How to protect Latin American democracy.

The article reports on the Organisation of American States (OAS). In recent years, as democracy has spread across Latin America, the OAS has helped to protect democratic rule in several countries. But the OAS can step in only when asked by the country concerned. To bolster democracy, George Bush's administration wants to give some teeth to the Democratic Charter. At a meeting this week in Florida addressed by Mr Bush, American diplomats urged the OAS's foreign ministers to set up a permanent committee to police the practice of democracy in the region partly by hearing testimony from civic groups. But Latin America no longer automatically follows Washington's lead, in part because democracy has brought centre-left governments to power in some places. They also suspect that the new plan is a fig-leaf for an American plot to oust Mr Chávez, a stridently anti-American populist. There is a large middle ground of diplomatic measures between passivity and forced regime change. Whether the OAS--rather than the newly-proclaimed South American Community--is the right body for such diplomacy is debatable. But the Democratic Charter is there. It is Latin America's responsibility, and in its own interest, to make it worth the paper it is written on.