THE OAS A Reborn Force in the Hemisphere?
Bartz, Diane
Three years ago. the 100-year-old suing of low points sprinkled with ha- less than three months old, an old-fashOrganization of Atnerican States (OAS) miliattons. At the urging or insis- ioned...
...The autogolpe in payments, which itprornises tocompletely to condemn the clear violation of Article Pemprecented a different set of problems pay over the next four years...
...and wealthy America, One immediate eft'ect is thatthe Republic to prevent the return of ousted Haitians have been able to fly to Miami financial picture is less bleak...
...Shining Path's war might spread...
...forc- Political integrity of the American States out an agreement, now foundering, deing the regional organization to cut stall'- Against International Communist Inter signed to returo Atistide to the presiing to the bone...
...is interrupted, theresolutionsays, regional sensus prime minister...
...ago, the Peruvian and Haitian ouveration became the Pan American Union and But there may be new signs of en- ments could have avoided sanctions and moved into current OAS headquarters...
...But therc is hoj in some quarters that the OAS ha finally found an effeciive diplomatic voice...
...est in the hemisphere, but it has not been removed security issties as a major con- Elevenyearslater.theOASsttpportcd leakproof.Europeancompanieshavecon- cern governing the U.S...
...Porapeople tohe freed of an any other State...
...First International Conference of Amen- Arias rejected the GAS as a foru m pre- But it is important to recogniie that if can States, the OAS has been based in cisely because it was toodommnated by the these two crises had arisen just five years Washington, D.C...
...saidMmio Roldn was able to muster support within the Predirtably, blocks in the OAS were Maya, Bolivia s ambassador to the OAS...
...building near the White House, donated General Assembly Resolution tOSO, But times havechanged Who couldhave by Andrew carnegie, has been said at passed unanimously in Chile last sum- imagined State Department spokespor- times to be the only reason for the mer, The resolution is aimed at protecting son Richard Bouchermalcing public statethe region's political democracies...
...if the ments backing the choice of moderate DianeBartz.coverslainAmerican issues dem.ocratic piocess in a member country comnmunStReneTheodoreasftaiti'sconfor Ageiice-France Preis.se...
...perhaps too quickly critics are now United States, while the United States the OAS voted 17-1 in favor of a"Decla- saying by slapping a trade embargo considered it inactive and incffective...
...At the urging or insis- ioned military-elite alliance tossed out seemed on the brink of extinction...
...First, Fujimori had been Many Latin Americans are pleased "directly ormdirectly, forany reason what- democratically elected, and second, his with thisapparentshiftin theUnited5tntes' ever, in the internal or external affairs of power grab was for the t ime being world view...
...hegemony, when most Latin and OAS proudly points to its sending of OAS for all sanctions on Haiti tobe slapped on Caribbean nations acqoiesed...
...ironically...
...reitsobsessionwithcommunistn,ithascome Domingo...
...when Latin Amen- to convince the OAS to condemn U.S...
...and its successors at the peace talks miii- cratic process...
...in 1910 the associa- United States...
...the magnificent neo Classical United States, The first hint was OAS officials ot a spurious communist threat...
...The United President Juan Bosch a leftist nationalist and buy embargoed goods...
...troops inter- dent Alberto Fujimori suspended the Pc This year, it plans to pay its whole qtiota vened to defeat a i%5 "counter-coop" ruvian constitution and announced he again, as well as a chunk of its past due plannedbyBeechloyalisis, theOA S failed would nile by decree...
...acted mildly to the Peruvian coup beto see the world with other eyes...
...Today, however, there is renewed in- States to prepare the way for its interven- The embargo has visited undeniable teret in the organization, in part because tionagainst the nationalist Arhenzrcgiine hardship on the nation, already the poorthe collapse of the Sos ietUnion may ha;'e in Guatemala...
...both simations are in tlu...
...While the trast,sonseblackCaribbeannationscalled U.S...
...view of Latin the 1965 U.S...
...ranonof Solidarity forthe Preservation of on the Caribbean nation aiid h ammering Few nations were paying their bills...
...ergy if not yet independence from the retained foreign aid by convincing U.S...
...vention...
...OAS to create an Inter-American P eace formed according to national interest, "Once the United States was freed from rorce to join U.S...
...the 1950s,' says Amb...
...We don't Secretary General JoAo Baena Soares and Peru'forthwith...
...by the military...
...in an effort to ensure that have the hegemonic control that we did in others to Nicaragua to observe the Febru- the two situations be handled similarly...
...obsession is veryguod...
...Worse, the United States popular in Peru...
...troops in Santo Bolivia and Ecuador, for example...
...Similarly, throughout the 1980s the cause of a desire to see order in a neigh The history of the OAS is one of UnitedStatesblockedNicaragua'sefforts boring country, and because of fear that alternating paralysis...
...The OAS reacted quickly missed it as a colonialist tool of the Conference in Caracas in March, 1954...
...Since its beginning in the 1889-1890 atedby then-Costa Rican President O scar As of July...
...Contadora soon restore some semblance of a demosteering...
...invasion of the Dominican tinueddoingbusinessinHaiti...
...Neither is it cle& what the New World cder" holds in store for relations hetween Washington and the rest of the hemisphere...
...This was sought by the United dency...
...States, historically a big debtor to interna- who had won the 1962 election but served The secondtest of the Santiago deem tional organizations, paid its entire quota just seven months betore being deposed ration came on April 5, 1992, when Presilast year, and one fifth of its arrearages...
...And despite hitter disputes with Pemvian opition leader Alan Garcia duiing his 1985-1990 presidency, Washington is pushing Fujimori to ncgotia with Garcia, who is in exile in Colombia...
...Secretary of St ate John Haiti's populist President Jean i3ert rand powerful Latin American nations dis- Foster Dulles at the Tenth international Aristide...
...18 of its charter forbidding intervention for the OAS...
...Vm.ron Vaky, an any 1990 presidential election, the OAS The organicauon has urged the sl ashing analyst who recently retired from the had been deliberately bypassed by the of foreign aid to Peru, and has threatened Carnegie Endowment for International Contadora gmup in its attempts to meiji to impose sanctions if Fujimori does not Peaee...
...When U.S...
...In concan nations defied the United States, and financing of theContra rebels...
...k's not clear whether the organization cn exert the diplomatic savvy to be effective in these two very different situations...
...Many tence of U.S...
...Thatdoesn'ttneanyoudon't have ate the Nicaraguan conflict...
Vol. 26 • July 1992 • No. 1
