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Reelected, OAS Secretary General Vows to Continue Working for the Region’s Common Values

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, urged the member states of the hemispheric organization to continue working for democracy, human rights, public security and other common values after being reelected today for a second term at the Organization’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

“I believe we have made progress in many of these, more than is sometimes acknowledged outside the organization,” the Secretary General said during the Thirty-Ninth Special General Assembly of the OAS. “But we can still make a big effort to improve our work, to make sure that all the resources our states contribute at great sacrifice are well utilized, and to seek more external resources.”

Furthermore, the Secretary General said he was committed to continue working to strengthen democratic institutions and governance in the countries of the hemisphere and reminded the governments of the region of their responsibilities. “In the years ahead we will continue to fight to strengthen the representative democracy we have achieved through such great efforts, and which we’ve only had for a few decades,” Insulza said.

“How important it is, though it may have been said many times, that all states represented here have democratically elected governments. That had never happened in our history, and we have to defend it, we have to strengthen it together, we have to make a big effort and for that we have valuable and valid tools.”

The Secretary General, who was reelected by acclamation, thanked all of the hemisphere’s governments for their support. “I want to thank you for the trust you have placed on me. I want to thank first of all Chile. It is not a state policy I am grateful for but something that goes beyond that. The support that has been given me in this and the previous election corresponds to a shared democratic conviction,” Insulza said.

“I also wish to express my thanks to my dear friends of South America, and my friends of the Caribbean, who have accompanied me with so much friendship, with so much understanding and with whom we have worked with such great effort. Also to my brothers of Central America, with whom we have been able to work together in the areas of democracy, development, and with whom we have shared an adequate understanding of the crises the region has lived. To my brothers of Mexico, the country of my friends and my adopted country. To my friends of Canada, because without Canada we could hardly have succeeded in many of the programs we have carried out. To our host country, the United States, because this organization exists in United States territory and it is thanks to the support and efforts of the government of this country that we can work in the way that we do.”

For his part, the Chilean Foreign Minister, Alfredo Moreno, thanked the member states of the Organization “for having allowed Chile to renew its commitment to the work of an organization we have a shared responsibility to make more efficient and bring closer to the people. Let’s not lose the opportunity to continue to work without pause for this institution to become more relevant. Let’s make an effort to revitalize it with the beginning of this new stage in which we can prioritize and focus our collective action on a sense of the future.”

Photographs of the event will be posted here.

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

Reference: E-090/10