Setback for Leftists in Latin America: OAS Re-elects Almagro as Secretary General

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In an unexpectedly decisive outcome, the members of the Organization of American States (OAS) yesterday confirmed the current Secretary General Luis Almagro for a further five-year term of office.

Almagro garnered 23 votes, while his rival candidate María Fernanda Espinosa, a former Foreign Minister of Ecuador, obtained only ten votes; a majority required 18 votes. As a result, the OAS decided by majority vote in favor of continuity of Almagro’s sometimes controversial policies.

More “progressive” forces had hoped for an election victory for Espinosa. In recent years, the OAS under Almagro had increasingly intervened in democratic processes such as the presidential elections in Bolivia or Dominica, or backed highly controversial events such as the self-proclamation of Juan Guaidó as President of Venezuela.

Conversely, the organization under Almagro remained passive in the alleged election fraud in Honduras in 2017 and remained silent in the face of human rights violations by government forces against demonstrators in Chile and Ecuador or after the ouster of Evo Morales in Bolivia last year.

Seventeen of the 34 member states are said to have tried until the last minute to defer the vote due to the coronavirus pandemic and the associated health risks. Countries in the Caribbean, Argentina and Mexico in particular were opposed to its being carried out.

Mexico justified the request with the fact that journalists are only able to report on the election process to a very limited extent. The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) had also submitted an official letter requesting a deferral, but this request was rejected.

Almagro was Foreign Minister of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015 under the left-wing President José Mujica. After taking office in the OAS, he undertook a virtually unprecedented political reversal. His first major project was his decisive stand against the left-wing authoritarian government of Venezuela.