– Ramdin
ASSISTANT Secretary General Ambassador Albert Ramdin has announced that the 39th General Assembly of the Organisation of American States (OAS) will be hosted in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, from June 2 to 3.

Speaking at a Pegasus Hotel press conference in Kingston, Georgetown, on Monday, he said the extensive agenda is focusing on critical issues now facing the hemisphere.

Ramdin said the theme for the meeting, chosen by the President of Honduras, is ‘Towards building a culture of non-violence’.

“The whole issue about crime and violence is one of critical interest to Central America but certainly also to the Caribbean,” he noted.

“The idea is to look at ways how we can mitigate as much as possible and solve some of these crime and violence issues in our society.”

The diplomat said those incidents do not only impact on the feeling of safety but also economic opportunities and the well-being of people.

“Following the Fifth Summit of the Americas, two issues came up and will revert, in a certain way, to the General Assembly,” he disclosed.

One is Haiti where the discussions will continue with regard to the support of the Inter-American system as well as what the Member States of the OAS can provide to the republic in its efforts to get back on track of social and economic development.

Ramdin said, in Haiti, there is an environment which provides opportunity. “There is a unique momentum developing in Haiti, at this point in time, to be used in terms of creating jobs, promoting investment, getting back on track in terms of social and economic development.”

“There is relative political stability. There is a relative good security environment and we hope that that will continue,” he said about Haiti.

Noting that the country is preparing for presidential elections next year, Ramdin said:“We hope also that the environment of continued democracy will continue and, of course, that it will happen in a peaceful manner.”

He said the other issue to be discussed has to do with Cuba, which was raised by almost all the leaders at the recent historic summit.

“Cuba will be raised and at this point in Washington D.C. and I am sure in some capitals, a lot of discussion is taking place – how this process should take place,” Ramdin said.

According to him: “The time for grandstanding is over. I think everybody agrees that Cuba should become a part of the Inter-American system, again, of Inter-American institutions and the OAS.

The question now is how to make that a reality and what we believe is that it will be a process. It will not become a reality overnight.”

Many issues

Stating that there are many issues that complicate the matter, Ramdin said: “But there is a legal context which needs to be looked at by countries, by the institutions and then you have the issue of the revoking of Resolution Six which was adapted in 1962 by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the hemisphere, of the countries which were at that point the members of the OAS.

“Most of the CARICOM countries, except for Haiti, were not members at that point in time.

“Beyond that, of course, we have the re-admission issue under which circumstance Cuba will take its rightful place in the OAS, again,” the ambassador related.

He said, since 1962, so many instruments have been developed, in terms of basic criteria, which apply to governments in terms of the democratic status, the elections and so on.”

Ramdin explained that the Inter-American Democratic Charter provides some guidelines on what needs to be done, how to relate that to the situation in Cuba and how that will play out in terms of Cuba’s re-entry to the Inter America system.

“All these things need to be discussed and that is why I am saying it is going to take some time. It is going to be a process,” he reiterated.

Alluding to the U.S. embargo, Ramdin said:“It is an important issue that needs to be resolved and we know that negotiations are ongoing in this regard.

“We have a multilateral track of discussion on Cuba and you have a bilateral track between the U.S. and Cuba.”

He indicated that some resolutions are being presented by countries, four or five already and they are looking into an ongoing negotiating process.

“Ultimately, the most critical question is what is the view of Cuba, itself. Many speak for Cuba but this time also we want Cuba to speak on its own and indicate what its plans are and how it looks at all of this.

“We have not heard that as yet in a formal sense,” Ramdin underscored.

“I must say the Fifth Summit of the Americas created a new environment in the Western hemisphere.

Positive environment

“A more positive environment looking towards the future whereby the leaders clearly indicated that all of them are prepared to dialogue, to listen to each other, to understand each other better, in terms of where they come from, what their problems are and how to deal with them”.

“That is the kind of environment you want and you need to solve many of the critical problems which we face in the hemisphere at this point,” he maintained.

He said some crisis situations exist in the hemisphere, with food, energy sustainability, the environment and natural disasters.

“It is important to address these issues. These are very concrete issues the people have to deal with,” Ramdin said.

Additionally, he said the financial crisis and its impact on economies, both in terms of declining remittances from the diaspora as well as export, because of the downturn in Europe and U.S., among other places.

To this end, Ramdin said a Ministers of Finance meeting is slated for July, in Chile, to discuss what kind of mechanism should be put in place, the recapitalisation of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the strengthening of the sub-regional development banks.

CARICOM Leaders will also meet at the end of this month in Trinidad and Tobago to talk about the financial crisis, he revealed.

“Whatever comes out of it, special arrangements should be made for those vulnerable economies in the Caribbean and Central America to be able to mitigate the impact,” he posited.

Ramdin said, first of all, the crisis was not created by those economies and, secondly, they do not have the resources and the additional revenues to counteract its impact.

Thirdly, the technical expertise or the institutional capacity is not there to absorb the shocks within the economies, he pointed out.

“So there is need to provide funds to these countries to mitigate the impact of the financial crisis,” Ramdin contended.

He went on: “If these issues are not dealt with effectively, timely and adequately, what we will see is that we will get another kind of crisis which I am very worried about – a governance crisis.

“Because, once you have these problems in your society and you do not deal with them effectively, what will happen is that you will get civil unrest, political instability and in some way or another democracy will be damaged.

“You do not want this to escalate into a governance crisis whereby the people are losing the trust and confidence in whom they have elected to provide those services, those social and economic goods.

“So these are the issues, all of which will be dealt with at the OAS General Assembly,” Ramdin confirmed.

He said, during the General Assembly, too, they will talk about the follow-up to the Summit of the Americas process.”

“It is a very extensive agenda. As we look at the Summit of the Americas as an important opportunity for engagement of the Western hemispheric leaders, we see the General Assembly in San Pedro Sula also as an opportunity to continue that political momentum which has been created,” Ramdin repeated.