Failure to Proclaim the Inter-American Democracy Charter

During the Summit of the Americas, one of the responses to the tens of thousands of protesters in the streets came from International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew. Expressing the official line of the U.S. and Canadian governments, he implied that many of the protesters were sadly mistaken in their opposition to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) because the free trade deal would actually improve the lives of the most impoverished in the Americas. Pettigrew and Prime Minister Chretien spoke frequently during the Summit proceedings about the importance of the so-called social aspects of the FTAA, and in fact the Summit themes included "strengthening democracy and human participation".

During the Summit proceedings, unanimous consent was sought for the adoption of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. This document was put forward by Costa Rica with the full support of the governments of the United States, Mexico and Canada. However, Venezuela reserved its position and refused to sign the draft agreement, while strong reservations were expressed by the Caribbean nations. Despite this, the claim was made that the Summit had adopted the Charter, and all that remained was to cross the "t's" and dot the "i's".

The Charter is an endorsement of the American concept of representative democracy and excludes countries which fall outside this concept from participating in hemispheric trade deals and other negotiations. The Charter also extends powers to the other countries of the Americas to intervene in the internal affairs of nations deemed undemocratic or where the democratic process is perceived to be under threat. Putting aside the problem of the vague definitions the Charter puts forward, it is widely seen as an attack on Cuba's system of participatory democracy. It would continue Cuba's exclusion from membership in the OAS and from full participation in the hemisphere.

In the first week of June, Foreign Ministers from the OAS countries got together in Costa Rica to try to formally adopt the Democracy Charter. At the opening press conference in San José, Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodriguez and the Secretary General of the OAS, César Gaviria proclaimed their confidence that the Democracy Charter would be ratified. Rodriguez said adopting the Charter was "essential", and that the initiative should be further strengthened with a democratic clause that would exclude "non-democratic countries from economic integration and trade mechanisms."

Gaviria agreed the Charter was essential, and said it would "serve notice to all those who would disrupt the constitutional order that they will encounter a community of nations united in collective action to enforce the observance of democratic institutions." Gaviria also said the proposed Charter represented a significant advance because it expands the potential situations that can be considered a collapse of democracy as well as the breadth of actions available to defend democracy when it is under threat.

But a funny thing seems to have happened on the way to Costa Rica. Some of the Central and South American nations that had lined up behind the democracy clause in Quebec City began expressing doubts about the Charter. Honduras, El Salvador, Belize, Nicaragua and Brazil joined with Venezuela and the Caribbean nations to scuttle the version of the Charter presented in San José. This is a serious defeat for the Americans, who were the real authors of the document. It is clear that the contradictions that were first expressed in Quebec City have grown. The Americans, and the Canadian and Mexican governments which are following the American's lead on this issue, have a fight on their hands.