opinion

The ACS with new vigor
by Rubén Silié

The 13th Meeting of the Ministerial Council of the ACS was held earlier this year on January 25, when, in addition to other important matters, the diplomat Luis Fernando Andrade Falla was selected as the new Secretary General. The election process was carried out by consensus and thus the election proceeded expeditiously and in accordance with the standard rules of the entity.

According to the statutes of the ACS, a candidate from the Central American grouping had to be chosen since, although the Ministerial Council operates on a country basis, there exists within the organization, the principle of rotation for the high level positions. As a result, the first Secretary General was put forward by the Group of Three (Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia), the second by the CARICOM grouping and the third by the Non-Grouped Countries (Cuba, Dominican Republic and Panama). That dynamic of rotation is quite healthy for the institution because given the size of the organisation, as well as the fact that it is not a question of one group responding to a single tradition of days gone by; it was a wise decision for each of the groups identified to be afforded the opportunity to represent the entity as a whole.

Furthermore, the ACS was created with the knowledge that the organisation was bringing together two sub-regional integration groups, each one with more than a half century of independent work in their respective geographic space. In other words, establishing the principles of alternation and rotation from the onset was a prudent administrative policy. With this election, the cycle of the four groups existing within the ACS, is complete.

The election of the fourth Secretary General of the ACS is a contribution to institutional strengthening and recognition by countries of the interest in moving forward with the regional project. In that way, the new Secretary General is receiving an organisation in which the same Ministerial Council that chose him, proposed to start brainstorming on modernising the administrative and financial areas that would update its modus operandi, so that it would be more consistent with the development achieved thus far.

With the new Secretary General would come new perspectives for the institution, although its leadership is collective, from the Ministerial Council as the highest political organ, there is no doubt that the individual at the helm of the Secretariat will impress upon it, in one way or another, a particular style in terms of management efforts. However what is most important is that the incoming Secretary General assumes his new duties with fervour, opening up a space in which to relaunch ideas and proposals, as well as encourage new initiatives.

We are certain that Mr. Andrade Falla will kick off a period of renewal and change in the ACS, and one contributing factor to this will undoubtedly be the fact that he is a candidate hailing from Central America, especially after the signing of the historic agreement between CARICOM and SICA. Certainly the rapprochement efforts between those two sub-regions will advance and co-operation efforts will deepen between both groups, and this is significant since it involves not only the two largest groups, but also it is within them that integration processes are underway.

Dr. Rubén Silié Valdez is the former Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States. The opinions expressed are not necessarily the official views of the ACS. Comments and reactions can be sent to mail@acs-aec.org