Considering the harsh criticisms of the OAS launched by Presidents Chavez, Ortega and Correa during the recent CELAC summit, you might think that their most vocal opponents in the US Congress would work to strengthen the main inter-American organization.
Of course not. As the Nicaragua Dispatch reports, the Republicans on the House Foreign Relations Committee are urging a cut in funds to the OAS. If their amendment makes it through the budget process, money will be cut if the OAS fails to implement the democratic charter on Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Representative Eliot Engle, who dissented on the vote, was absolutely correct in saying. "We are doing Chávez’s bidding... He wants the OAS killed and we are doing it for him here today." As I pointed out previously, on the issue of the OAS, the rhetoric of the GOP members of Congress and the leaders of ALBA is surprisingly aligned. Cutting the OAS budget in the current environment hurts the standing of the US in the region and will harm efforts by the OAS, however limited, to protect democracy and human rights in the long term.
