By DAVID LUHNOW and PETER SPIEGEL
The Organization of American States took shape after World War II as a
mini United Nations for the Western Hemisphere -- and just like the
U.N., it has struggled for decades to prove its effectiveness.
Now the OAS faces new criticism that it isn't upholding its mission to
defend democracy in the region, in the wake of its failure to
successfully intervene in the political crisis in Honduras.
The crisis, in which President Manuel Zelaya was forced from power and
into exile on June 28, has also put a spotlight on the OAS's
hard-charging Chilean chief, José Miguel Insulza, whom some diplomats
and academics say has coddled antidemocratic powers in the region.
Critics say the organization and Mr. Insulza made a political solution
harder to reach by acting forcefully on behalf of Mr. Zelaya, a leftist
ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, and alienating Honduras's
interim government.
Long Road To Unity
* 1890 The U.S. and 17 other nations found International Union of
American Republics.
* 1910 Name changed to Pan-American Union.
* 1948 Modern-day Organization of American States is formed.
* 1961 Nations launch Alliance for Progress to promote regional
development and prevent spread of communism.
* 1962 OAS suspends Cuba.
* 1979 Inter-American Court of Human Rights created.
* 2001 Charter signed stating that all OAS member nations must be
democracies.
* June 2009 OAS revokes Cuba's suspension on condition that Cuba
abides by OAS charter, including democratic principles.
* July 2009 OAS suspends Honduras over the ouster of President
Manuel Zelaya.
"From its first statement on 28 June, the OAS was totally
confrontational, proclaimed immediately that it was a coup, launched no
diplomatic initiatives, and immediately demanded a total capitulation by
the de facto government," says William Ratliff, a Latin America expert
at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
OAS spokesman Alvaro Briones said the reaction of the OAS member states
to the crisis "was neither forced nor rushed. It was the response
stipulated by the Inter-American Democratic Charter and it was necessary
to set a clear precedent."
Mr. Zelaya was forced from office after trying to hold a referendum to
change the Honduran Constitution to allow a president's re-election, in
much the same way Mr. Chávez has abolished term limits and concentrated
power. Honduras's Supreme Court and Congress deemed the referendum
illegal, but Mr. Zelaya defied them.
The crisis came to a head when soldiers forced Mr. Zelaya from his home.
The next day, OAS Secretary-General Insulza was in Nicaragua, condemning
Honduras's new leadership alongside leaders including Mr. Chávez, Cuba's
Raúl Castro, and Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega. Within a week, the OAS
suspended Honduras because of the ouster.
Mr. Zelaya remains in exile and the role of mediation between him and
the man who took his place as president has been handed to diplomats
outside the OAS.
Even OAS supporters say the crisis highlights the need for deep change
in the 34-nation organization, which is run by consensus and lacks
flexibility. The organization responds only to the presidents of each
country, ignoring other branches of government.
"What happens when an elected president turns against the rule of law
and attempts to destroy it? When he tramples the rights of Congress or
eliminates judicial independence? Nothing happens because the OAS
charter, erroneously, was not conceived to deal with those threats,"
said Genaro Arriagada, a former Chilean ambassador to the U.S.
Mr. Insulza, a former Chilean vice president, recognizes that the OAS
has limitations in dealing with these situations and recently proposed
reforms, Mr. Briones said.
But Mr. Insulza and other OAS officials say that doesn't mean the OAS
should not have condemned the Honduras coup. "A military coup d'état is
a different thing. A coup is a rape of democracy," Mr. Insulza said in a
recent speech.
His supporters say the Honduran crisis carried too many echoes of the
region's history of coups for Mr. Insulza and the OAS to not act
forcefully. "Bear in mind that Washington also condemned the coup," said
Raul Benitez, a Mexican academic and friend of Mr. Insulza.
Mr. Insulza was a young Chilean diplomat in 1973 when Augusto Pinochet
overthrew socialist President Salvador Allende, forcing Mr. Insulza into
exile in Mexico for years. He recently said one of his first memories
was of the 1954 coup that ousted Guatemala's President Jacobo Arbenz.
Mr. Insulza ruffled feathers this year when he joined many OAS members
in lobbying to lift Cuba's 1962 suspension from the organization. The
U.S. and others made Cuba's re-entry conditional on abiding by OAS
principles, presumably including support of democracy.
The OAS charter allows it to suspend a member in the case of an
unconstitutional break in leadership, but only after "diplomatic
initiatives" have failed. In the days after the coup, Mr. Insulza led an
OAS mission to Honduras but refused to meet with members of the interim
government for fear of legitimizing them.
Mr. Insulza, a former Chilean vice president, refers to the interim
government as a "dictatorship," even though it plans to hold elections
as scheduled in November.
Defenders of Honduras's de facto government point out that a court had
ordered Mr. Zelaya to be arrested, and the person who succeeded him,
congressional leader Roberto Micheletti, was next in line under the
constitution.
With the OAS stumped, talks on the crisis got under way after U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pushed the idea of using Costa Rican
President Óscar Arias as a go-between.
In Washington, Mr. Insulza's handling of the Honduras crisis has drawn
criticism among some Republicans who say the OAS leadership has allowed
Mr. Chávez and his allies to set the organization's agenda.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, the top Republican on the House
Foreign Affairs Committee, has called for Mr. Insulza's resignation,
saying he has weakened American allies in the region and emboldened Mr.
Chávez.
"The way they've mishandled the Honduran situation is emblematic of how
they've handled the decline in democratic institutions throughout Latin
America," Ms. Ros-Lehtinen said.
Jeffrey Davidow, a former U.S. ambassador to Mexico and Venezuela who
has advised the Obama administration, said the OAS's problem with
handling the crisis in Honduras is in part institutional, since its
secretary-general must speak for all members of a disparate group.
Mr. Davidow also points out that relations between Messrs. Insulza and
Chávez have frequently been strained. Mr. Chávez used a Spanish epithet
to insult Mr. Insulza two years ago, after the OAS chief called on the
Venezuelan to reopen a private television network that had been shut down.
The Obama administration continues to view the OAS as a key part of its
push to make U.S. foreign policy more multilateral, said a former senior
State Department official.
The official said he believes Mr. Insulza has taken strong stands
publicly on the need to support democratic institutions in the region,
and that U.S. officials were continuing to push him privately on the
topic. The official added that whether Mr. Insulza is balancing his
statements with actions was "something we need to take a look at."
The Bush administration supported Mr. Insulza's candidacy for the OAS
post in 2005 after its preferred candidate withdrew following a
succession of deadlocked votes.
Roger Noriega, who oversaw the State Department's Western Hemisphere
policies at the time, said the administration agreed to back Mr. Insulza
only after getting public assurances from him that he would actively
support democratic institutions in Latin America.
When Mr. Noriega recently ran into Mr. Insulza at Reagan National
Airport, he recalled, Mr. Noriega confronted the OAS chief, saying: "I
believe you broke your word to me."
Mr. Insulza's office declined to comment on the statement.
Write to David Luhnow at david.luhnow@wsj.com and Peter Spiegel at
peter.spiegel@wsj.com
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A12
Crisis Tests Relevance of Americas Group - WSJ.com (1 August 2009)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124908999380498605.html
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