Permanent Representative of Belize to the Organization of American States (OAS), Ambassador Nestor Mendez was yesterday elected as the next Assistant Secretary General of the hemispheric institution, beating out his only competitor Guyanese Bayney Karran.
Mendez obtained 24 votes from the member states compared with 10 received by Guyana’s Permanent Representative Karran. The XLIX Extraordinary General Assembly of the OAS was held at the headquarters of the hemispheric organization in Washington, DC. At the meeting, former Foreign Minister of Uruguay Luis Almagro was elected as the next Secretary General of the hemispheric institution. He will assume the post on May 26, succeeding the current leader of the OAS José Miguel Insulza. Mendez will succeed Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin on July 12.
According to a press statement from the OAS, upon accepting the position, the Assistant Secretary General-elect said he stood before the countries that elected him to the post “with a clear mandate and an unwavering commitment to seize the opportunity that is before us to work together to transform the OAS into the organization that we
