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By Andres Oppenheimer
The 34-country
The Republican-controlled House Foreign Affairs committee passed an amendment to cut the entire $48.5 million annual U.S. contribution to the OAS, alleging that it has become a tool of Cuba, Venezuela and other leftist regimes.
The amendment was approved in a party-line 22-20 vote, along with four other initiatives, including one that would cut foreign aid funds for Argentina, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia.
The two measures are highly unlikely to be passed by the Democratic-controlled
Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fla., the hard-line chair of the committee's Western Hemisphere Subcommittee who sponsored the amendment, says that "the OAS has become an anti-democratic and destabilizing force in Latin America. In these difficult fiscal times, we cannot afford to fund an organization that does not work in the national interest of the United States."
Democrats are shaking their heads in disbelief. Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., the subcommittee's ranking Democrat, told me that the OAS amendment amounts to "foolish" isolationism.
"It would hurt U.S. policy, it would hurt our standing in the region, and it would play into the hands of those who hold ill will toward the United States," he said, noting that Washington has no presence in other regional institutions, such as the recently created UNASUR. "We would be hurting the organization in which we have most influence."
OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza told me in an interview that the fact that the OAS is being criticized by both radical leftists in Latin America and right-wing U.S. congressmen proves that "the extremes come together." He added, "We are at the center, trying to reconcile all countries in the region."
Insulza's OAS is also under fire from very different quarters -- the human rights community. International human rights groups say Insulza is trying to weaken the semi-independent
Jose Miguel Vivanco, head of the
On a positive note, the
Under this amendment, five of the more than 800 U.S. diplomats currently serving in Afghanistan and Iraq would open one-person missions in these countries as they are phased out from their current posts in coming years, at no cost to taxpayers. Cuba and Venezuela already have embassies in these small Caribbean nations.
My opinion: The Republican-controlled
The OAS is one of the few places where Washington can sit together with most countries in the region, friends and foes alike. At a time when China and the
Granted, the OAS is a monument to diplomatic frivolity and political theater, but it's a much-needed forum for the smallest countries in the region, and Washington needs it more than some of its foes.
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Copyright ©, The Miami Herald Distributed by Tribune Media Services
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World - OAS Is a Basket Case - but a Needed One | Global Viewpoint