By Matt Spetalnick
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Organization of American States passed a resolution on Friday calling for a plan to update its rules and ethics code in response to an outside investigation that found its chief showed poor judgment but did not commit serious misconduct in an intimate relationship with a staffer.
The OAS Permanent Council approved the document by consensus, but Mexico took the opportunity to criticize Secretary General Luis Almagro, saying he should have resigned and could not be trusted.
The findings of the probe, launched late last year following a whistleblower’s complaint, were laid out in a 121-page report distributed to member-states on Monday.
The allegations against Almagro, who has long enjoyed U.S. backing, raised questions about the future leadership of the Western Hemisphere’s largest multilateral body. It was founded 75 years ago to promote regional cooperation, but in recent years has struggled with ideological divisions among its 34 members.
The report stopped short of stating that Almagro, a former Uruguayan foreign minister who has headed the OAS since 2015, was cleared of all allegations over a relationship with a Mexican-born woman that ended last year, but it made no recommendations specific to him.
In a carefully worded resolution, the council said it “takes note” of the findings of the probe by the Washington law firm Miller & Chevalier Chartered and backed its recommendations.
The resolution called on OAS officers to present “proposals for the further updating of the Code of Ethics and the Staff Regulations of the Organization.”
Luz Elena Banos Rivas, Mexico’s OAS ambassador and a frequent critic of Almagro, said he should have resigned after admitting to the relationship. “For his personal and political conduct we do not trust the current secretary general,” she said, even as Mexico joined consensus approval of the resolution.
The U.S. has made clear its continued support for Almagro. He has mostly aligned himself with U.S. policy as an outspoken critic of Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, which has alienated some on the Latin American left.
Almagro did not immediately respond to a request for comment. He said in a statement earlier this week that he believed the report “exonerates me of all responsibility.”
The probe determined Almagro did not favor the staffer in salary or personnel decisions or break conflict-of-interest rules, but that he did violate ethical standards for “common sense and good judgment.”
(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Paul Simao)
