Blinken will promote the condemnation of Russia in the OAS Assembly

Lime. The Annual Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) will begin today in Lima with a complex agenda that divides the governments of the region and in which the war in Ukraine, the situation in Nicaragua, drug trafficking and the problems derived from migrations in the region, in addition to the delicate panorama that is recorded in Haiti, among other issues.

The start of the sessions will take place at a time when Peru is plagued by protests from ultra-conservative groups, and pressure from Washington to get support for various draft resolutions.

This was announced by Brian Nichols, in charge of US diplomacy for Latin America, who pointed out that his government will seek the regional forum to condemn Russia for the war in Ukraine and the government of President Daniel Ortega for the situation of civil and human rights in Nicaragua.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken will arrive in Lima tomorrow.

On Ukraine, the debate between the delegations will have two resolutions as background. The first adopted by the organization on March 25, when it called for an end to possible “war crimes” by Moscow, supported by 28 of the 34 active members of the regional bloc. The second is the April 21 resolution, which suspended Russia as a permanent observer.

As the foreign ministries of the region coincide in pointing out, the process of electing the new president of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will also be debated, opened last week after the dismissal for ethical reasons of the American Mauricio Claver-Carone.

“Accumulation of problems”

“The meeting is taking place at a difficult time in terms of the accumulation of problems,” assessed Manuel Orozco, a member of the Inter-American Dialogue, a think tank based in Washington. Regarding the situation in Nicaragua, Orozco described the issue as “a very extreme challenge for the inter-American system when managing multilateral and bilateral relations.”

On the sidelines of the OAS assembly, Blinken will co-chair a meeting on migration, a major problem for his country on the border with Mexico. “Blinken’s tour of Chile and Colombia, as well as his presence in Lima, has a lot to do with China’s advances in Latin America,” assessed political analyst and former Peruvian ambassador Hugo Otero.

Host Foreign Minister César Landa will chair the three-day meeting; he said they will also address “food and nutritional security”, threatened by the war in Ukraine.