An OAS in crisis hosts Dominican Republic conclave: EFE

Washington.- Dominican Republic will host within a week theOrganization of American States’ (OAS) annual General Assembly, in one of itsmost turbulent in recent years, now with Venezuela in crisis and theInter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) on the brink of disbanding, EFEreports.

It was in a quite different scenario when DominicanRepublic offered to host the OAS’ 2016 Assembly a year ago: a new secretarygeneral, Luis Almagro was starting his tenure with harmony and promises torelaunch the regional bloc to gain relevance among other alliances emerging, especiallythe Union of South American Nations (Unasur).

And though months later, the OAS has hardly changed, itsgeneral secretary has: Almagro has proven to be an atypical leader willing totake sides on the continent’s most thorny issues, such as the Venezuela crisisor the impeachment of Brazil president Dilma Rousseff.

Almagro’s initiative and drive have placed in an awkward positionthe OAS member states, which are accustomed to diplomatic caution and lowprofile in which the organization has adopted for years.

The most recent assemblies, except the one in 2009 which annulledthe expulsion of Cuba, have been the paradigm of an OAS of abstract statements whichwith few exceptions haven’t gone beyond mere paper.