US embassy cable - 05LIMA1176

UNCLAS LIMA 001176 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SOCI, PREL, PE 
SUBJECT: DEMARCHE ON OAS SOCIAL CHARTER (PERU) 
 
REF: STATE 39428 
 
Sensitive but Unclassified.  Please protect accordingly. 
 
1.  (U)  Poloff presented the demarche on the OAS Social 
Charter (Reftel) to Julio Garro, the Foreign Ministry's 
Assistant Secretary for Multilateral and Security Affairs on 
3/8, Deputy Director for Multialteral Affairs Carlos Chocano, 
and Director of Social Affairs Maria Eugenia Echeverria were 
also present. 
 
2.  (SBU)  Garro did not provide a substantive response to 
our points.  He was sympathetic to our concerns that the OAS 
produce a document that would be realistic and not filled 
with pie-in-the-sky promises.  All three Peruvian officials 
were confident that the OAS would not abandon its historical 
consensus mechanism in decision-making for this issue.  Garro 
added that he thought it would be helpful if the USG could 
provide written examples of the language we would like to see 
included in an OAS Social Charter.  He also noted that 
President Franklin Roosevelt, in his Declaration of the Four 
Freedoms during World War II, had cited "Freedom from Want" 
as a key human right, and that this sentiment motivated many 
OAS members to look with favor on the idea of a Social 
Charter. 
 
3.  (SBU)  With respect to alternate chairs for the Social 
Charter Working Group, Garro speculated that Brazil would be 
a better standard-bearer than Venezuela. 
STRUBLE