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OAS Secretary General Urges US and Latin America to Focus on Addressing their Common Agenda: Democracy, Human Rights, Prosperity, Immigration and Security

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS ), José Miguel Insulza, called on the United States and Latin America to accept their diversity and focus their efforts on "developing a common agenda for the region that all its leaders can accept" which would include democracy, human rights and citizens well-being, immigration and security.

“The issues of this agenda are well known, as they have been mentioned several times. What we need is the political will to deal with them together,” said Secretary General Insulza at a conference on the highs and lows of this relationship which he delivered at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC.

In his speech, the OAS leader gave an overview of what has been the relationship between the northern country and the south of the Hemisphere in the last decade highlighting as central the political, economic, cultural and social changes in Latin America. He also recalled that democracy is now prevalent in the region and that all OAS countries have democratically elected governments; noted that the global financial crisis that began in 2008 was overcome in an exemplary manner by the Latin American countries; and concluded that these and other advances "have created a new feeling of independence and a hope for progress in the region that should not be left aside when talking about hemispheric relations.”

He said that despite this, recent opinion polls reveal that a "majority of Latin Americans believe that the US should continue to be its most important partner, because the natural partners for any economy are its neighbors and because our cultural, political, ethnic and geographic links are stronger and grow stronger every day." But, he added, "today that partnership can only be strengthened through cooperation and never through imposition.”

The United States and Latin America, said the leader of the OAS, agree that democracy “could not be imposed anywhere by outside intervention,” an event he described as "unimaginable these days." He also said that to promote democratic practices, OAS member states have the tools contained in the Inter-American Democratic Charter, which requires consensus: "it is a commitment among sovereign countries, not a resource for forceful imposition.”

On human rights, the head of the hemispheric Organization said that "in the region there is no other credible instance than the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IACHR) and, for those who have ratified the Convention of San Jose, The Inter-American Court of Human Rights." In this regard, the Secretary urged countries that have not yet done so to ratify the Convention, which he said would help to strengthen the system.

On the issue of prosperity, Secretary General Insulza stressed that all the countries in the Hemisphere agree on the positive benefits of trade, competitiveness, education and energy. Immigration was another aspect considered by Insulza to have a noticeable impact on the regional relationship, in which common efforts could be strengthened, as it is a phenomenon that affects in one way or another all the countries of the Hemisphere. "This is a matter that can be dealt with through dialogue while seeking an overall solution that is satisfactory to all those involved.”

The head of the OAS recalled that on crime and violence, the countries of the region have common interests, especially with regard to trafficking in drugs, arms and people, and organized crime in general. “We are all part of the problem and a solution can only be reached among ourselves,” he added.

“Success in these joint ventures,” Insulza said, requires a change in “the way we handle our political and ideological differences.” "So long as the United States continues to regard those differences as dangers or threats; and as some governments continue to blame foreign imperialism for all their failures, the distancing will not only remain; it may even become more pronounced," he said.

This idea, said Secretary General Insulza, is reinforced by the fact that the region has increasingly more in common, starting with economic interests. Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, cited by the head of the OAS, recalled in her memoirs that 40 percent of exports from her country go to America, as compared with only 7 percent to China and 21 percent to the European Union. And in a recently published study by the International Monetary Fund ranking countries by the size of their economies in US$ millions adjusted for purchasing power, Brazil was the seventh largest and Mexico the eleventh. In that same list, Argentina ranked 22nd, Colombia 29th, Venezuela 34th, Peru 39th, and Chile 41st.

Finally, referring to Cuba, the only country outside the Inter-American system, Secretary General Insulza expressed his hope that in the short term, all the countries in the Hemisphere, without exception, would normalize diplomatic ties with the island.

A gallery of photos of the event is available here.

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

Reference: E-478/14