Above: Stephen Vasciannie, Jose Miguel Insulza and Albert Ramdin (OAS Photo/Juan Manuel Herrera)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Stephen Vasciannie, the former principal of Jamaica’s Norman Manley Law School, has presented his credentials as Jamaica’s new Permanent Representative to the Organization of American States.

Ambassador Vasciannie met Wednesday in Washington with OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza.

“We have been very much appreciative of the leadership and guidance you have given to the Organization of American States over the years,” Vasciannie told Insulza. “And I look forward to working with you and the members of your secretariat.”

Jamaica was the first English-speaking Caribbean nation to join the OAS.

Insulza said he hoped Vasciannie’s legal experience would be helpful in his new post.

“We are faced today with some very interesting legal problems,” Insulza said. “Some of the political situations that are happening in our region have a very strong legal content, and certainly your experience in that area will be very important.”

He said the OAS viewed relations with Jamaica as “very important to the work of the organization.”