Organization of American States

I'm on my annual global adventure and thus far have posted on: - "Japan: Seven Months After the Cataclysm," and - "A Simple Solution for E...

I had the opportunity this morning to present my case before the judges of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

The decision by the Haitian government to go ahead with voting in the absence of conditions for free and fair elections has shaken an already fragile Haitian democracy.

Popular protest can bring down the government in an Arab country. Who knew? It's a whole new ballgame. You think today's events in Tunisia are going to affect conversations in Algeria and Egypt? Maybe even in Haiti?

To fail to act in the interests of the majority of Haitians, with the argument that a new election would be too costly, would be "penny-wise, pound foolish." It's worth $30 million to protect $11 billion.

If you were a Haitian voter whose vote belonged OAS team sample, your vote will be treated differently than if your vote did not belong to that sample. This was the grounds on which the Supreme Court stopped the Florida recount.

When Brazilian diplomat Ricardo Seitenfus was abruptly ousted as special representative of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Haiti on Christmas day, timing proved to be everything.

The rupture of diplomatic relations between Venezuela and Colombia after a special session of the Organization of American States (OAS) on July 22 mar...

Feeling a clear and present danger from Team Obama's new bases designed to contain the FARC, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is threatening retaliation and cutting off oil exports to his top customer, the U.S.

Drug dependency is a chronic, relapsing disease that must be dealt with as a core element of public health policy.

"The U.N. simply does not have adequate support of the world powers," Juan E. Mendez told me. Coming from anyone, this might be less important. From...

The decision of Venezuelan authorities to send a 22-year-old university student to prison for trumped-up crimes has caused widespread public outrage, especially among students.

Human Rights Watch should be investigating allegations by Honduran feminists and human rights groups that Honduran police are using rape and other sexual violence as weapons of intimidation against Hondurans nonviolently protesting the coup regime.

The fact that Chávez has taken over the courts means that Venezuela may look like a democracy to fawning movie stars and celebrity athletes of the vanguard left, but the core is rotten and lawless.

Last weekend, leaders of the Honduran coup placed a nail in the coffin of efforts to mediate the conflict when they rejected a proposal by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias.

The White House denounced the action in Honduras as "illegal." But that call requires Washington to cut off all but humanitarian aid and could jeopardize the big Soto Cano base outside Tegucigalpa.

One lever that the U.S. government has not publicly discussed using is trade sanctions. Simply beginning the discussion would increase pressure on the coup regime to stand down.

So far, whatever the Obama Administration has done has not caused the coup government to budge in its unwillingness to allow the democratically elected President of Honduras to resume his office.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Ousted President Manuel Zelaya said Saturday that he would return to Honduras to try to retake office following last wee...

Why such reluctance to openly call for the immediate and unconditional return of an elected president, as the rest of the hemisphere and the United Nations has done?

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Wednesday it has suspended joint military operations with Honduras to protest a coup that forced Pres...

Cuba will not rejoin the Organization of American States, even though the multinational organization has lifted the 47-year-old suspension of the coun...