El Salvador Supports U.S. OAS Priorities

C O N F I D E N T I A L SAN SALVADOR 000097 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 2020/02/26 TAGS: PREL AORC KDEM OAS ES SUBJECT: El Salvador Supports U.S. OAS Priorities REF: STATE 16528 CLASSIFIED BY: RBlau, CDA, DOS, Am Embassy San Salvador; REASON: 1.4(D) ¶1. (C) Summary: El Salvador supports our priorities for the next OAS Secretary General (SYG) but we should not expect the Salvadorans to use the March 3 OAS candidate forum to set forth aggressively priorities for the next SYG and ASYG. End Summary. ¶2. (C) Joaquin Maza, MFA Director General for Foreign Policy, told PolCouns February 25 that the GOES is completely in agreement with the themes the USG proposes to discuss March 3 with SYG and ASYG candidates. He said FM Hugo Martinez had already pledged support for ASYG candidate Albert Ramdin. Maza said the GOES has not yet formally committed to support incumbent SYG Insulza. He suggested the GOES could be open to supporting another candidate, but does not expect others to emerge. ¶3. (C) Maza said the GOES would soon name a career diplomat as El Salvador's OAS Permanent Representative and said that President Funes wanted to play a "belligerent" role in the OAS in the best sense of the term. ¶4. (C) Maza, who had just returned from the Latin American-Caribbean summit in Cancun with FM Martinez said El Salvador was opposed to the notion put forth by Havana, Caracas and La Paz of replacing the OAS with the new organization being established. (Note: President Funes was represented in Cancun by the FM because of illness.) ¶5. (C) Comment: While the GOES has a similar view of challenges and priorities for the next OAS SYG, it was clear MFA had given no thought to using the March 3 forum to set expectations for the SYG and ASYG candidates. The Salvadoran delegation will be, at best, supportive of our efforts on March 3, but is unlikely to lay down strong markers for the candidates. Nonetheless, we plan to raise the issue with FM Martinez on the margins of the Lula visit February 26. BLAU