Luis Almagro has the classic Uruguayan game, it is a classic Uruguayan 5. He reminds me a lot of Egidio Arévalo (Ríos). He doesn’t let go of you, and he doesn’t let go of you and he doesn’t let go of you. Run the 90 minutes. And if there is an extension, the extension runs. This is how Francisco Guerrero defines the Secretary General of the OAS in the book Luis Almagro does not ask for forgiveness written by Martín Natalevich and Gonzalo Ferreira (Editorial Planeta, 2020).
Indeed, Luis Almagro has personally marked the dictatorships of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, but also the one who, violating the decision of a majority of Bolivians, stood for a fraudulent election, Evo Morales.
The controversy of the elections in Bolivia held on October 20, 2019 “began the same night of the elections when the Supreme Electoral Tribunal suspended the count at a time when the data showed an inevitable second round, which meant an evident defeat of Morales by uniting all the opposition against him”, write Natalevich and Ferreira.
The authors of the book recall that “when the count resumed, twenty-four hours later, there was such an advantage that Morales was on the verge of re-election without the need for a second round because he was taking more than 10 points from Carlos Mesa, the candidate who I was second.”
Marcelo Ebrard received Morales in the role of martyr for democracy when the violation committed in the 2016 referendum was clearly manifested, the year in which the majority of Bolivians said they no longer wanted to see him on the 2019 ballots.
That was the first signal that Ebrard sent in his attempt to create the image of a populist politician.
From that moment on, Ebrard has launched several criticisms against Almagro. In the fall of Morales “there was a capital responsibility of Luis Almagro, who admits it without blushing and is even proud of having been able to contribute to ending a re-election process that exceeded the legal framework,” write Natalevich and Ferreira.
Almagro did not hinder Morales after the populist’s violation of the referendum he lost in 2016 for one reason: he knew he would lose the elections. In exchange, Morales admitted OAS observers, the same ones who detected the fraud.
Regarding Cuba, Almagro has been a forceful critic during his tenure at the head of the OAS. The Venezuelan Pedro Burelli is surprised that the Cubans have never been able to “shoot to kill” Almagro. “They have so many espionage systems that I thought that at some point they were going to find something to discredit and humiliate him,” says the Venezuelan businessman, a former member of the PDVSA board of directors.
In 2018, Almagro stated that the Summit of the Americas should not accept dictators.
Almagro has accused the Cuban regime of using “terror mechanisms” against its citizens and “silent exporting its trademark to countries like Venezuela and Nicaragua,” Natalevich and Ferreira say.
For Almagro, in Cuba there is “a dictatorship that is the most perfect example of the mythology of misery and human rights violations.”
Regarding the Venezuelan dictatorship, Almagro “is the main international reference for the struggle in Venezuela, more than any other global leader”, indicates the politician María Corina Machado in the book Luis Almagro does not ask for forgiveness.
For Francisco Guerrero, Director for Strengthening Democracy at the OAS, Almagro “did a job of goldsmithing, decoding and exposing” the violations of democracy by Maduro.
Almagro “is the first that I see committed to that letter (democratic from the OAS). That, for me, is the greatest triumph for Almagro”, says Diego Arria (former president of the United Nations Security Council).
We already know why Ebrard doesn’t want Almagro.
It is a Uruguayan 5.
Twitter: @faustopretelin
Consultant, academic, editor
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He was a research professor in the Department of International Studies at ITAM, published the book Referendum Twitter and was an editor and collaborator in various newspapers such as 24 Horas, El Universal, Milenio. He has published in magazines such as Foreign Affairs, Le Monde Diplomatique, Life & Style, Chilango and Revuelta. He is currently an editor and columnist at El Economista.