Demand that OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro resign now!
Updated May 2021:
Luis Almagro, Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), makes a mockery of the OAS Charter, which calls upon the organization to achieve “peace and justice, to promote their solidarity, to strengthen their collaboration, and to defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their independence.”
Instead, Almagro has remained silent on atrocities committed in Colombia, Ecuador, Chile and Haiti. He’s pushed for regime change in Venezuela and Nicaragua. He routinely denounces Cuba. He supports sanctions on all three countries. He fully supports Haitian dictator Jovenel Moise. He was instrumental in the coup against Bolivian President Evo Morales.
While talking a big game about multilateralism and human rights, Almagro has supported neither. It’s time for him to go!
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On October 21 of last year, a day after the elections in which Bolivian President Evo Morales was declared winner, OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro released a statement casting doubt on the electoral process due to an "inexplicable change in trend [of election results]."
Not long after, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) denounced the OAS’s bad analysis, noting that the trend didn’t change — it grew normally as a result of rural votes coming in. CEPR later realized that the OAS report used timestamps that were sorted alphabetically rather than chronologically. A coding error led to chaos and two massacres in Bolivia!
In Sunday’s elections, the People of Bolivia voted against fascism and neoliberalism and for peace and equality. The MAS party not only won the presidency, with candidate Luis Arce winning more than 50% of the votes, but it also won a majority in both houses. Mayor of Vinto Patricia Arce, who, in the midst of the coup a year ago was captured, beaten, brutalized, and dragged through the streets by right-wing thugs, was also elected senator in Sunday’s elections.
As we celebrate this democratic victory by the Bolivian people, we must also help them get justice for what the OAS did to their country. Demand that OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro resign now!
Almagro has refused to respond to questions from members of the U.S. Congress and the media about the OAS’s bogus analysis of the Bolivian elections and its role in the military coup. The reason is simple: he does not have any facts to stand on. He must resign from his post and be held accountable for the coup and the resulting extrajudicial executions and massacres in Bolivia. Join us in demanding his resignation!
The OAS is mostly financed by U.S. taxpayers — 60% of its budget comes from us. That means that our congresspeople have a duty to oversee the OAS and investigate the role it played in paving the way for a military coup. Join us in demanding accountability for how this money has been spent, or rather, misspent.
After having watched the burning of the Whipala (the colorful flag that represents Andean indigenous peoples) by the coup leaders’ police forces, today we see it waving again thanks to the determination of the Bolivian people. Now, let us help them close this dark era of their history and prevent Almagro from doing more damage in other Latin American countries.
