The Organization of American States (OAS), which played a crucial role in the creation of the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua, is now charged with partial responsibility for verification of the cease-fire between the government and the resistance (known as Contras), pointing up its continuing importance in hemispheric politics.
The OAS, now in its 40th year, is the oldest body of its kind. Its predecessor, the Pan American Union, provided the structural and organizational model for the United Nations, and the regional body has some of the same strengths and weaknesses as the global organization.
Nevertheless, the OAS is different from the United Nations, particularly in its political orientation. A striking example of this coloration came in 1985, when the UN General Assembly condemned the United States for its economic sanctions against Nicaragua by a vote of 94-5. Exactly one week later, virtually the same resolution was raised in the General Assembly of the OAS meeting in Cartagena, Colombia. The Sandinistas had sent their international diplomatic star, the late Nora Astorga, to represent Nicaragua on that occasion. To their utter amazement, the resolution was so badly defeated in committee that it was never brought to the floor for a final vote.
The Sandinistas do not give up easily. They have submitted the resolution at the OAS General Assembly for the past three years, but each time it has failed to win approval. Meanwhile, the same resolution continues to be regularly passed by the UN General Assembly.
This has not been the only defeat Managua has suffered at the OAS. At the same meeting of the foreign ministers in Cartagena, in November 1985, the Nicaraguans were thrashed on a Central American peace resolution by a vote of 28-1.
The point is, certain values, such as democracy and human rights, get more than lip service at the OAS. Within the organization, democracy is now the rule, not the exception, and despite differences on individual issues, there is a great deal of residual friendship for and commonality with the United States that are not found at the United Nations.
Having said this, it must be added that OAS members are not rubber stamps for the United States' views or policies. The OAS is anything but a "ministry of colonies"--a canard long favored by Fidel Castro's propagandists since Cuba's government was expelled from the organization in 1962. Furthermore, it was its communist government, rather the Cuban nation, that was expelled by the OAS, due to Castro's policy of exporting terrorism and revolutionary violence to OAS member countries.
Nor does the U.S. government have a monopoly on wisdom. Sometimes events have shown that our Latin American friends had insights and perspectives that we did not have on some issues, and perhaps in retrospect, we should have listened more closely to what our neighbors to the south were saying.
Our neighbors to the south do not have a monopoly on wisdom either, and from time to time I wish we could get more support from them than we do on certain issues, such as support for democracy in Nicaragua. For example, in organizing diplomatic support for the Sandinistas,
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