Jamaica Observer
Handling of Honduras crisis flawed from the start
SIR RONALD SANDERS
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Call it Latin American "hot blood" or "Commonwealth cool", but there is definitely a marked difference between how the Organisation of American States (OAS) and the Commonwealth handle conflicts in their member states.
SIR RONALD SANDERS
Both the 53-nation Commonwealth and the 34-nation OAS have had their share of coup d'états, fraudulent elections and abuse of civil and human rights. And both organisations have drawn up Declarations of Principle for their member states - infractions of which lead to penalties of some kind.
Read the whole article here.
Snippet(s):
"(W)hereas in the OAS suspension of a state from membership of the organisation was the first step taken in relation to Honduras where it was claimed a coup d'état had occurred, in the Commonwealth suspension of a member state is an action of last resort, taken only after many initiatives have been exhausted.
Unlike the OAS, the Commonwealth has standing machinery designed to deal with breaches of the fundamental democratic principles to which it adheres."
&
"The OAS secretary general was given 72 hours to find a solution to the Honduran situation. He might just as well have been asked to push a huge boulder up a steep mountain. There was no way it could have been achieved given the high emotion that existed on all sides.
In giving him such a mandate, the OAS General Assembly was clearly pressed into their decision by a group of countries led by Venezuela, Argentina, Nicaragua and Bolivia (the key members of ALBA) who wanted their man, Manuel Zelaya, immediately back in the presidency, whether or not he had been removed in accordance with the Honduran Constitution and law. As an important aside, let me say in this connection that however legally correct the impeachment of Zelaya may have been, the interim regime wrong-footed itself by having the military remove him from the country."
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Responses to: ronaldsanders29@hotmail.com
Sir Ronald Sanders is a consultant and former Caribbean diplomat.
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