Luis Almagro. Photo: El Tiempo.
By Hedelberto López Blanch – Apr 7, 2023
The secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, tried to compete with the film Around the World in 80 Days and, for two years, spent honeymoons in about 30 countries with a lover whose expenses were mostly paid for by the organization.
In total, this right-wing enemy of the democratic peoples of Latin America, who complies with the guidelines emanating from Washington, traveled at least 34 times accompanied by an advisor with whom he maintained a “sentimental relationship,” according to an investigation carried out by the organization.
The details of the trips—as reported by the media—which took place between 2018 and December 2019, also appear in a series of reports that the secretary general submits on his activities to the headquarters of the institution in Washington, for the presidency of the Permanent Council.
The investigation, commissioned by the OAS to an external law firm to determine whether the relationship between the secretary general and the Mexican Marian Vidaurri, an employee of the organization, had an improper character, and whether the advisor was promoted to better positions within the institution as favored treatment, indicated that in some cases, the cost of the trip of Almagro’s “beloved” were covered by the organizers of the events and in others by the OAS.
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Everything indicates that Luis and Marian enjoyed “honeymoons” in Cartagena de Indias during a meeting of the Inter-American Press Association in March 2019; in Pamplona, on a visit organized by the university of that city; in the Bahamas, in October 2019 to meet with the Prime Minister of that island; in Buenos Aires, in March of that year, to participate in a seminar on populism; and in Medellin, Colombia, to participate in a discussion with young people at the EAFIT University.
Almagro has been a faithful ally of the United States since his taking the position as secretary general of the DC-based OAS, and has complied with all the guidelines emanating from Washington against progressive movements and governments in the region.
Let us recall that he helped and issued a go-ahead to the coup d’état against Evo Morales in Bolivia; he attacked, on countless occasions, the legitimate governments of Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua and urged that the economic and financial blockades that the United States maintains against them not be lifted.
Almagro failed to condemn the massacres carried out by the Bolivian ultra-right after the coup against Evo in 2019, nor those of Dina Boluarte in Peru upon the consummation of the parliamentary coup against President Pedro Castillo, which has left more than 60 dead and hundreds wounded, among other violent acts of right-wing forces in the area.
However, it seems that the US subject’s days at the OAS are coming to an end, because it is no longer in Washington’s interest to keep in office a character so detested by most Latin American governments.
In an attempt to clean up Washington’s image, a group of US congresspersons, in a letter addressed to Secretary of State Anthony Blinden, have now requested that Almagro be investigated for having carried out “ethical infractions and irregularities” and, if proven, that he be removed from office.
It smells like the United States has no more use for its “man” in the OAS.
Let us remember that the obsession of the United States to control all of Latin America and the Caribbean has been a constant since long before the Organization of American States was founded on April 30, 1948.
The roots of the OAS are deeply linked to those of the United States, since it was created to serve the hegemonic interests of the “colonial power” in the quest to dominate the countries of Our America. Its antecedents are so-called Manifest Destiny and the Monroe Doctrine.
From the 13 colonies to the 21st century, Manifest Destiny, adopted by the then President James Knox Polk, promoter of the war against Mexico in 1846-48 to annex more than half of the nation, has maintained the conviction that God chose the United States to be a “superior nation” and, thus, took over territories with different tricks or wars.
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Later, the Monroe Doctrine, was announced by the fifth president, James Monroe, and directed mainly to the European powers with the intention that Washington would not tolerate any interference or meddling of the European powers in America.
For the sake of this doctrine, the United States has intervened more than 100 times in Latin American nations or has promoted coups d’état against progressive governments and attacks and assassinations against nationalist leaders in the region.
The OAS, with design and rules made by the United States, came to round out the policy of control that Washington has maintained for more than a century over Latin America.
As for Almagro, his days in the OAS are numbered because, paraphrasing the adage of Rome, the United States is willing to pay traitors but hates them.
(Resumen Latinoamericano – English)
Hedelberto Lopez Blanch
Hedelberto López Blanch, born and currently living in Havana, Cuba, is a journalist and a doctoral candidate in Communication Sciences at the University of Havana. He currently writes a weekly column on international economic affairs for Opciones, a weekly publication of Juventud Rebelde (one of the three national newspapers in Cuba).
