More OAS stuff and some sad news

Michael Shifter in today's Miami Herald captures both the possibilities of success and failure at the OAS this week:

As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice saw when she visited Latin America a month ago, the schism between the region's capitals and Washington is greater than at any other time since the end of the Cold War. U.S. policymakers must now build on the goodwill generated by Rice's visit. In this sense, the Fort Lauderdale meeting is a welcome coincidence and offers an excellent opportunity for the Bush administration to promote a multilateral approach to issues of utmost concern in Latin America.

The sense of opportunity is further heightened by the fact that the meeting will be led by the recently inaugurated OAS secretary general, Jose Miguel Insulza. A Chilean former foreign and interior minister, Insulza is a highly respected political figure with a reputation as a consummate pragmatist. He will need to summon all his political skill to steer an organization whose credibility and effectiveness are being seriously questioned. He will not only have to manage the wide gulf between the U.S. and Latin American agendas. He will also have to manage an organization that is financially strapped and whose member governments are divided even over what its main purpose should be.

But such organizational and financial problems dwarf the political problems that the OAS confronts...

...A reinvigorated OAS is vital to repairing inter-American affairs and strengthening democracy and will advance U.S. interests in the region. Insulza is the right man to turn that vision into reality. But however talented, he can't do it alone. About that, Insulza, ever the pragmatist, has no illusions.

It's a good op-ed, convincing of the need for a stronger OAS (of which I needed no convincing). However, some more specific policy proposals from Shifter would be very welcome as well.

After reading this I went over the Inter-American Dialogue, where Shifter is vice-president for policy, and was saddened to learn that its founder Sol M. Linowitz had died. Inter-American Dialogue is one of the best thinktanks in the hemisphere and Linowitz played a key early role in bringing together its all-star cast.