09 June 2008
Western Hemisphere Meeting Showcases Progress in Colombia
Declaration of Medellín promotes more opportunities for young people
Washington -- At a June 1-3 meeting in Medellín, Colombia, top officials of the Americas adopted pledges aimed at improving life for the Western Hemisphere’s 800 million people.
Participants in the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), which included many of the region’s foreign ministers, adopted the Declaration of Medellín in which they pledged to promote greater opportunities for young people in the Western Hemisphere.
Specifically, the declaration called for projects that will create decent work and quality jobs for young people in keeping with the event’s theme, “Youth and Democratic Values.”
OAS Secretary-General José Miguel Insulza said at a side meeting to the General Assembly in Medellín that more than 11 million young people in Latin America and the Caribbean live below the poverty line, on less than $1 per day. Young people are also the segment of the population most vulnerable to criminal activity in the region, he said.
“Young people are the ones who suffer most directly the effects of crime and violence. Those in the lower social classes, especially men, are the main protagonists of gang activities,” said Insulza.
See also “Inter-American Assembly Aims To Build Democracy, Reduce Poverty.”
U.S. DEPUTY SECRETARY NEGROPONTE PRAISES PROGRESS IN MEDELLIN
The OAS event also spotlighted Colombia, and Medellín specifically, for the dramatic progress that has been made in battling the drug cartels that have held sway over the Andean nation.
Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte picked up on the theme of Medellín’s positive change, telling the OAS participants June 2 that “not long ago, Medellín suffered the plagues of violence and narco-trafficking. Now Medellín grows more prosperous and secure every day.”
Medellín’s “rebirth,” said Negroponte, “makes it an apt setting to discuss our hemisphere’s democratic future.”
Negroponte hailed the 60th anniversary of the founding of the OAS and also of the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, which he said “united our region in a commitment to human rights, social justice, and representative democracy.”
As a result, he said, “We have witnessed a transformation of our hemisphere,” and “no country embodies this transformation more than Colombia, and perhaps no city more than Medellín.”
Negroponte said at a press conference later that day that in 1993, Medellín was the world’s most violent city, but now is one of the safest.
He added that 15 years ago, the OAS could not have held its meeting in Medellín because of the violence, but the city now has become “one of the three most important investment destinations in Colombia,” as well as an important tourist destination -- developments that speak volumes about Colombia’s accomplishments.
Former State Department official Phillip McLean told America.gov that the OAS meeting proved “interesting for where the hemisphere is in terms of the [drug] problem confronting Colombia.”
McLean, who headed State’s Office of Andean Affairs, said Medellín once had the “deserved reputation” as the home of Colombia’s drug cartels.
But a “lot has changed” for the better in Medellín since he was active in Colombian matters for the State Department in the mid-1980s “and there should be a recognition of that,” McLean said.
McLean, now senior associate for the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said Colombia promised to be the “dominant issue” at the Medellín OAS meeting for Western Hemisphere leaders to show their “solidarity” with the Colombian government of President Álvaro Uribe.
ACUTE CRISES WILL FACE LEADERS AT SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS
The OAS General Assembly is the last time the region’s foreign ministers are scheduled to meet as a group until the April 17-19, 2009, Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, with the theme of “Securing Our Citizens' Future by Promoting Human Prosperity, Energy Security and Environmental Sustainability.”
Regarding the summit, Michael Shifter, vice president for policy at the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington public policy group, told America.gov that “it is hard to imagine” that the Trinidad and Tobago meeting “can be a success unless it deals seriously with the most critical issues” facing the Americas.
Shifter said Central American and Caribbean countries are facing a “set of acute crises that demand hemispheric attention and cooperation. Escalating food and fuel costs, and declining remittances [money transfers] from the United States and elsewhere, constitute a perfect storm for such vulnerable societies. The fact that the summit is taking place in the Caribbean is bound to highlight that concern.”
Shifter said the Trinidad and Tobago meeting “will be a crucial test” for the region’s governments to focus on the crises facing the Americas.
See also “Citizen Involvement in Summit of the Americas Process Expanding.”
Transcripts of Negroponte’s speech and press conference are on the State Department Web site.
The Declaration of Medellín is on the OAS Web site.
