Bolivia's leader wants OAS to scrap rights body
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Bolivian President Evo Morales is calling for the elimination of the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights as foreign ministers from across the Americas gather for an annual meeting.
Along with leftist allies in Venezuela and Ecuador, Morales wants to weaken the independent commission along with a related Organization of American States body that monitors freedom of expression.
Morales contended as the OAS annual assembly opened Sunday that the rights body concerns itself only with countries that don't share a political affinity with the United States. The U.S. is not subject to the commission's oversight.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Venezuela has said it wants to abandon the rights body, and Ecuador has proposed that the OAS restrict the panel's independence.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is not attending the OAS meeting in Cochabamba, Bolivia.