OAS head targets poverty, not politics

from The Miami Herald

OAS head José Miguel Insulza says future economic stability and poverty top his concerns more than controversial elections in Mexico and Venezuela.
BY JANE BUSSEY

The leader of the Organization of American States on Monday downplayed concerns raised over weekend elections in Venezuela and the tumultuous presidential inauguration in Mexico, saying he was more concerned about chronic poverty in the region.

''The only thing that concerns me is that they are democratic countries,'' OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza said of Venezuela and Mexico. ``The OAS, at least on the part of the secretary general, has no ideological preference.''

Insulza spoke with journalists just hours before he was scheduled to be one of the keynote speakers at Caribbean Central American Action's 30th Miami Conference on the Caribbean Basin, which opened Monday night. Government officials, executives and academics are meeting today and Wednesday at Miami's InterContinental Hotel to discuss energy, free trade and other important issues.

Insulza attended the swearing in of Mexican President Felipe Calderón on Friday and was an international observer at Sunday's Venezuelan elections where President Hugo Chávez won a new six-year term.

Mexico was a ''functioning democracy,'' Insulza said, adding that the country's electoral commission had settled the hotly contested election by declaring Calderón the winner.

Despite brisk economic growth in Latin America, Insulza said he had concerns.

''I am worried about seeing if the constant economic growth that Latin America has been experiencing can continue under more complicated conditions than what the economies face today,'' he said.

''I am concerned that more or less 100 million Latin Americans will go to bed with empty stomachs tonight,'' he said, adding that poverty and inequality complicate the functioning of democracy.

Insulza also said he worries about crime and violence in the region and about governance problems from corruption to unwieldy bureaucracies. Human rights and civil rights of minorities and women are also problems.

Insulza's comments came as the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean released a report showing that the region's poverty rates had dropped for the third year in a row.

Poverty and absolute poverty levels had dropped from 44 percent of the total population in 2002 to 38.5 percent in 2006, the report from the United Nations agency based in Santiago, Chile said.

In 2005, the poverty level stood at 39.8 percent of the population.