OAS to Sign Pact Defending Democracy

LIMA, Peru (AP) - The general assembly of the Organization of American States gathered in Lima on Monday to approve a document aimed at protecting the region's democracies against assaults by ``disguised dictatorships.''

Secretary of State Colin Powell was joining 33 foreign ministers and ambassadors for the two-day special session. More than 20 of the delegates had arrived by midday Monday, with the inaugural session scheduled for 6 p.m. EDT.

Powell planned to offer support for Peru's democratic reforms and meet with Colombian leaders to discuss the country's guerrilla war and anti-drug efforts under a $1.3 billion U.S. aid package.

The proposed OAS pact defends against elected leaders who dissolve legislatures, interfere with courts, rewrite constitutions, resort to political coercion and rig elections to perpetuate themselves in power.

Peru proposed the accord in April, just months after ex-President Alberto Fujimori's decade-long authoritarian rule collapsed in a corruption scandal.

Fujimori, first elected in 1990, seized near dictatorial powers in 1992, closing the opposition-controlled Congress and the courts. He said the steps were necessary to fight leftist rebels and end economic chaos.

Peruvians learned that a traditional military coup is not the only way an autocrat can destroy democracy. Fujimori's foes coined the phrase ``disguised dictatorship'' to describe his regime.

Peruvian Foreign Minister Diego Garcia Sayan said the willingness of the OAS to tolerate Fujimori's strong-arm tactics ``made clear the weakness of the response of the inter-American system.''

He said the growing danger to Latin American democracies is from civilian leaders seeking to emulate Fujimori rather than from military coups.

``Although Peru is not the only example, it most clearly demonstrates that democracies can be perverted from within,'' Garcia Sayan said.

The current OAS charter provides for suspension of a member country, ``whose democratically constituted government has been overthrown by force.'' But it does not address the more insidious problem of an elected leader who subverts a country's democratic institutions.

The proposed Inter-American Democratic Charter would allow the OAS to suspend a member nation if it alters its ``constitutional regime'' or interrupts ``democratic order.''

It was initially endorsed by leaders of all 34 OAS members - every country in the Americas and Caribbean except Cuba. But enactment of the treaty was blocked during the OAS' June general assembly in Costa Rica by several nations wary of committing to a binding definition of representative democracy.

The strongest opposition came from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, whose failed coup attempt in 1992 and political reforms since his election in 1998 have drawn accusations that he is trying to consolidate near-dictatorial powers in the Fujimori mold.

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Luis Alfonso Davila reiterated that his country would sign the pact despite initial reservations.

``Venezuela managed to include in the charter points that it has been arguing and defending for a long time and that involve the concept of participatory democracy,'' he said before leaving for Lima.

Davila said other countries agreed to incorporate in the charter ``elements of a definitive fight against poverty, of improvement of education, of participation by women.''

Elected governments have become the norm in Latin America in the last two decades. But democratic rule has not brought economic prosperity and the region's poor majority has shown tolerance for authoritarian leaders who promise to improve their lives at the expense of democratic checks and balances.

Fujimori had popular backing in Peru for his 1992 ``self-coup,'' when he deployed troops to shut Peru's courts and Congress and installed a new legislature and judiciary that rubber-stamped his edicts for the next eight years.

Fujimori won a fraud-riddled re-election last year, but many Latin American governments were loath to consider Peru's suspension from the OAS. They feared the precedent that such a collective move could set for their own sovereignty.

Some critics contend the new democracy charter's renegotiated wording has become too watered down.

The original draft called for suspension from the OAS of countries that carried out ``any'' unconstitutional interruption or alteration of democratic rule. Now it calls for censure for an act that ``seriously impairs'' the democratic order in a member state ``while it persists.''

``It doesn't go far enough to cover what I see as the real threat to democracy, and that is an elected president undermining the institutions of democracy so that he can preserve himself in power,'' said Dennis Jett, U.S. ambassador to Lima from 1996 to 1999.

...an elected president undermining the institutions of democracy so that he can preserve himself in power,''

That's what Al Gore tried, except he was vice-president at the time.

Having lived in Latin American countries under dictatorships and "democracies" I'll take the dictatorships any day. Some nations/cultures actually do better economically and socially under a dictator. The Sendero Luminoso was winning until Fujimori brought about what is called the "auto-coup"; he disbanded Congress and proceeded to wage war against the communists. He won but the communists are after his blood today and I expect they'll get it. Colombia would do better under a dictatorship right now, they're obviously not winning this war against the FARC by going at it in a "democratic" manner when many in the Colombian Congress are marxists. I lived in Veneuzela during the Caldera days and the Venezuelans (rich and poor) used to tell me how much nicer Venezuela was under their last dictator Jimenez. Democracies only work in those nations where the citizens have a strong respect for law and for their fellow citizens (and I grieve that we're losing this respect in the United States).

Betting on a dictator is a dangerous roll of the dice.

Russia also is having to come to gips with this.
The criminals are holding sway, people believe cheating and stealing is a preferred and more predictable option.
This must change. Believing differently is unacceptable.

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