Antony Blinken to conclude Latin America tour
A weeklong tour by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken of Latin America will conclude today at the Organization of American States (OAS) General Assembly in Lima, Peru.
Blinken will likely advance several resolutions during the conference, including denouncing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, criticizing human rights abuses in Nicaragua and Venezuela and supporting democracy across Latin America.
In August, the OAS passed a resolution condemning Nicaragua’s imprisonment of political opponents and hostile rhetoric against the Catholic Church. In September, the United Nations released a report documenting widespread human rights violations in Venezuela, including arbitrary detentions, sexual violence and torture. Human rights in Latin America have declined since the 2010’s, with the region having the most killings of human rights activists, environmentalists and LGBTQ people in the world.
Blinken’s proposals will likely provoke hostile rebuttals from the region’s authoritarian regimes, with responses from Nicaragua and Venezuela likely to be particularly harsh. Russia’s declining geopolitical power may force the region’s autocrats to work closely together in the coming years and intensify the oppression of their citizens. U.S. diplomatic pressure on Latin America to strengthen its human rights is unlikely to succeed until the region’s the rule of law is strengthened, and its authoritarian states democratize.
