U.S. Proposal in the O.A.S. Draws Fire as an Attack on Venezuela -NYT

[Rose Siding]

An American proposal to create a committee at the Organization of American States that would monitor the quality of democracy and the exercise of power in Latin America is facing a hostile reception from many countries in part because it is being viewed as a thinly veiled effort to attack Venezuela.
...
"This explanation is going to be impossible to sell to any adult human being," said Rodolfo Hugo Gil, the Argentine ambassador to the Organization of American States.

Jorge Chen, the Mexican ambassador, said, "I don't think this idea will pass." Some Latin American ambassadors say they fear that the new committee will turn into a star chamber, where ministers would summon representatives of certain countries for interrogation and criticism. United States officials strongly dispute that and say they are simply trying to make the organization more relevant and effective.

"All we are doing is creating a mechanism, a procedure," Mr. Noriega said. An American official added that "we do think there should be accountability when countries violate the O.A.S.'s democratic charter."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/22/politics/22oas.html?ex=1274414400&en=31f25ed5f4f8d129&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

[Spazito]

1. Unbelievable! The unmitigated GALL on the part of the bush cabal

continues to astound me, it truly does!

[LeighAnn]

12. The big thugs won't get away with it

They will never stop the New Bolivarian Revolution. They've already been dealt one OAS blow, they are about to get another. Morons. It's this kind of episode that will show exactly how small-time they are, and to what extent their greedy ideology fits in with reality.

[Rex]

2. We still haven't apologized for El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, etc

The U.S. views Mexico and Latin America as an exploitable resource that we own. When our 'resources' get angry, we use bureaucratic trickery to get them back in line. Well we used to, it's not going to work anymore, evidently. Thank goodness Latin America is standing up to the U.S.!

[meganmonkey]

3. Oh right, like we're one to talk

Our democracy is just a MODEL, isn't it? :puke:

[Dr.Phool]

4. Kind of like "Bolton reforming the UN".

I'm glad they finally have some free-thinking people down there again. George Bush, and the neo-cons are doing to South and Central America what Che Guavera and Fidel Castro couldn't accomplish. Uniting people against the multi-national corporations, land reform, and democracy.

I said it a couple of years ago, even after communism was pretty much dead. These are the guys (Bush, Cheney, et al) who inspire communist revolutions.

[peacetalksforall]

6. The governments of the Western Hemisphere make me hopeful that

Bolton, if approved, will be ineffective and that, if passed, the right wing of the U.S. will be even more exposed for what they are.

Let's hope that we can keep him out and they don't select someone worse, if that's possible.

Long live a world organization that helps the world honestly.

[Eloriel]

9. Well, viva la, in that case!

These are the guys (Bush, Cheney, et al) who inspire communist revolutions.

[Chicago Democrat]

5. Every headline is a Hilarious Riotous Joke in Bushco Up is Down

Good is Bad
War is Peace
Greed is Good
Virtue is Weakness
Happy Fascist World

[IChing]

7. "This explanation is going to be impossible to sell to any adult human "

being"

Except the US narcoleptic population

[MasonJar]

8. The US will be the first country called up for our undemocratic

agenda.

[Darranar]

10. The US, the enemy of democracy in Latin America for over a century...

is trying to "monitor the quality of democracy"?

Um, I'm sure they're totally sincere in their support for democracy, and their only desire is to aid the people of Latin America.

Right?

[Payback Time]

11. Venezuela = Oil

It's a relatively easy place to attack compared to Iran & N. Korea

[Up2Late]

13. This will work nicely with the "School of the America's

Un-Fucking-Believable:mad:

[Frederik]

14. They're just making idiots of themselves

with propositions like that. Nobody takes them seriously. I like the way the Argentine ambassador put it: "This explanation is going to be impossible to sell to any adult human being".

[drduffy]

15. Frankly,

(and I know this is slightly off topic) I would be happy if Venezuela forced the issue by ceasing to supply the US with oil but sold it China or anywhere else instead. Then all the world would see the 'benign' 'democratic' US bare its ugly, imperial teeth.

[Mika]

17. Most of the world already sees it..

.. and many have experienced the big stick.








www.stopbolton.org

[Judi Lynn]

16. Interesting remarks on OAS's new leader,from The Eonomist:

OAS: Leading from the south
The Economist
Right man, tough job...

The United States, Winston Churchill noted, can always be relied upon to do the right thing—once it has exhausted all the alternatives. So it proved last week, albeit in a matter of less moment than Churchill had in mind: finding a new secretary-general for the Organisation of American States (OAS). Having tried fruitlessly to secure the election of two other candidates, the Americans finally threw their weight behind José Miguel Insulza, Chile's interior minister. On May 2nd, he was elected with the support of 31 of the OAS's 34 member states.
(snip)

The OAS has long been regarded as both the plaything of the United States, which puts up most of the money, and as a convenient place to park Latin America's more intractable problems. But in 2001, its members adopted a charter that obliges them to uphold democracy or risk sanctions. The United States would like to apply this to Mr Chávez, but South America is wary. Mr Insulza may take a robust view of the issue. “Elected governments that do not govern democratically should be held accountable to the OAS,” he says.

Some saw the hand of Roger Noriega, America's senior State Department official for Latin America, in the ill-starred attempt to block Mr Insulza. If so, Ms Rice appears to have taken a more strategic view. Mr Insulza is a socialist, but he is a pro-market moderate. He comes from a country which many see as a good advertisement for liberal economic reform, and with which the United States has good relations. And any attempt by the superpower to isolate Mr Chávez is bound to fail unless it has the support of the centre-left governments of Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

Mr Insulza will have other headaches. Bolivia (along with Mexico) abstained and Peru cast a blank vote because their peoples still lament Chilean annexation of part of their territory in a 19th-century war (see article). But Mr Insulza's term is sure to be dominated by Venezuela. It will be a help that he cannot be portrayed as a puppet of Washington. That doesn't make a thankless task much easier.
(snip)

http://www.hacer.org/current/LATAM90.php