The Permanent Council, the executive arm of the Organization of American States (OAS), this Friday almost unanimously approved the opening of an external investigation into its secretary-general, Uruguayan Luis Almagro, to determine whether he was guilty of alleged “improper conduct”. hat” in his sentimental relationship with an employee of the institution.
At the meeting at the OAS headquarters in Washington, the resolution tabled by Uruguay and Antigua and Barbuda entitled “Authorization for an Outside Company to Investigate Allegations Against the Secretary-General” received a yes vote from thirty countries and a further two abstentions. Belize and Haiti. A final country, Grenada, was not present at the meeting.
The company selected to complete the investigation has three months from its recruitment to prepare a report to submit to the Chair of the Permanent Council.
The saga had begun in June when the OAS received an anonymous complaint via email accusing Almagro of improperly promoting an official with whom he was romantically involved. The clerk had risen from an interim position at the institution to become the principal’s chief adviser.
In October, a journalist published an article related to the case and gave details. Almagro, 59, said he informed the organization’s office of the inspector general about the anonymous complaint. The office said the unidentified accuser did not provide any details warranting an investigation. But he felt the journalist’s allegations deserved an investigation and recommended hiring a company outside the institution.
The anonymous complainant alleges in his email that Almagro had “a close personal relationship with a Mexican civil servant” and promoted her “suddenly and without competition from a middle position to senior adviser”.
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Almagro acknowledges the existence of a sentimental relationship with Mexican political scientist Marian Vidaurri, which is publicly known in OAS circles, but denies that he acted improperly or violated the institution’s ethical codes. After the Permanent Council vote, the Secretary-General took the floor to “confirm and confirm” the existence of the love affair, which was known to “virtually everyone” and had lasted about three years – “personally perhaps the best of my life” – and ended a few months ago, and he insisted that he supported the resolution and that the investigation produced “the best result with fruit.”
The OAS code of ethics states that its employees “should not allow an intimate relationship with another employee or associate to interfere with the performance of their duties or be a hindrance to others in the workplace”.
Almagro is also under investigation over another allegation by the anonymous whistleblower, who alleges that the senior official failed to adequately protect and fired a former domestic worker who worked at the OAS official residence and who had been assaulted by the OAS’ ex-wife, Secretary-General . The investigation must determine whether Almagro was aware of these alleged abuses and the reason for the employee’s dismissal.
The current Secretary General of the OAS, who took office in 2015, has endured other controversies during his tenure. Nations like Mexico and Argentina have called for his resignation. A court at the organization found that Almagro had caused “moral, personal and professional harm” to Brazilian Paulo Abrao for his remarks when he decided not to renew the activist’s mandate at the head of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), before seven months unanimously. The senior Uruguayan official then justified his decision by stating that he was defending the interests of employees who had filed complaints of alleged favoritism and conflicts of interest against Abrao and the IACHR.
The case now opened against Almagro is reminiscent of what happened in another Washington-based institution of Latin American interest, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). American Mauricio Claver-Carone, president of this institution, was fired in October after an investigation revealed that he had had a sentimental relationship with a bank employee to whom he gave preferential treatment.
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