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The Organization of American States: On its Deathbed?

Haiti: Revisiting the Aristide debate – To Our Readers

Unfortunately, an older and unedited version of the COHA piece entitled “The OAS: On its Deathbed?” was inadvertently sent out to a very small cohort of COHA readers on October 17 before an error was discovered and the press run was immediately aborted.

Due to a computer editing error, the author, Sean Bartlett did not catch that two different facts were spliced into one sentence. Jose Miguel Insulza, as a young man in his late twenties, was a political director in the Chilean Foreign Ministry under the Allende administration, eventually rising to the rank of foreign minister decades later under the second Frei Administration after returning from exile abroad during the Pinochet dictatorship. (He, of course, was not Chile’s foreign minister under Allende as stated in the version that was sent in error). The error has been corrected and the author regrets this mistake.

  • Should the OAS be reconstituted with Canada and the US as observer nations, or can the US revise its role as both a leader and an ally that respects its own limitations?
  • Sovereign rights are no meager subject
  • Latin America needs its freedom and autonomy outside the OAS in order for it to grow

Illness is not usually the equivalence of death. This aphorism is being applied by some to the health of the Organization of American States (OAS), the premiere regional organization and forum for the democratic nations of the Western Hemisphere. As the international political landscape has evolved from the Cold War to the Wars on Drugs and Terror, the United States, the OAS’ proverbial elephant, has diverted much of its attention to events occurring outside of the region. Thus, today it almost seems to be a fallacy that as goes the U.S., so goes the OAS. In terms of investment and trade matters this may be a legitimate concern, but the long-term political, economic, and social thrust of the other Western Hemispheric nations does not seem to be adversely affected by a cut-back in U.S. attention to the region. In fact, many of them have thrived, with a number of them welcoming a lesser role for the U.S. because this will allow for pluralism, diversification, and experimentation now that Washington’s often heavy hand has been lightened. However, a lesser role that has translated to the U.S.’ virtual disappearance concerning hemispheric affairs in the last several years was not originally envisaged. The subsequent result has been a growing number of voices inviting inquiry as to the contemporary relevance of the OAS.

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