LatinWeek

Region: On 7 June the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, visited Lima, Peru, to attend the annual summit of the Organization of American States (OAS). At the summit, Clinton stated that the OAS “suffers from a proliferation of priorities and mandates that dilute its efforts, drain its budget, and diminish its capacity". She warned that the OAS needed greater focus or it could risk losing 60% of its annual budget of US$178m funded by the US. Clinton set a deadline of September 2011 for progress to be made on the implementation of the Inter-American Democratic Charter (IADC). In the US view, implementing the IADC would “tackle regional challenges and prevent crises before they arise".