Rodriguez Elected as OAS Secretary General
The Organization of American States elected former Costa Rican President Miguel Angel Rodriguez as the group's next secretary general, replacing Colombian Cesar Gaviria, whose second five-year term expires in September.

Former president, Miguel Angel Rodriguez, n Quito, Ecuador, named Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS). MIGUEL ANGEL RODRIGUEZ - President of Costa Rica, 1998-2002 - Headed Costa Rica's right-of-center United Social Christian Party and was president of the country's legislature. Also served as president of the Christian Democrats of America. - Doctorate in economics from the University of California at Berkeley. - Currently J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Visiting Professor of International Affairs at George Washington University - Before entering politics, he was highly successful in the dairy and meatpacking businesses. - Married to Lorena Clare, they have two grown children.

``We want to pursue freedom, justice and development so that every citizen of the Americas can enjoy a decent life and realize his or her full human potential,'' Rodriguez said at the OAS general assembly meeting in Quito, Ecuador.

Newly elected Rodríguez says he hopes to raise the OAS' influence by boosting its support for democracy and programs that stimulate economic growth, improve political stability and diminish poverty in the Western Hemisphere.

Haiti's return to a democratically elected government, Venezuela's political crisis and Colombia's peace talks with right-wing paramilitary fighters will also take up much of his time.

In an uncontested election Monday, Rodríguez was picked to succeed OAS Secretary General César Gaviria, a former president of Colombia who will step down in September after leading the organization for the past decade.

Although remembered by his Costa Rican opponents as something of a weak president, serving from 1998 to 2002, Rodríguez said that he's committed to help the OAS achieve ``additional strengthening and definition.''

He credited Gaviria for raising the profile of an organization that had long been viewed as powerless and said he plans to raise its status even further.

Rodríguez, 64 and an economist and businessman with graduate degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, takes over the helm of the OAS at a critical juncture, amid crises in Haiti and Venezuela, a lengthy insurgency in Colombia and serious political problems in nearly half the organization's 34 active member states. Cuba's membership has been suspended since 1962.

''I come from experience as a private entrepreneur. I ran government. I have a vocation for management,'' Rodríguez said, adding that he is ''completely committed, fully committed, deeply committed'' to the values of liberty, justice, solidarity, sovereignty and development.

''This commitment, on my part, will help me to work for the [OAS member nations] and achieve fruitful results,'' he promised.

Although regarded as a brilliant economist, experts said Rodríguez's presidential tenure was marked more by what he didn't accomplish than what he did, according to José Miguel Villalobos, a former minister of justice.

''He's an intelligent man with a vision of the future -- it's just that his vision was not shared by the majority of Costa Ricans,'' said Villalobos. ``He was a great thinker, but not a great leader.''

Showing his pragmatism, Rodríguez withdrew his proposal to break up the Costa Rican government's monopoly of the telecommunications industry after it brought tens of thousands of protesters to the streets.

Supporters noted Rodríguez managed to maintain modest 4 percent economic growth for Costa Rica during his tenure, and helped push forward a new labor law and an innovative paternity law to go after dead-beat dads.

His selection to head the OAS was largely due to the sense that after three failed candidacies by Costa Ricans seeking the post, it was the small Central American nation's ''turn'' to run the OAS, experts said.

But more than a personal challenge, running the OAS will be more of an institutional challenge, said Manuel Orozco, a senior researcher at Georgetown University.

''Rodríguez has the ability to run the OAS,'' Orozco said. ``The challenges before him as secretary general have to do more with the institutional weakness of the organization.''

Among his top challenges will be Venezuela, where the OAS has been monitoring a pitched battle by opponents of leftist President Hugo Chávez to hold a recall vote now expected in August.

Chávez government officials have often accused the OAS observers of siding with the opposition, and at times threatened to expel them.

The OAS has also agreed to supervise the Colombian peace talks with the rightist United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, which recently agreed to concentrate its top leaders in a northern region while the talks continue.

Haiti also remains a challenge for the OAS, one that Rodríguez characterized as ''the most important moral issue'' facing the organization.

''We have to take all the measures that are required for a very strong, humanitarian program'' to help the hemisphere's poorest nation, Rodríguez told reporter. Long-term solutions also must address the health, education, security and economic development there, he added.

Rodríguez also said that the Caribbean Community, whose 15 members also belong to the OAS, must take a leading role ``in the . . . solution of Haitian issues.''

The OAS and CARICOM must agree on how to manage the political transition unfolding in Haiti following the Feb. 29 departure of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his replacement by a non-elected interim government.

''Everyone is in agreement of the need for a fast election to take place in Haiti, so that the new authorities could emerge,'' Rodríguez said.