Uruguay nominated Daniel Salinas to lead the Pan American Health Organization

The Minister of Public Health in Uruguay, Daniel Salinas, was nominated by the Government of his country as a candidate to be president of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The election will take place in the 30th version of the Pan American Sanitary Conference, which will be held from September 26 to 30, 2022. The position will be appointed in February 2023.

The PAHO conference will include representatives of member states and participating states, who will choose by secret ballot from among the candidates who ran for president of the agency. They can be submitted until May 1 and the one who receives the most votes will be selected.

Within South America, countries such as Mexico, Panama and Brazil plan to apply for their candidates. In the latter case, it is Jarbas Barbosa, current Deputy Director of PAHO.

According to the communication team of the Ministry of Public Health, the application was made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Foreign Ministry sent a message to Uruguayan embassies in the member countries of PAHO to help promote the candidacy of Minister Salinas in those regions. However, the campaign does not foresee that the hierarch will leave office before the election, the newspaper El Observador reported.

Only if he were elected as director of the organization would the minister abandon his post in Uruguayan public health. Although it is not in its plans to campaign, the ministry “plans to carry out a series of visits to different countries in order to promote the candidacy, which will be communicated in a timely manner,” says the document sent to the embassies.

It also highlights the minister's long career” in the medical area, with extensive experience as a manager of highly complex and dedicated health companies”.

If elected president of the organization, Salinas would replace Carissa F Etienne, the Dominican Republic woman who leads PAHO for the second consecutive term. He would go on to lead an organization representing 51 countries and territories from the headquarters, in Washington D.C., United States.

It would also coordinate with its 27 country offices in the region and its three specialized centres. The objective of PAHO, according to their website, is to be the executing and coordinating arm of the World Health Organization in the Americas. It “provides technical cooperation in health to its member countries, combats communicable diseases and attacks chronic diseases and their causes, strengthens health systems and responds to emergencies and disasters”.

The management of Salinas

Minister Daniel Salinas was critical of the actions of the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization during the pandemic. He questioned the management of the Covax mechanism to ensure the distribution of covid vaccines in South America. In April 2021, he expressed “disgust and disgust” regarding the organism for “not being up to it.”

A little more than two years after taking office as minister, in February 2022, Salinas spoke about the Uruguayan situation with regard to covid-19 and how the country did in its management. He attributed to the virus the excess mortality that occurred in 2021, La Diaria reported. He also highlighted that deaths from cancer, cardiocirculatory and respiratory diseases, as well as infant mortality and adolescent pregnancy, fell.

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