Business, Corruption, Economy, Law & Justice, Politics

Americas Summit: Commitment Against Corruption

President Martin Vizcarra and U.S. vice-president Mike Pence at the start of the Summit of the Americas.

Leaders of  34 countries in the Americas, meeting in Lima this past weekend for the eighth Summit of the Americas, signed the Lima Commitment to work together to fight against the pervasive corruption that is widespread in government and the private sector in many of the hemisphere’s countries.

The 57-point statement on democratic governance against corruption calls for concerted action against bribery, international corruption, organized crime and money laundering, for the protection of whistleblowers, transparency and access to information. It also calls to work with related UN and inter-American organizations and to establish an inter-American open data program within the Organization of American States, OAS.

U.S. Vice-president Mike Pence and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

It was the first time the hemisphere’s countries have openly discussed the causes and consequences of corruption.

But there was little consensus on how to solve the democratic crisis in Venezuela, another issue the summit had hoped to address.   To begin with, Venezuela was not at the table this time, following Peru’s decision earlier this year to not invite President Nicolas Maduro to the summit.

Among several presidents who did not attend were Raul Castro of Cuba and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, who support Maduro, but they did send delegations. Cuba’s Foreign Affairs minister, Bruno Rodriguez, and Bolivia’s President Evo Morales regretted Peru’s decision to “accept pressure from the United States” to make Maduro unwelcome, and refrained with half of the countries present at the summit from signing a statement calling on Venezuela to hold free and fair elections.

The President of Ecuador, Lenin Moreno, arrived Thursday for the summit but returned to Quito the following day, before the inauguration, when it was confirmed that three Ecuadorian journalists had been killed by Colombian FARC rebels on the Colombian-Ecuador border.

U.S. President Donald Trump had announced earlier in the week he would not be coming to Lima when concern increased around the alleged chemical attacks in Syria. Vice-president Mike Pence led the U.S. delegation, which included acting Secretary of State John Sullivan, Pence’s chief of staff Nick Ayers, the President’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Senator Marco Rubio and U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Tom Donohue.

Besides the central events with the national leaders, a series of workshops and conferences were held, covering topics such as the economy, with the Inter-American Development Bank’s president, Luis Alberto Moreno, and Chile’s president Sebastian Piñera; talks on the Pacific Alliance — Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile—  with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, a candidate to the alliance; plus the parallel summit of Indigenous Peoples, with President Evo Morales of Bolivia leading the closing ceremony.

Now the event is over, until the next Summit in three years’ time, it will be in the hands of each government to find ways to meet the commitments they have made in Lima.

See Lima Commitment — Democratic Governance against Corruption

Chile’s President Sebastian Piñera listens to Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos.
The U.S. delegation — l.to r: U.S. ambassador to Peru Krishna Urs, chief of staff to the U.S. vice-president, Nick Ayers, U.S. Vice-president Mike Pence, assistant Secretary of State John Sullivan, and President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Pacific Alliance members — Presidents Martin Vizcarra of Peru, Carlos Santos of Colombia, Sebastian Piñera of Chile, and Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico— greet alliance candidate Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada.

 

 

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