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OAS Must Avoid 'Extremes,' Push for Dialogue, Leadership Candidate says

Reuters

   BOGOTA, COLOMBIA - The Organization of American States (OAS) should
   avoid "extreme" positions when confronting regional crises like
   Venezuela's social and economic collapse and instead promote dialogue,
   a challenger for the body's top job said on Tuesday.

   Hugo de Zela, a longtime Peruvian diplomat and his country's ambassador
   to the United States, is running to unseat the organization's
   secretary-general, Luis Almagro, who is seeking a second five-year
   term. Almagro's current term is set to end next May.

   The OAS must push for problems to be solved within its member countries
   by facilitating dialogue between different factions, de Zela told
   Reuters on the sidelines of a diplomatic meeting in Bogota.

   "If the organization puts itself on one of the extremes, it stops being
   effective at solving problems, it stops being present in the solution
   and it becomes part of the problem," said de Zela. "That cannot
   happen."

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