Greater access to world markets and more foreign investment is crucial to sustaining democracy in Latin America, foreign ministers from around the region said Tuesday.
In a statement prepared for the closing of the 33rd General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), the ministers vowed to fight poverty and corruption and promote respect for human rights.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell opened the assembly Monday calling on ministers to "hasten the inevitable democratic transition in Cuba."
However, ministers did not even mention Cuba in the assembly's final statement issued after Powell flew to neighboring Argentina early Tuesday.
Democratic rule has spread throughout the continent, the ministers noted, but several countries "have faced serious problems, worsened by poverty" in their efforts to preserve democracy.
They urged a world economic order that promotes growth, open markets for the region's exports and increased investment in the region.
"Support by international financial institutions to democratic governments is also essential and requires the creation of creative financial mechanisms to strengthen democratic governance," the document stated.
The two-day assembly opened the way for a regional treaty against terrorism to become effective next month. Under the Interamerican Convention against Terrorism, countries commit to jointly fighting terrorism by denying asylum to suspects, increasing border controls and fighting money laundering.
Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti are the Latin American countries that have the most worrisome records on human rights, said Marta Altolaguirre, president of the Interamerican Human Rights Commission.
In Colombia, Altolaguirre said, a four-decade civil war involving Marxist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitary groups and the Colombian army has resulted in massive abuses against the civilian population.
She blamed most of the abuses on the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
Indonesia was to sign an agreement to repatriate two British nationals, including a grandmother languishing on death row for drug-related crimes, an Indonesian government source said yesterday. “The practical arrangement will be signed today. The transfer will be done immediately after the technical side of the transfer is agreed,” the source said, identifying Lindsay Sandiford and 35-year-old Shahab Shahabadi as the people being transferred. Sandiford, a grandmother, was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs. Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated US$2.14 million hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford’s suitcase when
CAUSE UNKNOWN: Weather and runway conditions were suitable for flight operations at the time of the accident, and no distress signal was sent, authorities said A cargo aircraft skidded off the runway into the sea at Hong Kong International Airport early yesterday, killing two ground crew in a patrol car, in one of the worst accidents in the airport’s 27-year history. The incident occurred at about 3:50am, when the plane is suspected to have lost control upon landing, veering off the runway and crashing through a fence, the Airport Authority Hong Kong said. The jet hit a security patrol car on the perimeter road outside the runway zone, which then fell into the water, it said in a statement. The four crew members on the plane, which
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and its junior partner yesterday signed a coalition deal, paving the way for Sanae Takaichi to become the nation’s first female prime minister. The 11th-hour agreement with the Japan Innovation Party (JIP) came just a day before the lower house was due to vote on Takaichi’s appointment as the fifth prime minister in as many years. If she wins, she will take office the same day. “I’m very much looking forward to working with you on efforts to make Japan’s economy stronger, and to reshape Japan as a country that can be responsible for future generations,”
SEVEN-MINUTE HEIST: The masked thieves stole nine pieces of 19th-century jewelry, including a crown, which they dropped and damaged as they made their escape The hunt was on yesterday for the band of thieves who stole eight priceless royal pieces of jewelry from the Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris in broad daylight. Officials said a team of 60 investigators was working on the theory that the raid was planned and executed by an organized crime group. The heist reignited a row over a lack of security in France’s museums, with French Minister of Justice yesterday admitting to security flaws in protecting the Louvre. “What is certain is that we have failed, since people were able to park a furniture hoist in the middle of
RSS