistance in hemispheric security came into question.”


“Given the uncertainties of threats to international security at the dawn of the twenty-first century, more emphasis should be placed on the Hemisphere’s comparative advantage with democracy fully entrenched as the political system; human rights guaranteed by law; and inter-state conflicts almost non-existent,” observed Raúl Benítez, a researcher from the Autonomous University of Mexico.

According to Benítez, the international war on terrorism has impaired diplomatic relations between certain OAS member states. “A breakdown in governance in some countries means full cooperation is not really possible, as domestic military crises strain relations between member states.”

José Antonio Guevara, Coordinator of the Human Rights Program at the Ibero-American University of Mexico, underscored the “importance of the recently-created International Criminal Court as a vehicle to prevent attacks on human security and, hence, as an ideal mechanism for preventing attacks on hemispheric security.”

Meanwhile, Luis Bitencourt, Director of the Brazil Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, stressed the need for hemispheric security cooperation to be bolstered, while Christopher Sabatini, representing the Latin America and Caribbean Program at the National Democracy Foundation, explored new concepts of security as it relates to democracy. He argued that “globalization is more than just increased capital and information flows. It means as well fighting terrorist syndicates that undermine internal control in countries.”

Reference: E-067/03