Juan Manuel Santos supports IACHR while Bolivia studies leaving it

Juan Manuel Santos and the president of the Inter-American Court, Diego Garcia Sayan.

The president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, began yesterday a special session with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CourtIDH) showing its irrevocable support to strengthening the human rights system of the Organization of American States (OAS).

Santos separated himself from “extreme positions” of countries seeking radical reforms in the system, the same as those discussed in Guayaquil, Ecuador and then be evaluated in an OAS meeting in Washington on Friday.

“We welcome the reforms, but the powers of the system must be recognized,” Santos said stressing that “it is to strengthen, not weaken.”

For his part, the president of Bolivia, Evo Morales, said yesterday that it was considering withdrawing his country from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an organization which he described as “another U.S. military base.”

Evo Morales

“I’m seriously considering withdrawing from the IACHR,” Morales said when asked about complaints that the agency received by the Bolivian Amazon Indians who opposed to the construction of a road by an ecological reserve in the Amazon.

Morales said: “I consider the commission as another military base (U.S.), they hint and try to judge countries, what do they do?“.

The Commission “has offices in the United States and the United States has not ratified any agreement for the defense of human rights,” he said.