By Arthur Shaw

On August 17, 2012, the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) on Aug. 17 decided to convene a meeting of Foreign Ministers to discuss the situation between Ecuador and the UK.

The resolution, adopted with 23 votes in favor, 3 against, 5 abstentions and 3 absent, convenes the Foreign Ministers of the OAS member states to meet on Friday, August 24 at 11:00 EDT (16:00 GMT) at the headquarters of the organization in Washington, DC. The purpose of the meeting will be to “address the situation between Ecuador and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland regarding the inviolability of the diplomatic premises of Ecuador in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in accordance with international law, and to agree on appropriate measures to be adopted.”

The three renegade states that voted against convening the meeting included the USA, Canada, and Trinidad and Tobago.

OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza stressed to the Council that the resolution approved focuses on “the problem posed by the threat or warning made to Ecuador by the possibility of an intervention into its embassy in London.” “The central issue is not the right of asylum, is the inviolability of embassies,” said Secretary General Insulza, who recalled that last year the United Nations Security Council ruled “very strictly on the absolute immunity that diplomatic missions must have in all the countries of the world.”

“What is being proposed is that the Foreign Ministers of our organization address this subject and not the subject of asylum nor whether it should be granted to Mr. Julian Assange. That will be discussed between Great Britain and Ecuador, the issue that concerns us is the inviolability of diplomatic missions of all members of this organization, something that is of interest to all of us,” said the OAS Secretary General.

Lamentably, the issues of political asylum, free press, and proper extradition procedures will not be discussed at the Aug. 24 meeting. Ecuador, the country which requested the meeting, seems to want the discussion narrowed to the issue of the inviolability of diplomatic missions.

Ecuador recently granted diplomatic asylum to Julian Assange, a free press activist, who has been in the embassy of Ecuador in London since June 19, 2012. The UK regime threatens to break into the Ecuadoran Embassy and grab Assange.

During the OAS Council meeting, the Representatives of Ecuador, Argentina, Dominica (on behalf of CARICOM), the United States, Panama, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Uruguay, Venezuela, Guatemala, El Salvador, Peru, Brazil, Honduras, Mexico, Canada, Paraguay, Chile and Costa Rica all spoke, as well as the Observers to the OAS from the United Kingdom and Sweden.

Note that Dominica spoke on behalf of CARICOM, an international organization in the Caribbean, to which Trinidad belongs. Dominica denounced the UK regime for the threat against the Ecuadoran Embassy. So, Trinidad is playing both sides. In Washington, DC, Trinidad sides with US imperialists. In the Caribbean, Trinidad sides with CARICOM.

UK is the closest ally of the US imperialists. So, the US imperialists don’t want disappoint the UK. But supporting the UK, in this case, humiliates US imperialists because it exposes the loss of US control over the OAS. At the abovementioned meeting, the US imperialists could only round up two states — Canada and Trinidad — to vote with the imperialists while Ecuador rounded up 23 states. At the upcoming Aug. 24 meeting, it is likely that the majority of the Council will approve a resolution which the US imperialists detest.

The imperialists have two choices — (1) support the OAS resolution which they detest, a show of weakness or (2) oppose or abstain which shows how isolated the imperialists are in their own “backyard.”

The government of Ecuador is a close ally of Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela.