By Mario H. Lopez From Washington Examiner

The Organization of American States (OAS) headquarters is located in a picturesque building only 400 yards away from the White House. The OAS, which receives 60 percent of its regular funds from the American taxpayer, is the international organization that represents the nations of the Americas: North, Central and South, as well as the Caribbean.

On March 18th, the OAS will vote for a new secretary general, and there is only one candidate: the former Foreign Minister of Uruguay, Luis Almagro.

The selection of Mr. Almagro as the head of the OAS deserves closer scrutiny given his close ties to Venezuela and Iran.

Almagro’s nomination is strongly supported by the Chavista regime in Venezuela, which is not surprising. When respected journalist Andres Oppenheimer recently asked Almagro what he would do regarding the politically-motivated arrest of the mayor of Caracas, Almagro responded that he believed the issue was best resolved within the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), not the OAS. UNASUR is a fairly new international body that only includes South American nations and is unconditionally supportive of the Venezuelan regime. By deferring to UNASUR, Almagro knew that he was also deferring to Venezuela.

This week, Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa announced an emergency meeting of the Foreign Ministers of UNASUR in Uruguay to respond to the sanctions levied upon Venezuela by the White House. Correa stated: “We will give the corresponding answer to that gross, illegal, shameless, outrageous and unjustified act of interference by the United States in the internal affairs of Venezuela.”

Almagro has tipped his hand — he agrees with Correa’s radical support of the oppressive Venezuelan regime. Why else would Almagro defer to UNASUR to uphold the democratic rights of the people of Venezuela when he is running to be the OAS Secretary General? After all, the central mandate of the OAS is precisely the promotion of democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Then there are the worrisome connections between Almagro and the regime in Iran.

To say that Luis Almagro is close to Iran is an understatement. Almagro cut his teeth in the Uruguayan diplomatic corps as ambassador in Tehran from 1991-96. During that time he was in charge of coordinating business deals between Uruguay and Iran, many of them involving Iranian oil. It was also during that period when Iranian agents bombed a Jewish center in neighboring Buenos Aires, killing 85 and wounding 300.

Nevertheless, Almagro’s relationship with the Iranian regime remained good. In April of 2011, as Foreign Minister of Uruguay, Almagro traveled to Iran and met personally with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad describing the “good relationship” existent between Iran and Uruguay as “two states that are opposed to injustice and oppression around the world.” Just last month, Uruguay’s largest newspaper, El País, expressed serious concern about Almagro’s connections to Iran in a detailed article titled “Iran-Israel dangerous liaisons.”

This dangerous liaison with Iran came to the fore last month when Israel’s oldest daily newspaper, Haaretz, broke the story that Iranian diplomats had been videotaped near the Israeli embassy in Montevideo around the same time that artifacts made to look like bombs had been planted near the embassy building.

Later that day, Almagro was forced to issue an official press release detailing the facts behind the bomb threats. Incredibly, although security cameras had captured the presence of the Iranian diplomat’s car near the embassy, the official press release stated that investigations by the “ministry of the interior did not provide any evidence whatsoever of participation by an official of the embassy of the Republic of Iran.” It also came to light that Uruguay had allowed the Iranian diplomat suspected of planting the artifact to leave the country.

Almagro’s friendly disposition towards Iran is complemented by his often-vitriolic criticism of Israel. In 2012, Almagro directed the Uruguayan government to support a U.N. Resolution calling for the investigation into Israeli human rights abuses in Gaza, while abstaining from voting on a resolution that was critical of Iran. In 2014, while still serving as Foreign Minister of Uruguay, Almagro described the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians as a massacre of innocent Palestinians.

Luis Almagro’s close links and apparent inability to oppose oppressive regimes in Venezuela and Iran cast serious doubts upon his ability to lead the OAS. Almagro’s installation would represent a serious national security concern for the United States and our allies in the Western Hemisphere. It is imperative that Almagro’s nomination be postponed and that the United States publicly retracts its support of him.

Mario H. Lopez is President of the Hispanic Leadership Fund, a national advocacy organization that promotes liberty, opportunity and prosperity.

Photo – Bolivia’s President Evo Morales (right) shakes hands with current Secretary General of the OAS Jose Miguel Insulza (left). [AP Photo

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