Different organizations have described negatively the situation in Venezuela and Nicaragua, but their resolutions have no greater scope

Since 2017, for the vice president and chancellor of Panama, Isabel de Saint Malo, "multilateralism is failing to counteract the crisis in Venezuela." Now in 2018, De Saint Malo insists that the regional integration agreements have not been able to collaborate in solving the situation in Venezuela or with the growing situation in Nicaragua. De Saint Melo spoke on the matter at the last General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS).

Leer en español: ¿Están fracasando los acuerdos regionales para disminuir la crisis de Venezuela y Guatemala?

The integration is threatened

On June 5, the OAS pronounced itself against a possible suspension of Venezuela in the organization through a resolution of the General Assembly, despite the fact that the South American country is already in the process of withdrawing from it. Ronald Rodríguez, a professor of political science, government and international relations at Universidad del Rosario in Colombia, said in an interview with CNN that "the suspension of Venezuela is more symbolic than practical. Nothing happens if it is suspended from the international organization." In addition, Rodriguez agrees with the Panamanian foreign minister in saying that multilateralism in the region has left its weak side with the Venezuelan crisis.

Regarding the crisis in Nicaragua, the OAS has only manifested itself through a resolution in support of the Nicaraguan people, and its secretary general, Luis Almagro, urged the government at a press conference to hold elections echoing the will of the people. On June 21, the Nicaraguan government expressed its disagreement through its demonstration at the OAS in Washington, with the resolution and with the report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which shows serious human rights violations since the beginning of the protests in April of 2018.

For its part, at the recent summit of MERCOSUR leaders, where Tabaré Vázquez received the temporary presidency from his Paraguayan counterpart, Horacio Cartes, it was urged both in Venezuela and Nicaragua to reach a peaceful solution to the crisis that is lived in each country. "In the resolution on Nicaragua we urge to resume the dialogue and agree on a peaceful solution to the situation that exists," said the Uruguayan president at a press conference at the end of the summit. Despite the resolutions, they have no effect, only a symbolic pressure from another of the regional forums.

You can also read: Would Nicaragua become another Venezuela?

Likewise, the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), which has been the great absentee in the face of both crises, finds no solution to its division. Since the former Colombian president, Ernesto Samper, left the general secretariat, there has been no consensus on who will occupy that place. In fact, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Peru, and Paraguay announced the suspension of participation in the organization since April, due to the lack of internal consensus, according to the official UNASUR website. In May, Chile tried to unite the countries and promote a resolution to the nascent crisis in Nicaragua and found no support, except for the other 5 countries that withdrew, so there has been no pronouncement in this regard.

Regarding the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), Juan Jesus Aznarez says that it lacks a north and for that reason, its pronouncements are lost. "The lack of rigor in Latin American multilateral organizations leaves them without validity, CELAC, no matter how much it says it does not has how to implement it, and even more sadly it does not have a goal in its goal," he says in an opinion column for the newspaper El País.

Moreover, Aznarez is emphatic in saying that Latin American integration is declining and that too many multilateral agencies are dividing the region. For Aznarez the only thing that unites the region is its social conditions and language, "because politically the institutional and social development of the subcontinent is still precarious".

Latin American Post | Carlos Eduardo Gómez Avella

Translated from "¿Están fracasando los acuerdos regionales para disminuir la crisis de Venezuela y Guatemala?"