Uruguayan former Foreign Minister Luis Almagro, 56, has been reelected this Friday as Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS) until 2025. A total of 33 of the 34 member countries – Dominica did not intervene and Cuba has not participated since 1962 – have met in a General Assembly at the organization’s headquarters in Washington, in a session in which Almagro has obtained 23 votes compared to 10 of the Ecuadorian diplomat María Fernanda Espinosa. Almagro needed 18 votes, the majority simple, to continue leading the institution for another five years. As is the tradition of the organization, neither of the two candidates was presented by their respective countries. “My thanks to those who took my candidacy and to the other candidates, made this a competitive process that forced me to get the best out of each one,” was Almagro’s brief speech.
The secret vote has been surrounded by controversy because on Wednesday Mexico and 13 members of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) asked that it be postponed due to the coronavirus crisis. During the session, the ambassadors were seen wearing gloves, two meters apart, and disinfecting their hands.
Almagro’s victory, proposed by Colombia and promoted by the United States, had been foreseen since he received support a few weeks ago from fifteen countries. The path was cleared on Tuesday when the Peruvian government withdrew the candidacy of Ambassador Hugo de Zela for lack of support. On the other hand, Espinosa’s past, proposed by Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, made it difficult for the most conservative countries: she was Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of former Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa —who faces her first trial for corruption— and his successor, Lenín Moreno. But although Almagro has overcome the barriers to be reelected, he has not received the almost unanimous support he obtained in 2015, when he garnered 34 of the 33 votes, being the only candidate.
Despite the fact that Almagro has been characterized as one of the greatest political scourges against the Nicolás Maduro regime, against which he has actively fought during his first term as secretary general, they have not achieved a political change in the Miraflores Palace . But he did manage to seat Gustavo Tarre in the OAS as ambassador of Juan Guaidó, recognized as interim president of Venezuela by more than 50 countries. After knowing the result of the vote, Tarre congratulated Almagro and highlighted that he has won a secretary general with a program “in favor of democracy” and “of human rights”.
Mexico, against
The Mexican ambassador, Luz Elena Baños, said this Friday that “the OAS letter does not authorize the recognition of States or Governments” and that Tarre’s credential “does not meet the necessary requirements” to form part of the organization. Bolivia before the OAS, Jaime Aparicio, appealed to the delegation of Mexico after his intervention on Venezuela: “When we speak of not intervening in the internal affairs of other countries, we must be consistent. If anyone has intervened in the internal affairs of Bolivia, it has been Mexico After former Bolivian President Evo Morales left his post after an OAS report accusing the government of fraud in the October presidential elections, the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador granted Morales political asylum for humanitarian reasons.
Before coming to the OAS, Almagro was chancellor in the government of the socialist José Mujica from 2010 to 2015. But the former president has not supported Almagro’s position on Venezuela, and in 2015 he wrote him a letter in which he broke relations with him: “I regret the direction you went in and I know it is irreversible, so now I formally say goodbye and say goodbye.”
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