This was a tense day for democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean. Venezuela’s leftist government got smacked by the Organization of American States. Haiti may have to redo a presidential election. And both crises reflect a discouraging regional failure.
Regarding Venezuela, the OAS has taken an unprecedented action: It invoked the Inter-American Democratic Charter to decide if the country should be suspended from the OAS.
Venezuela’s socialist President NicolásMaduro called the move “irresponsible.” But OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro has said Maduro is acting like a “petty dictator” by refusing to let Venezuela’s election council hold a presidential recall referendum.
Meanwhile, Haiti’s election commission started deliberating whether to nullify last October’s first-round presidential election and hold it again. A special panel has concluded that the October balloting was severely tainted by fraud and “zombie votes.”
But Haiti has yet to elect a new president in a runoff. In fact, it’s been without a real head of state since February. Going back to election square one could mean a vacant presidential palace for a long, long time.
Venezuela and Haiti are reminders that while Latin America may be more democratic today it’s still struggling to build democratic institutions. The question is whether the OAS move might help change that.
