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Ambassador Nestor Mendez, “Movin’ On Up?”
posted (March 6, 2015)
And in other OAS news, we told you last year how senior Belizean diplomat Nestor Mendez is offering himself, with the blessing of the Belizean Government for the post of Assistant Secretary General of the Organization of American States.

Well, on Wednesday, the ceremony to note his candidacy was held on Wednesday in a special meeting which was held in Washington DC. The OAS Permanent Council officially received him at that ceremony in which he got an opportunity to address the council as to why he should be elected. Here's an excerpt of his speech to the gathering:

Nestor Mendez
"We need to focus on what we agree on and united us, instead of what does not unite us. Ladies and gentlemen, I stand before you convinced that here in this room today, we really have everything that we need to transform our organization and to convert it into the OAS that we need. The OAS that we want and that our people deserves."

Ambassador Mendez is going up against the representative of Guyana, Ambassador Bayney Karran. The election for the Assistant Secretary General Post takes place on Wednesday, March 18. And as we've told you, Guatemalan Diplomat Eduardo Stein, who is a former Prime Minister of that country has also announced his candidacy for Secretary General, which would mean that the next leader could be a Guatemalan.

If that should happen, it would certainly receive criticism from Belizean Border activist organizations such as the BTV, which already accuses the OAS of being preferential to Guatemala. Stein is going up against Minister of Foreign Relations of Uruguay, Luis Almagro, a candidate who Belize has already backed for this election, which also takes place on March 18.

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