OEA will investigate Luis Almagro, accused of lack of ethics for a sentimental relationship with a subordinate

The Organization of American States (OAS) decided this Friday that an external company should investigate whether the Secretary General, Luis Almagroviolated the ethical code by maintaining a sentimental relationship with a subordinate, which he himself “superconfirms” saying that he spent with her “perhaps the best years” of his life although “it ended a few months ago”.

In a regular session, the Permanent Council, the executive body, decided by an overwhelming majority of 30 votes in favor and two abstentions (Belize and Haiti) that an external company determine whether Almagro “has violated the rules and regulations of the OAS.” Granada was absent.

They also ask to create a working group to select a company of “reasonable cost” to present a report within three months and “adopt the appropriate measures” once examined.

In this way they follow the recommendation of the OAS inspector general, who advised an external audit on accusations made “by a journalist” and in an anonymous email message signed as “OAS whistleblower.”

This anonymous whistleblower accuses Almagro of maintaining or having maintained “an intimate personal relationship with an official” originally from Mexico and of “promoting her, suddenly and without competition, from a mid-level position to senior adviser” to the secretary general.

Sources familiar with the matter told AFP that it is the Mexican political scientist Marian Vidaurri.

It was Almagro himself, a 59-year-old Uruguayan lawyer and diplomat, who informed the inspector general’s office about this anonymous complaint.

Almagro took the floor at the end of the session. He thanked the Uruguayan president, Luis Lacalle Pou, for his support “in this process of requesting an external investigation with the maximum guarantees” and confirmed that he had a loving relationship with the employee, which he said he would never regret.

the best years

“Some of you, practically all of you, knew about the relationship, I definitely want to confirm and reconfirm, super-confirm that this relationship existed,” he stated emphatically.

“She was my partner for practically three years, on a personal level perhaps the best of my life,” he told them, specifying that “it ended months ago.”

Uruguay and Antigua and Barbuda were the authors of the draft resolution voted on this Friday in which, according to the Uruguayan ambassador to the OAS, Washington Abdala, “seeks to know the truth, within the normative framework of the organization.”

“The Permanent Council acts as a requester but also as a reader of the results” because “whoever requests later reads,” he added.

But the countries of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) fear that the price of the investigation will be high. Ronald Sanders, ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda, assures that they are opposed to causing a cut in the number of officials or programs.

Almagro, who has been accumulating setbacks for months, affirms that his sentimental relationship has not influenced his work.

“You know, because you have seen me work, that none of this can change my vision of the institutions and their operation and the responsibility we have with respect to them and their operation,” he told the Permanent Council.

The truth is that Almagro is against the ropes. Several countries such as Mexico and Argentina have requested his resignation and an OAS court concluded that he caused “moral, personal and professional damage” to Paulo Abrao for statements made when he decided not to renew his mandate as head of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). ) in 2020.

Almagro’s case at the OAS is reminiscent of another important organization for Latin America: the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), whose former president Mauricio Claver-Carone was ousted at the end of September after an investigation concluded that he had an intimate relationship with a subaltern, to whom he would have given favorable treatment.