Gold9472
06-07-2005, 12:13 PM
Latin Nations Resist Plan for Monitor of Democracy
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/06/international/americas/06oas.html?
By JOEL BRINKLEY
Published: June 6, 2005
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., June 5 - The major nations of Latin America have told the United States that they cannot support an American plan to establish a permanent committee of the Organization of American States that would monitor the exercise of democracy in the hemisphere, Latin American diplomats said Sunday.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who arrived here on Sunday afternoon to serve as chairwoman of an O.A.S. meeting where the American plan is on the agenda, expressed frustration with their view, saying, "We have to have a discussion of how the organization can be effective if it does not have a mechanism that can help at times of crisis."
If the organization fails to approve the American proposal, it would be a significant diplomatic defeat for the United States - from a region that for decades has generally gone along with Washington's requests. The United States is negotiating with the other countries, though diplomats and officials said they made little progress on Sunday.
Last month, senior administration officials said they intended to push for approval of the proposed resolution during the foreign ministers' meeting here, which runs through Monday. But, perhaps anticipating that approval was far from certain, Ms. Rice said to reporters on her plane, "All of the answers are not going to come out of this meeting."
Several ambassadors of Latin American states said last month that they would be unlikely to support the measure because they saw it as a thinly veiled attack on Venezuela, which has been at odds with the United States for several years.
In Caracas on Sunday, President Hugo Chávez clearly had the same view. On Venezuelan television, he said: "So, they're going to monitor the Venezuelan government through the O.A.S.? They must be joking."
"The times in which the O.A.S. was an instrument of the government in Washington are gone," he added.
Latin American ambassadors have been consulting among themselves about the proposal since the United States made it Wednesday at an O.A.S. meeting in Washington. Several said they opposed the idea of forming a committee that could intervene in the internal affairs of nations - perhaps even their own.
Apprised of that, Ms. Rice, said: "Of course, the organization has intervened in the past. It intervened in Peru." In 2000, the O.A.S. declared elections in Peru illegitimate and sent a mission to mediate the crisis.
"This is not somehow a set of ideas that the United States has, and is going to impose on anyone," she added.
The ambassadors from 10 major states, including Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Peru and Uruguay, met here on Saturday night and decided they could not support the plan as drafted, two of them said Sunday.
The two ambassadors said they particularly opposed a part of the proposal that says the organization should "develop a process to assess, as appropriate, situations that may affect the development of a member state's democratic political institutional process or the legitimate exercise of power."
One ambassador, who declined to be identified because he did not want to offend the United States, noted that the organization's charter emphasized "non-intervention, self-determination and respect for individual personalities" in member states.
The American proposal grew out of a remark that José Miguel Insulza, the newly elected secretary general of the organization, made in April at the urging of the United States. Clearly alluding to Venezuela, he said states that did not govern democratically should be held accountable by the organization.
In the weeks since then, the State Department has been drafting the proposal to create a committee that would listen to testimony from citizens groups that have problems with their governments.
The ambassador who declined to be identified said the nations could not accept that infringement on their sovereignty, but added: "We have a constructive attitude. We will work on language that is more acceptable."
Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman, said: "We are in the midst of the process. It is too soon to make a judgment. This is not a process that is going to be finished overnight."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/06/international/americas/06oas.html?
By JOEL BRINKLEY
Published: June 6, 2005
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., June 5 - The major nations of Latin America have told the United States that they cannot support an American plan to establish a permanent committee of the Organization of American States that would monitor the exercise of democracy in the hemisphere, Latin American diplomats said Sunday.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who arrived here on Sunday afternoon to serve as chairwoman of an O.A.S. meeting where the American plan is on the agenda, expressed frustration with their view, saying, "We have to have a discussion of how the organization can be effective if it does not have a mechanism that can help at times of crisis."
If the organization fails to approve the American proposal, it would be a significant diplomatic defeat for the United States - from a region that for decades has generally gone along with Washington's requests. The United States is negotiating with the other countries, though diplomats and officials said they made little progress on Sunday.
Last month, senior administration officials said they intended to push for approval of the proposed resolution during the foreign ministers' meeting here, which runs through Monday. But, perhaps anticipating that approval was far from certain, Ms. Rice said to reporters on her plane, "All of the answers are not going to come out of this meeting."
Several ambassadors of Latin American states said last month that they would be unlikely to support the measure because they saw it as a thinly veiled attack on Venezuela, which has been at odds with the United States for several years.
In Caracas on Sunday, President Hugo Chávez clearly had the same view. On Venezuelan television, he said: "So, they're going to monitor the Venezuelan government through the O.A.S.? They must be joking."
"The times in which the O.A.S. was an instrument of the government in Washington are gone," he added.
Latin American ambassadors have been consulting among themselves about the proposal since the United States made it Wednesday at an O.A.S. meeting in Washington. Several said they opposed the idea of forming a committee that could intervene in the internal affairs of nations - perhaps even their own.
Apprised of that, Ms. Rice, said: "Of course, the organization has intervened in the past. It intervened in Peru." In 2000, the O.A.S. declared elections in Peru illegitimate and sent a mission to mediate the crisis.
"This is not somehow a set of ideas that the United States has, and is going to impose on anyone," she added.
The ambassadors from 10 major states, including Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Peru and Uruguay, met here on Saturday night and decided they could not support the plan as drafted, two of them said Sunday.
The two ambassadors said they particularly opposed a part of the proposal that says the organization should "develop a process to assess, as appropriate, situations that may affect the development of a member state's democratic political institutional process or the legitimate exercise of power."
One ambassador, who declined to be identified because he did not want to offend the United States, noted that the organization's charter emphasized "non-intervention, self-determination and respect for individual personalities" in member states.
The American proposal grew out of a remark that José Miguel Insulza, the newly elected secretary general of the organization, made in April at the urging of the United States. Clearly alluding to Venezuela, he said states that did not govern democratically should be held accountable by the organization.
In the weeks since then, the State Department has been drafting the proposal to create a committee that would listen to testimony from citizens groups that have problems with their governments.
The ambassador who declined to be identified said the nations could not accept that infringement on their sovereignty, but added: "We have a constructive attitude. We will work on language that is more acceptable."
Gonzalo Gallegos, a State Department spokesman, said: "We are in the midst of the process. It is too soon to make a judgment. This is not a process that is going to be finished overnight."