Interamerican Relations: Questions of Policy, Right and Diplomacy

This article analyzes the counterpoints that have characterized the inter-American system since its origins, including the divergences between the philosophy and interests of the Latin American countries and the United States, the conflict between regional autonomy and universalism, and the ability to create collective security mechanisms, as well as the low effectiveness in establishing economic cooperation instruments. Sepúlveda Amor takes as his point of departure, some of the ideas stated by Ismael Moreno Pino in Derecho y diplomacia en las relaciones interamericanas (Law and Diplomacy in Inter-American Relations), concerning the structure and functions of the Organization of American States (OAS). The interamerican system has existed officially as a mechanism for international association since 1889, when the United States called the first conference in Washington, whose objectives were mainly of an economic-commercial nature. The Chapultepec (1945) and Río de Janeiro (1947) conferences were heId later, and included the aims respectively, of laying down the bases to solve the economic problems that arose during the postwar period, and of codifying the principIes of collective defense. In both meetings, Mexico unsuccessfully proposed that the concept of continental security be tied into economic balance and development. 1948 saw the holding of the Bogotá Conference, which approved a pact that institutionalized the inter-american system through the OAS Letter—in which the Mexican theses had a decisive influence—, and an economic cooperation agreement was negotiated. Despite the foregoing, the Cold War displaced the topies of economic cooperation and development to the benefit of security matters. According to the author, the series of counterpoints in the inter-american system has caused vacuums that the OAS has been incapable of filling, as well as the Latin America's consequent weakness on the international scene. In the light of the end of the Cold War and the commemoration of the OAS’s 50th anniversary, the article invites one to think about the functions the hemispheric body will have to perform in the new century, as well as the role Mexico will have to perform within the context of the inter-american system.