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U.S. Proposal in the O.A.S. Draws Fire as an Attack on Venezuela
By Joel Brinkley
New York Times
May 22, 2005
Page 2

The American proposal is to be offered for approval during a meeting of the regional organization in early June in Florida. It emerged from a statement made last month in Santiago, Chile, by José Miguel Insulza, the organization's newly elected secretary general, at the insistence of American officials.

"The elected governments that do not govern democratically should be held accountable by the O.A.S.," he said as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stood beside him. Ms. Rice and other American officials had wrested that remark from him in exchange for American support for his candidacy.

Immediately afterward, senior American officials told reporters traveling with Ms. Rice that Mr. Insulza's new plan would "hold the O.A.S. accountable for holding the Venezuelan government accountable for governing democratically," as one of them put it.

One official, underscoring Washington's primary concern about Mr. Chávez, said during that news conference, "Let's note that Chávez is in Havana consulting with the region's only dictator and his best friend." Then, in an internal e-mail message, sent to State Department officials and others just after he and Ms. Rice returned from Chile on April 30, Mr. Noriega wrote that "Insulza accepted without hesitation our exhortation that he make a public statement alluding to the Chávez threat."

Most Latin American leaders say they do not share Washington's concern about Mr. Chávez. "I don't think any country wants to take action against Venezuela," said Aristides Royo, the ambassador from Panama.

The Organization of American States represents 34 Western Hemisphere nations, from Canada to Argentina, and while it does debate large policy issues, the organization has been loathe to interfere in its members' internal affairs. The American proposal has not been made public, but several administration officials described it. Under the plan, the regional organization would create a new committee whose mission would be to hear from labor unions, lawyers, citizens groups and other nongovernmental organizations that have concerns about their governments.

"There is no formal mechanism for this now," Mr. Noriega said. "The most they have been able to do is mill around outside the council chamber and hope to catch somebody."

If the committee found problems, it could propose diplomatic missions or other unspecified remedies. But the ambassadors said they feared that the very existence of the committee would prove highly embarrassing for the nations called before it.



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