President Dr Irfaan Ali and senior members of the Guyana Government met with Organisation of American States (OAS) Secretary General Luis Almagro Lemes on Thursday morning at State House in Georgetown.
The OAS Secretary General and his team are currently in Guyana for his first visit here since his appointment to the post in 2015.
At the State House meeting, President Ali was joined by Prime Minister, Brigadier (Retired) Mark Phillips; Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, and several Cabinet Ministers as well as Guyanese diplomats.
There was no official statement on the purpose of the OAS official’s visit to Guyana. However, Guyana Times was informed that the Secretary General also attended a civil society engagement that was hosted by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance at the Marriott Hotel on Thursday.
This is the second meeting between the Guyana Government and the OAS official. Back in September 2021, President Ali had led a team to meet the Secretary General at the Office of the Permanent Mission to Guyana in New York.
Meanwhile, the OAS official was one of the key international figures who were outspoken during the March 2020 elections fiasco in Guyana, calling for democracy to prevail and the will of the majority of Guyanese to be respected. The OAS had also mounted an Election Observer Mission for the 2020 elections.
The OAS is the world’s oldest regional organisation. It brings together all 35 independent States of the Americas, and constitutes the main political, juridical, and social governmental forum in the Hemisphere.