The Grupo de Puebla expresses its strongest rejection of the arbitrary intervention of the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, by ignoring the decision adopted by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in January 2020 when it ratified, in accordance with Article 11 of its regulations of procedure, Paulo Abrão as Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The decision of Secretary Almagro violates the autonomy of the body and threatens the necessary independence that the Commission must have in order to process complaints related to human rights violations in all countries of the region.
The Group does not rule out that the Secretary’s interference is a response to the recent decisions adopted by the IACHR regarding the persecution of progressive political leaders by the governments of Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Colombia. Secretary Abrão has a distinguished record of service in the defense of human rights. As director of the Mercosur Human Rights Institute, he has outlined the course of human rights policy in South America and has championed historic cases against human rights violations in various countries and at various times in recent political history. Secretary Almagro, because of his questioned record at the head of the OAS and the statutory provisions of the OAS, has no moral or legal authority to sanction the conduct of Secretary Abrão.
Signers:
1. Luis Inácio “Lula” Da Silva
2. Ernesto Samper
3. Dilma Rousseff
4. Rafael Correa
5. Guillaume Long
6. Celso Amorim
7. Jorge Taiana
8. Adriana Salvatierra
9. Carol Proner
10. Marco Enríquez-Ominami
11. Gabriela Rivadeneira
12. Aloizio Mercadante
13. Carlos Ominami
14. Fernando Lugo
15. María José Pizarro
16. Alejandro Navarro
17. Carlos Sotelo
18. Mónica Xavier
19. Daniel Martínez
20. Iván Cepeda
21. Esperanza Martínez
22. Beatriz Paredes
23. Hugo Martínez