Washington, .- The Organization of American States (OAS) will address the crises in Venezuela and Nicaragua during its General Assembly, the most important meeting of the body that brings together the foreign ministers of the continent and will be held between June 26 and 28 in Medellín ( Colombia).
During a meeting, the OAS included in the agenda for the General Assembly several points: the situation in Venezuela and Nicaragua, as well as the crisis of Venezuelan immigrants and refugees in the region, as it appears in the approved document.
Also on the agenda is another issue titled “Towards the reform of the Organization of American States” that was proposed by the US, possibly with the aim of introducing changes to the current voting system, they told Efe diplomatic sources.
The inclusion of that point generated controversy during the meeting this Friday and 17 countries -including Mexico, Uruguay, Costa Rica and several Caribbean nations- voted so that this point is not included in the agenda because officially Washington has not specified what is its objective .
The US mission In the OAS, he promised to inform the rest of the countries about the content of that proposal next week.
The agenda approved this Friday is provisional and should be formally endorsed at the beginning of the General Assembly by the foreign ministers of the 34 countries that are active members of the OAS (Cuba belongs to the organization but has not participated in it since 1962).
Normally, the agenda is usually approved in the General Assembly without problem and is a mere formal step.
For weeks, in the corridors of the OAS there was talk of the possibility that the General Assembly held elections to elect the general secretary, despite the fact that the elections are scheduled for 2020, when the five-year mandate of the current one ends. leader of the organization, Luis Almagro.
The mission of Colombia in the OAS came to include in the draft agenda a point that was entitled “definition, only dated for the election of Secretary General and Deputy Secretary General” and that, according to diplomatic sources told Efe, could have opened the door to the re-election of Almagro.
However, Colombia withdrew that point, so in principle the elections are still set for 2020.
Asked about this issue by Efe this week, Almagro assured that he is not interested in advancing the elections and that the member states will be in charge of setting the election date.
“I’m not going to advance anything, at all, I have no interest in advancing anything,” he said.
The regulation establishes that the OAS Secretary General must be elected in a General Assembly and needs only a simple majority, that is, 18 votes.
Since joining the OAS in 2015, Almagro has become one of the most critical international voices with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, and an atypical secretary general who has come to denounce crimes against humanity in Venezuela before the Criminal Court. International (CPI). (EFEUSA)
