Editorial | CARICOM should back María Espinosa

What is increasingly obvious about the political crisis in Venezuela is its need for a diplomatic reset to break the stalemate. A muscular insistence on regime change, with Juan Guidó as the face of the new order, has, if not run its course, become increasingly difficult to sustain. So, while the forceful removal of Nicolás Maduro remains a possibility, it would probably be a bloody enterprise, of which Jamaica should want no part.

You don’t have to like Maduro or his government – and there is much about Mr Maduro’s behaviour that is offensive – to have arrived at this conclusion, reinforced by some of the recent political realignments in the hemisphere. It is equally clear, too, that the Venezuelans, in attempting to resolve their problems, can use the help of their hemispheric partners and friends, primarily the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

With regard to the OAS, that can’t happen effectively with the compromised leadership of the organisation’s secretary general, Luis Almagro, who has undermined its ability to be an honest broker in the crisis. For, as Maria Fernanda Espinosa, the former Ecuadorean foreign minister, who is seeking to replace Mr Almagro, said in an interview with The Gleaner this week, the secretary general shouldn’t be an opinionated “ideologue, but a facilitator of dialogue and consensus builder”.

If Mr Almagro, a Uruguayan, once possessed those skills, he doesn’t anymore. Rather than operating as the facilitating servant of all 34 members of the OAS, he has assumed the posture of the spokesman of the Lima Group, which insists that Mr Maduro’s re-election in 2018 was rigged; that he runs a dictatorship; and that he should relinquish power and allow new elections. Mr Maduro should also recognise Mr Guidó as Venezuela’s interim president.

Whatever may be the truth about Mr Maduro, or Mr Almagro’s personal views on the issues, it is not the secretary general’s role to operate like a partisan in the conflict.

Indeed, even Jamaica, which is openly sympathetic to the views of the United States and the Lima Group, while endorsing CARICOM’s insistence on dialogue and against the use of force, has had cause to complain that some of Mr Almagro’s “utterances have not been helpful in achieving a peaceful resolution to the current crisis”. Further, last February when he unilaterally endorsed Mr Guido’s self-declaration of being Venezuela’s president, CARICOM was forced to remind Mr Almagro that the OAS was an organisation of “sovereign states” and that his behaviour was of “great concern”.

While Mr Almagro is clearly unfit for the job, he has the support of ideologically aligned member countries, including, critically, the United States, which has been attempting to rally CARICOM behind its men. That was a large part of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s diplomacy when he met with Prime Minister Andrew Holness, and a number of CARICOM foreign ministers, in Kingston last week. Hopefully, Mr Holness, politely, told him no.

FORMAL ENDORSEMENT

Rather, at their intercessional summit in Barbados on February 18-19, CARICOM leaders should formally endorse the candidacy of Ms Espinosa, who was nominated by Antigua and Barbuda, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. If elected, she would be the first woman in the job.

Much will be made of the fact that Ms Espinosa doesn’t have the support of her own government. But what is more important is her proven diplomatic skills and her appreciation that as serious as the Venezuelan crisis is, it’s not the only problem that ails the hemisphere. The perils of climate change, stagnating economies and unmanageable debt appear to have escaped Mr Almagro.

CARICOM, with its 15 votes, would require the backing of only three other OAS members to assure Ms Espinosa’s election. At the very least, they should commit to blocking Mr Almagro. This move should be part of a broader initiative of intensifying CARICOM’s own engagement of the Venezuelan problem. For the humanitarian issues there are real and need urgent and thoughtful political solutions.