Oas

At least three top associates of exiled Haitian President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier have quietly entered the United States and are living in anonymous splendor in expensive hotels and hideaways, Haitian activists and other experts said Wednesday. The three, including Duvalier's father-in-law and his former interior and foreign ministers, arrived here shortly before the strongman known as "Baby Doc" flew to temporary asylum in France last Friday aboard a U.S. Air Force plane.

The campaign to succeed the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is underway, and as with past campaigns in that country, passions are running high. Vice President Nicolas Maduro and opposition candidate Henrique Capriles exchange near-daily attacks, each accusing the other of everything from plotting murder to planning coups. But unlike in previous elections, the National Election Council has not invited international monitors to observe the April 14 vote. Instead, it has asked a handful of individuals and the Union of South American Nations to "accompany" the process - a far more limited role that does not provide them full and free access to polling places and does not allow them to make public statements questioning or criticizing the process.

The Organization of American States finishes up its annual meeting in Bolivia on Tuesday. The normally humdrum assembly of 35 nations is turning out to be one of the most controversial gatherings in years, thanks to an effort by a handful of countries to weaken one of the OAS' most important and autonomous bodies: the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Those efforts began early this year when Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, sought to prevent the commission's special rapporteur for freedom of expression from doing her job effectively.

To no one's surprise, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa is upset with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, a watchdog group that has pushed to protect indigenous leaders, journalists and civil society organizations in the Western Hemisphere from abuses. And the feeling appears to be mutual. The commission has rightly denounced Correa's efforts to curb freedom of expression and jail critics of his administration. It also dared to weigh in on Venezuela's attempt to ban an opposition candidate from running for office against President Hugo Chavez.

For much of the last decade, the United States has been relatively disengaged from Latin America, getting involved mostly to combat drugs or violence. Now, the House Foreign Affairs Committee has approved a measure that would further limit the U.S. role in the region. Under the proposal, which would have to be approved by both the House and the Senate, the U.S. would eliminate its $48.5-million contribution to the Organization of American States, the oldest and largest regional diplomatic group in the Western Hemisphere.

Chile's ambassador to the Organization of American States has resigned, shortly after published reports quoted her as criticizing policies of Gen. Augusto Pinochet's government, officials said Tuesday. Other sources said she was forced to resign.

Colombia filed a formal complaint Wednesday with the Organization of American States against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, accusing the leftist leader of meddling in its domestic affairs. The OAS complaint came after Chavez attacked Colombia as a "narco-state," ordered investigations of Colombian companies in Venezuela and urged his socialist party supporters to reach out to left-leaning Colombians and politicians. Colombia's ambassador to the OAS, Luis Hoyos, denounced what his government saw as an "interventionist plan" by Chavez, a Cuba ally who promotes socialist revolution as the counterweight to U.S. influence in Latin America.

Ramping up pressure on Honduras' interim rulers, the Organization of American States threatened Wednesday to suspend the nation's membership if ousted President Manuel Zelaya was not returned to power within 72 hours. The move prompted Zelaya to announce he would delay plans to return to Honduras until the weekend. Zelaya, deposed by the Honduran army Sunday in a coup that has drawn broad international condemnation, had said earlier he would go back today, accompanied by other regional leaders.

The Organization of American States adopted a resolution Wednesday criticizing Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega and calling for steps toward "a transfer of power" in Panama--but the action fell short of what the United States had wanted, an outright demand for Noriega's ouster. Secretary of State James A. Baker III lobbied discreetly for a stronger text, but the Latin traditions of consensus and noninterventionism stood in the way, diplomats at the 32-nation body said. The resolution was approved unanimously, although Panama and Nicaragua earlier opposed it in a 27-2 vote on the draft that emerged from hours of closed-door debate.

Secretary of State James A. Baker III pledged Monday that Western democracies will help Peru solve its severe economic problems if it restores constitutional government but that it faces international isolation and deepening poverty if it does not.

The Organization of American States finishes up its annual meeting in Bolivia on Tuesday. The normally humdrum assembly of 35 nations is turning out to be one of the most controversial gatherings in years, thanks to an effort by a handful of countries to weaken one of the OAS' most important and autonomous bodies: the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Those efforts began early this year when Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, sought to prevent the commission's special rapporteur for freedom of expression from doing her job effectively.

Since taking office in 2007, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa has been in a war of words with the media in his country. He's used archaic libel laws to pursue criminal charges against the owners of El Universo and a columnist at the newspaper. His government has pushed through a law that severely restricts the media's ability to cover political campaigns and elections; indeed, it goes so far as to ban any media reports that can benefit or hurt a candidate. And now he's set his sights on international media observers.

For much of the last decade, the United States has been relatively disengaged from Latin America, getting involved mostly to combat drugs or violence. Now, the House Foreign Affairs Committee has approved a measure that would further limit the U.S. role in the region. Under the proposal, which would have to be approved by both the House and the Senate, the U.S. would eliminate its $48.5-million contribution to the Organization of American States, the oldest and largest regional diplomatic group in the Western Hemisphere.

Is Honduras ready for a return to the community of nations? It has been almost two years since the forced removal of then-President Manuel Zelaya at the hands of the Honduran military. On June 1, the Organization of American States said yes, when it lifted the suspension of Honduras from the organization by a vote of 32 countries in favor and one against. Still, the question on everyone's mind remains: Was there a coup d'état in 2009? Perhaps the better question to ask is: How can similar instability be avoided in the future in Honduras and elsewhere in the region?

Nearly two years after former Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was ousted in a military coup, he returned home Saturday. His arrival clears the way for the Organization of American States to reinstate Honduras, which had been expelled from the group, during a special session Wednesday. Zelaya's return and Wednesday's expected OAS vote mean Honduras will no longer be a pariah in the hemisphere, which rightfully condemned the coup. But it would be a mistake to conclude that the crisis in that country is over.

Facing international pressure, Haiti's electoral council Thursday dropped the ruling party candidate from the presidential runoff, a move expected to ease tensions generated by the disputed first round of voting in November. Election officials said the March 20 runoff would place Mirlande Manigat, a former first lady who received the most votes in the first round, against Michel Martelly, a popular singer known as Sweet Micky who was left out of the runoff when preliminary results were announced in December.

The life of the Organization of American States' mission to Panama has been prolonged for six weeks, which opens three possibilities in the ongoing regional crisis. First scenario: The four OAS diplomats fail to persuade Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega to relinquish power and leave his country, and the Bush Administration decides that the entire affair is not worth the effort, and simply forgets about Panama. This course may be the wisest; it is certainly not the most likely. Another possibility: The four-man team--the foreign ministers of Ecuador, Guatemala and Trinidad and Tobago, and the secretary general of the OAS--having won an extension of its mandate, drags things out indefinitely.

The race to lead the Organization of American States has narrowed to three candidates, with Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez emerging as a somewhat puzzling belated entry. Just a month ago, Derbez was telling reporters that he would be a candidate in Mexico's 2006 presidential election. Then, in a surprising turnabout, President Vicente Fox announced Dec. 7 that he was putting Derbez's hat in the ring for OAS chief. Derbez's bid to be OAS secretary-general may stem as much from internal Mexican politics as from Fox's desire that Mexico play a more important international role.

Haiti is locked in a political crisis that threatens to further stall recovery from the devastating earthquake of a year ago and could swiftly turn violent. Seven weeks after a flawed presidential election, President Rene Preval is resisting an international panel's recommendation that his handpicked candidate be removed from a runoff, according to diplomatic sources. Preval also is saying he intends to remain in office beyond his term. Haiti desperately needs to seat a new government to move ahead in the reconstruction of its quake-ravaged capital, where hundreds of thousands of people languish in vast tent cities, and to improve the disbursement of aid money, analysts say. The core of the dispute now is over which candidates qualify for the runoff to the Nov. 28 vote and whether fraud was so extensive that the entire process should be discarded and done over.

The U.S. secretary of Labor and a former Chilean president were named Sunday to a commission to monitor the creation of a power-sharing government in Honduras, under a U.S.-brokered agreement to end the nation's 4-month-old political crisis. Jose Miguel Insulza, the secretary-general of the Organization of American States, said Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and ex-President Ricardo Lagos would arrive in the Central American country Tuesday, accompanied by high-level OAS officials.