Formed in 1948, the umbrella Organization of American States (OAS) holds its general assembly in Panama this week amid a simmering row with the Trump administration over daily operations, budget issues, and an apparent attempt by the U.S. delegation to operate a parallel management structure to the elected one in place.
Caribbean ambassadors to the Washington, D.C., headquarters say that there is a concerted attempt by Ambassador Leandro Rizzuto Jr. and other top officials to exert pressure on Secretary General Albert Ramdin and his management staff to either make him quit or to bow to demands to allow Washington to increase its influence and control of the 35-nation body.
Up to last month, the administration had not requested any budget money for next year, as it is apparently using its leverage from contributing up to 50% of the annual budget to increase influence and control over the organization. The administration had contributed $90.3 million to the 2024 budget, representing nearly half of its annual tally. What would happen if the U.S. does not throw in its financial lot in the coming months will likely be a key agenda item, informed officials say.
At the heart of the issue are charges and allegations about corruption, nepotism, and official mismanagement on the part of Ramdin. Surinamese-born Ramdin, 68, the first person from the Caribbean to hold the top position and elected a year ago, is adamant that a concerted effort is being made to either undermine his authority or to boot him from the body because he has been resisting pressure of daily control of the organization from the administration. Before taking up the top position, Ramdin had served as assistant secretary general and is a veteran of the organization and its systems.
Caribbean ambassadors have accused Rizzuto of trying to bully his way into the daily operations of the body, demanding a permanent office in the main headquarters building, the right to sit in on private executive meetings hosted by Ramdin with delegations from member countries, and to travel on overseas assignments with Ramdin and his staff. They argue that if any of these requests are granted, ambassadors from other member states can also make similar demands, severely disrupting daily operations, and departing from established precedent.
And in a major twist to the saga, the State Department has revoked the visa of Ramdin’s chief of staff, Xaviera Jessurun, allegedly because she is at the center of a major probe back home over alleged financial mismanagement at state-run Surinam Airways and has ordered her to leave Washington in the coming days.
Reacting officially on Thursday, the OAS charged in a statement that its charter bans the executive from taking instructions “from any government or from any authority outside the organization and shall refrain from any action that may be incompatible with their position as international officers responsible only to the organization.”
The row is expected to take center stage at this week’s general assembly meeting in Panama, with fears growing about the future existence of the OAS with the current White House in place.
In its statement, Ramdin said he would welcome an independent probe “to discuss the terms of a formal, independent investigation, if the member states so desire.”
Dismissing allegations of corruption and lavish spending, Ramdin said in his statement that internal audits have not unearthed anything. “No such irregularities have been found in the first year of the secretary general’s tenure, and until the inspector general issues audit findings, any claim regarding financial governance is unsubstantiated and politically speculative.”
Speaking at a pre-conference forum in Panama on Sunday, a defiant Ramdin appeared to have lashed out at the U.S. and its attitude towards the OAS, saying basically no country is seen as more important than another member in the organization regardless of size and power.
“And yet there is a fundamental issue that has remained unchanged. It did not change before the OAS, before Gaviria, before Almagro, or before me. The need for cooperation has always been with us, because geography binds us together. No country in this Hemisphere, however large, can settle on its own the questions that cross our borders, whether in security, migration, public health, or the technological and climate shifts now reshaping our economies. So, the task before us is not to tear the system down and build another in its place. It is to rethink it, to make it answer today’s needs more efficiently, and to keep it credible in the eyes of the people it exists to serve. While the purpose is constant, the methods must keep pace,” he said.
