López Obrador Invites Regional Leaders to Mexico City
LATAM leaders likely to discuss reform of American-headquartered OAS.
Mexico’s president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has confirmed that the presidents of Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia are coming to Mexico City. López Obrador said he’s still waiting for confirmation from Brazil’s President-elect Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The meeting, to be held on November 23-25, will likely touch on the reformation of the Organization of American States.
Headquartered in Washington, the OAS originally was founded for the solidarity and co-operation of its member states in the Americas. More recently the organization has focused its efforts on election monitoring.
In 2019 the OAS conducted an audit of Bolivian general electing, finding evidence of “clear manipulation” and irregularities. Bolivia’s president Evo Morales resigned soon after the report was released. Nicaragua since reported that they had withdrawn from the OAS as of April 2022.
With newly elected presidents in Colombia and Brazil, the South American region is now entirely left-leaning with the exception of Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso.
In the past López Obrador has criticized the OAS stating it as too subordinated to U.S. interests. Mexico’s president suggested that other regional bodies such as the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States would be more appropriate for the LATAM region.
“We would also like to reform the OAS,” López Obrador said, “so that it isn’t subordinated to any country, any government, so that it isn’t in thrall to any hegemony.”
López Obrador recently skipped the U.S.-organized Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles because the leaders of Nicaragua, Venezuela and Cuba weren’t invited.