Sensation in OAS
June 10, 2005
As per the Washington conception this body should be something like a warden over the democratic order in the countries of Latin America and Caribbean basin. If something goes differently, should there appear any first signs of “deviations” from the “correct democracy”, the suspicious for “destabilization” state can be subjected to external influence with the purpose to maintain the “general course” towards the model democracy, the standards of which, will, without a doubt, be adjusted and checked in Washington. It is worth mentioning, that the General Assembly participants immediately determined that it will be Venezuela, the independent home and foreign policy of which causes extreme irritation of the Bush administration, to get in the first hand into the cross-hair of the forthcoming “monitoring”.
The thesis of “concern for democracy in Venezuela” is constantly present in the US officials’ declarations. Almost everything what is being done now and is going to be done by the Bolivarian government of Hugo Chavez for reforming the country causes suspicions in the White House: starting from radical social reforms which consume petrodollars, to establishing of mutually beneficial relations with China,- everything sounds as blunt challenge to the empire.
However, Latin Americans with interest, and sometimes with approval regard the attempts of President Chavez to follow his own way, which can hardly be called a neo-liberal way. Why not witness what will come out of his project to build socialism with a Venezuelan face?
To make a long story short, the US idea of “democracy monitoring” in the region was unanimously rejected at the 35th General Assembly. Brazilian Foreign Minister C. Amorim has simply said to the US State Secretary C. Rice: ”Democracy is not imposed, it is born out of the dialog”.
The forum participants did not “comprehend” even the statements of certain US delegates that Venezuela was allegedly “guilty” of crisis situation in Bolivia. The Chavez government has always preserved the stand of «equidistance» from the conflicting parties in this Andean country and a Bolivian Foreign Minister has recently confirmed it.
The US delegation has left the General Assembly empty-handed, despite the fact, that the US President J. Bush himself, and all his State Department “Latin American men”, has taken part in “pushing through” the idea of “monitoring”.
New times, new morals. OAS has evidently gone out of the US control. Latin American and Caribbean members of the organization have no intention to “betray” Venezuela, which does a lot to keep the region free from poverty, hunger, illiteracy, inequality. General Assembly participants have unanimously approved the social charter suggested by Venezuela as the guidelines for OAS activity in this sphere.