A distinguished visit

Jose Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the American States Organization (A.S.O.) arrived in Tegucigalpa on Wednesday of last week. Insulza, a Chilean diplomat and previously the Chilean Secretary of Foreign Affairs, is a well-known lawyer with an extensive background in international law and holds a master’s degree in political science from the University of Michigan. He was elected as Secretary General of the A.S.O., the organization consisting of 35 member states, all located in the Americas – North, Central and South.

In May 2005, Insulza promised when began his involvement in A.S.O., to strengthen the political relevance of the organization. Not long ago, as the Secretary General, one of the continent’s most influential men personally offered to mediate the FARC hostages release process in Colombia. His presence in Honduras means that many people are watching Honduras. Hopefully, good political decisions and actions are about to be taken.

While here, Insulza clearly avoided the subject of Hugo Chavez and did not enter into controversial territory. He met with President Zelaya, and opened an anti-corruption seminar on Thursday.

During a press conference related to the seminar, Insulza said “corruption takes away legitimacy of governments and steals economic resources from democratic institutions,” and added that he believes the real problem is not corruption itself, but rather, the training and resolve to find solutions to eliminate it.

He met with President Zelaya to discuss subjects of the hemispheric agenda, and disclosed that Honduras will be headquarters for the general assembly of the A.S.O. for the first time in its history, in 2009. Honduras obtained that honorable distinction during the General Assembly of the organiza­tion, celebrated back in 2006 in the Dominican Republic.

Clearly, our distinguished visitor’s intention was not to evaluate the level of corruption in Honduras, but to have constructive meetings with Honduran authorities. He also was reported to be happy to have been here. “My expectation is to talk with the president, the Foreign Affairs Secretary and other authorities,” Insulza said during a visit to the Presidential House.

The A.S.O. is considered one of the main political entities in the region and has a non-corrective, constructive mechanism to address governmental corruption. It analyzes the existing legal processes and, if necessary, will suggest improve­ments in the exhaustive fight against the cancer of institutional corruption that Honduras is fighting.

Even though Secretary General Insulza did not specify the exact reason of his visit and justified it as a courtesy visit, we all know that his presence here was significant, especially that he came to kick off an anti-corruption seminar and signed on an electoral process cooperation agreement. Both subjects are, in our limited vision, the most important subjects of our political reality.

Now, it’s up to us and the authorities in Honduras to understand the message: let’s get to work, for our own good.

Honduras will be headquarters for the general assembly of the A.S.O. for the first time in its history, in 2009.

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