Trump shakes up the OAS with a diplomatic purge, raising questions about the organization’s future

On Monday morning, at the Atlapa Convention Center in Panama City, attendees at the 56th General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) were whispering about the same thing with eager interest: a Reuters news story. The news agency revealed that several senior U.S. diplomats to the organization had resigned or been dismissed after clashes with Leandro Rizzuto Jr., the ambassador nominated by U.S. President Donald Trump to the multilateral forum.

According to the report, the diplomats include the deputy chief of mission, the chief of staff, a senior political counselor and at least one other foreign service officer. In practice, almost the entire senior leadership of the U.S. mission to the OAS was left without its top officials. While this could be seen as routine diplomatic reshuffling by a country, the decision has shaken the core of the OAS, as it exposes the situation the organization is facing: a triple crisis of funding, governance, and leadership.

Rizzuto, a personal friend of President Trump, told Reuters he seeks to shift the OAS’s focus away from human rights and democracy and toward economic issues. That vision contrasts with the organization’s historic role, which was once influential but today is hampered by political ineffectiveness in the face of authoritarian regimes such as Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Sources close to the OAS explained that the first rung of the organization’s crisis is financial. Although Washington remains the main funder, the Trump administration has put that support under review. For 2026, the U.S. contribution to the Regular Fund is about $28 million, equivalent to 30% of member states’ dues. However, the White House has pushed cuts to foreign assistance and multilateral bodies, and its 2027 budget proposal deepens that trend, fueling uncertainty over the organization’s financial future.

In that regard, an older debate about power within the forum has re-emerged: the United States has only one vote in the OAS, the same as any other member state. That tension has been taken up by U.S. conservative analysts, who see the current crisis not merely as an administrative or leadership dispute but as a problem of political representation. In that reading, Washington underwrites much of the OAS’s operation, while smaller regional blocs — especially Caribbean states — can have decisive influence on internal balances of power and on the election of its authorities.

Second, the OAS is experiencing a governance crisis due to disputes over accountability and internal management. In Washington, there is also discomfort over allegations regarding the management of the new secretary general, Albert Ramdin, who replaced Uruguayan leader Luis Almagro. Critics of his leadership have alleged administrative irregularities, questionable contracting and a lack of internal accountability.

Ramdin has not been found guilty of corruption by any competent body, but the accusations have fed a climate of distrust between sectors in Washington and the OAS’s new leadership. However, there are factors that have put Ramdin under pressure. Xaviera Jessurun, his chief of staff and one of his closest aides, stepped down amid allegations of corruption, fraud and money laundering in Suriname. Her departure followed the revocation of her diplomatic visa by the United States — an episode that further heightened tensions between Washington and the organization’s new administration.

Facing that pressure, the OAS’s other crisis concerns its future. Officials in the Republican administration have publicly questioned the organization’s relevance and called for deep reforms to justify continued U.S. financial support. “In that context, the organization’s internal disputes, the criticisms of its leadership and the debate over its mission take on a larger dimension,” said one source consulted by this newspaper. “They are part of a broader discussion about the future of multilateralism in an era of growing geopolitical competition.”

The case of Nicaragua

One of the main criticisms of the OAS has been its inability to exert greater pressure on regional dictatorships, and few cases illustrate this debate better than the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo in Nicaragua. Although the co-presidential regime formalized its withdrawal from the organization in 2023, the case still occupies a central place in the inter-American system and, for many analysts, has become a test of the OAS’s very relevance as a forum for defending democracy and human rights.

In Panama City, as the General Assembly gets under way, a draft resolution on Nicaragua is already circulating among member states. The document maintains a tough tone on human rights and reiterates concerns about possible crimes against humanity. It calls for the release of political prisoners, demands clarification of the death in state custody of Indigenous leader Brooklyn Rivera, warns of transnational repression, and calls for the restoration of nationality to those who have been stripped of citizenship.

However, the Nicaragua case is not moving forward solely due to the OAS’s institutional inertia. Organizations such as Raza e Igualdad, the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL), the Memory and Justice Association (AMJ), and other civil society groups have come to the General Assembly to ensure that Nicaragua is not sidelined amid a hemispheric agenda shaped by Haiti, Venezuela, migration, regional security, and the OAS’s own internal crisis.

“We have come to raise the complaint and to strengthen advocacy actions regarding the crimes against humanity that continue to occur in Nicaragua, such as the death of Indigenous leader Brooklyn Rivera in state custody, the ongoing imprisonment for political reasons and the disappearances,” says Carlos Quesada, director of Raza e Igualdad.

At the OAS level, the focus on Nicaragua’s grave situation reflects its main — and current — paradox: how to exert political influence over a regime that not only chose to leave its seat, but even confiscated the inter-American body’s building in Managua

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