ASSISTANT Secretary-General of the Organisation of American (OAS) Albert Ramdin will demit office on July 10 a pleased man, safe in the knowledge that democracy is being deepened and strengthened, and there is peace and stability in the region.He expressed these sentiments on his final visit to Guyana during a briefing yesterday at the Pegasus Hotel in Kingston here in the city.
During his visit, the outgoing envoy met with President David Granger, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo; Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge, Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan; Finance Minister Winston Jordan, and other officials of several agencies.
As Ramdin prepares to demit office, the OAS is currently going through a leadership transition. Former Uruguayan Foreign Minister, Luis Almagro has been elected the new Secretary-General, replacing Jose Miguel Insulza who demitted Office on May 26, while Ambassador Nestor Mendez of Belize has replaced Ramdin. Ambassador Mendez will assume office on July 12.
Ambassador Ramdin will brief his successor and the new OAS Secretary-General on how he perceives the leadership of the new government in Guyana, as gleaned from his several meetings with them here.
The OAS over the years has actively engaged Guyana through programmes in support of democracy, development and security, and Ambassador Ramdin gave the assurance that the collaboration will continue.
He has served the OAS since 2005, and was unanimously re-elected in 2010.
According to the ambassador, he and former Secretary- General Insulza, on assuming office, had had to deal with a hemisphere that was challenged in many ways.
“When we leave now, I reflect; I look back at a hemisphere that is relatively in peace, in good prosperity. Countries have enjoyed economic growth; the impact of the financial crisis was not that severe in our region, and democracy was strengthened and deepened in many countries. Elections are held regularly, of reasonable quality in most cases. It is all work in progress. But we do not have open and armed conflict in the hemisphere,” he said, pointing out that this happens in other parts of the world, where, apart from these conflicts, there is political and financial stability.
“In our regions, we do not have open armed conflicts anymore; we do have conflicts within countries and between countries, most of them being negotiated through peaceful means with dialogue, some with the courts involved, but we try to solve them peacefully; and that is a good record for this hemisphere,” he told reporters.
Given the current environment, he said, the opportunities for economic growth are enormous in the Americas. Many countries have already experienced an increase in the middle-class, he said, adding that in Brazil alone, some 40 million people have been elevated to this stratum.
Noting that this can only mean economic prosperity for the future, Ambassador Ramdin said:
“It requires a lot of new policy-making, innovative technology among others… I think we are on the right track in the western hemisphere.”
The OAS has tried and succeeded in increasing the presence of CARICOM in the OAS, and to make the Community an integral part of the Western Hemisphere, as well as strengthen relations between the Caribbean region and Central America.

By Tajeram Mohabir