Argentine president says OAS is American gendarmerie squad against popular governments in Latin America

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In a virtual meeting for the second anniversary of the Puebla Group forum., Argentine President Alberto Fernández said Friday (30) that the Organization of American States (OAS) “as it is does not serve” and that “it is a squadron” that advances on the popular governments of Latin America,

Fernández pointed out that the years of Donald Trump’s administration (2017-2021) in the United States “made the OAS not a meeting place for Latin America.”

Instead, he pointed out that the OAS is “a sort of American gendarmerie squad to advance on the popular governments in Latin America.”

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The Argentine president added that the actions of the OAS in Bolivia “necessarily have to be investigated and have to be judged”, regarding irregularities denounced in the presidential elections held in 2019, when Evo Morales had triumphed.

“The OAS as it stands is useless. The first one who has to make mea culpa is Mr. (Luis) Almagro for the number of things he has done”, said Fernández.

“We only disagreed in that area,” he insisted and recalled that he is working for the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) “to be the replacement place”.

BLOCKADES

Fernández also pointed out that “there are also societies in Latin America that suffer economic blockades in the middle of a pandemic” and then emphasized that “a government is not blocked, a society is blocked.”

The Argentine had already called for an end to blockades in response to the massive protests in Cuba two weeks ago. “Blockades should shame those who promote them,” he said. “Latin America should rise against blockades,” he said, as “it has the moral obligation, the ethical duty to do so.”

“We go around the world explaining to Europe, the U.S., that those blockades that have been launched were useless,” said Fernández, and explained that “the best way is not to intervene governments, but to let governments be elected by the people.”

FOREIGN DEBT

Fernández also foresaw that “debt will be a problem” for the world and Latin America.” He acknowledged that for Argentina, “it already is” because the country owes some US$45 billion to the International Monetary Fund.

“We should be united before our creditors to have more strength, to have better conditions,” he harangued. “In division, we all lose,” he insisted.

RETURN OF PROGRESSIVISM

The Puebla Group forum, to which various left-wing political figures from 15 countries between Spain and Latin America belong -among them, several former presidents-, celebrated on Wednesday two years since its creation as an instance to defend progressivism within the region.

Observers point to the Puebla Group as the successor-substitute of the Foro de São Paulo,
launched by the Workers’ Party of Brazil in 1990 in the city of São Paulo.

Fernández said that Trump’s years in power explain the current state of the OAS and the Inter-American Development Bank, the birth of the Lima Group and Prosur.

On the other hand, he celebrated the agreement with Mexico to produce the AstraZeneca vaccine against covid-19, the triumph of Luis Arce in Bolivia. He considered “a breath of fresh air” the triumph of Pedro Castillo in Peru.