Haiti, Venezuela, migration on agenda as OAS General Assembly opens in Antigua
Albert Ramdin, a former number two of the hemispheric agency and foreign minister of Suriname, was elected in March and took over the reins last month. He faces many challenges, from the governance crises in Haiti to Cuba and Venezuela — and the OAS' inability to make a dent on those issues over the years — to the Trump administration's move away from multilateral organizations.
While Ramdin's election has been welcomed by the United States, Washington did not publicly endorse any candidate in the race for secretary general. Still, the U.S. is backing a candidate for commissioner on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and is planning to address a number of issues with regional partners including illegal migration. The United States' delegation is being led by Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, who will find that Caribbean governments have their own concerns about U.S.-Caribbean relations.
Ahead of Wednesday's opening, Ramdin said he would like to 'focus on the critical issues which are currently playing out in the hemisphere.'
'Haiti is foremost, but also electoral processes, democracy, human rights issues,' he said. 'I hope that Antigua and Barbuda will not only demonstrate a… constructive-forward looking agenda, so we hope to set a tone for that here.'
Ramdin acknowledged that for a country the size of Antigua to host such a gathering 'is no small feat.'
Antigua is among four countries in the Eastern Caribbean at risk of being placed on a new travel ban by the Trump administration, the Miami Herald previously reported. Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela were added to travel ban list last month.
While new reports have suggested that the four Eastern Caribbean countries may be on a new list of 36 additional nations due to their participation in programs that make it easy for investors to become citizens, there are concerns that the administration is using the program to pressure the Caribbean nations to serve as third countries for undocumented migrants expelled from the U.S.
During a recent meeting with foreign ministers from Antigua, Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Lucia, U.S. State Department officials refused to confirm press reports about the proposed travel ban. However, an official confirmed that the United States is assessing immigration matters and is particularly concerned about the Citizenship by Investment programs, which allow foreign investors to obtain passports.
The 55th regular session of the OAS general assembly is taking place at a critical time for the agency, which continues to be dogged by questions over it relevancy amid serious governance issues in the hemisphere.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has suggested that the OAS lead the security response in Haiti, where an underfunded security mission led by Kenya has been unable to stem gang violence. The violence has led to a record number of people having to flee their homes, now estimated by the United Nations at 1. 3 million.
Wednesday marked a year since the first contingent of about 200 Kenyan police officers arrived in Port-au-Prince.
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