The Or­ga­ni­za­tion of Amer­i­can States (OAS) says the new Per­ma­nent Rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Bar­ba­dos, Vic­tor Fer­nan­des, has pre­sent­ed his cre­den­tials to OAS Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Luis Al­ma­gro. 

In a cer­e­mo­ny at the OAS head­quar­ters in Wash­ing­ton, Fer­nan­des high­light­ed “the Gov­ern­ment of Bar­ba­dos´s firm com­mit­ment to up­hold­ing the prin­ci­ples on which the OAS was found­ed as en­shrined in its Char­ter: guid­ing democ­ra­cy, hu­man rights, mul­ti­di­men­sion­al se­cu­ri­ty and in­te­gral de­vel­op­ment in the hemi­sphere.”

He al­so em­pha­sized that his coun­try “sees the OAS as the pre­mier mul­ti­lat­er­al or­ga­ni­za­tion in the Amer­i­c­as, work­ing to pro­mote peace and strength­en­ing po­lit­i­cal di­a­logue.”

Al­ma­gro not­ed that Bar­ba­dos has been part of the OAS since 1967 and that it has “hon­ored the ba­sic prin­ci­ples of our or­ga­ni­za­tion. 

“These four pil­lars are in­ter­con­nect­ed, and one can­not ex­ist with­out the oth­er,” he said. “Bar­ba­dos has played an im­por­tant role in es­sen­tial is­sues at the OAS, such as cli­mate change, nat­ur­al dis­as­ters, gen­der equal­i­ty, racial equal­i­ty and repa­ra­tions.” 

The OAS said Am­bas­sador Fer­nan­des has served as chair­man of the Bar­ba­dos Na­tion­al Oil Com­pa­ny, the Bar­ba­dos Na­tion­al Ter­mi­nal and the Bar­ba­dos Tourism In­vest­ment Cor­po­ra­tion,  as well as di­rec­tor of the Na­tion­al Pe­tro­le­um Cor­po­ra­tion and the Bayview Hos­pi­tal, among oth­er po­si­tions.

WASH­ING­TON, Sep. 7, CMC

CMC/nk/kb/2024