OAS to hold special summit on S. American problems

Reuters, 04.04.03, 12:12 PM ET   By David Ljunggren OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Organization of American States will hold an extraordinary summit in the second half of this year to discuss spreading economic and political chaos in South America, Canadian officials said Friday. Canada has long pressed for the summit but the idea initially ran into resistance from Brazil, which was reluctant to let Ottawa take the initiative on problems mainly affecting South America. Canadian foreign ministry spokesman Patrick Riel said a meeting Wednesday in Washington of officials from the 34-nation OAS had cleared the way for the summit. "A unanimous consensus was reached on holding a special summit in the second half of 2003," he told Reuters, saying no date or venue had yet been determined. Officials said in February that Mexico had volunteered to act as host. The OAS is due to hold its next Summit of the Americas in Argentina in early 2005, but officials say Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien feels it needs to take stock of "the convulsions" that have rocked some member states. OAS leaders held their last summit, which adopted an action plan to strengthen democratic institutions, in Quebec City in April 2001 "We are very happy that consensus was reached. It will help us keep what we had done in Quebec City on track," Riel said. OAS officials are due to meet early in June to iron out details of the summit, which Riel said would help address "the current challenges" facing much of the hemisphere. Argentina is suffering from its worst economic contraction in a century, one that has also spilled over into Uruguay. Venezuela is trying to recover from a two-month violent standoff between friends and foes of President Hugo Chavez that crippled oil exports. And deadly riots swept Bolivia in February while Colombia is in the grip of a decades-long civil war. Canada said another reason to hold an interim summit was the fact that since Quebec City about a dozen OAS members had elected new leaders. There are also tensions inside the grouping over the U.S.-led war on Iraq, which Canada and Mexico did not back. Mexico is unhappy with Washington's lack of interest in a deal to legalize the status of millions of undocumented Mexicans in the United States.