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OAS Opens Doors to Cuba Without Conditions
SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras - After
heated debate, the 39th General Assembly of the Organisation of
American States (OAS) decided Wednesday to lift its 47-year suspension
of Cuba, without conditions.
At its meeting in Honduras, the
OAS sought to "fix an historic error" committed when socialist Cuba was
expelled in 1962 from the main forum for political cooperation in the
hemisphere as a result of pressure from the United States.
The OAS resolution adopted Wednesday by consensus revoked the
Jan. 31, 1962 decision to suspend Cuba on the grounds that its
"adherence...to Marxism-Leninism is incompatible with the
inter-American system."
Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas, one of the main
architects of Wednesday’s resolution, said that "as of now, Cuba’s
participation in the OAS will be reinstated by means of dialogue on
Cuba’s request and in the framework of the democratic practices that
govern the OAS."
"(A)s the host country for this assembly, we are pleased with
the amends made to the island nation. We have begun to build a new
history in our relations, of tolerance, respect, solidarity, the
self-determination of nations and the right to organise ourselves,"
said Rodas.
After the resolution was read out, the ministers and other officials at the assembly gave a standing ovation.
The leaders taking part in the conference included Nicaraguan
and Paraguayan Presidents Daniel Ortega and Fernando Lugo, and U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who left the assembly early
to join President Barack Obama in Egypt.
The tense debate on readmitting Cuba completely overshadowed
the main theme of the general assembly, "Toward a Culture of
Non-Violence", while protests were held outside the convention centre
where the two-day meeting took place in the northwestern Honduran city
of San Pedro Sula
The demonstrators included anti-Castro Cubans led by dissident
Huber Matos, a former ally of Fidel Castro, as well as supporters of
the government of Raúl Castro belonging to social movements from
Honduras and Nicaragua.
Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said Wednesday that "dialogue
has prevailed and we are observing an historic event – the coming
together again of the countries of the Americas, of which we are proud.
"I want to tell Cuban comandante (and former president) Fidel
Castro that today history has done him justice, today the world has
been given a lesson in international law, and we can proudly say that
the Cold War is over in the Americas," added the centre-left leader.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere
Affairs Thomas Shannon said "We removed an historical impediment to
Cuba's participation in the OAS, but also established a process of
engagement with Cuba, a pathway forward based on the principles,
purposes, values and practices of the OAS and the inter-American
system."
After stating that the United States had reaffirmed its commitment to
building good relations with its neighbours based on respect, dialogue
and cooperation, he said the focus is now on the future, "rather than
on having a stale 47-year debate."
He hailed the decision as an important step for the future of the OAS
because it will strengthen the hemispheric body, and said the United
States worked hard to achieve a resolution backed by a broad consensus.
In a speech that received a one-minute ovation from the
conference, he added that Obama had called for a new start to relations
with Cuba, that the administration was gradually moving in that
direction, and that he hoped negotiations would begin soon.
He also said that while the Obama administration had given out
signals for change with Cuba, it would not stop defending democratic
principles and respect for human rights.
Clinton said in a statement that "This outcome is in keeping
with our forward-looking, principled approach to relations with Cuba
and our hemisphere.
"We must now build on this success by meeting our goals with
actions that move us beyond rhetoric to results, and advance the
mission which each of our nations have pledged to pursue," she added.
Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Fender Falconí said the most
significant aspect of the resolution was that it was adopted "without
conditions of any kind, which is a good sign, because an historic error
has been corrected."
Falconí told reporters that the consensus was reached "at the
last minute after two days of continuous deliberations, when at least
three different texts were discussed, until we found the right one…to
keep the meeting from becoming a failure."
The representatives of Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Costa Rica
highlighted the vote by acclamation and the role played by the
delegations of the United States, Mexico, Canada, Brazil and Argentina
which, along with their counterparts from Venezuela, Nicaragua and
Honduras, made every effort to hammer out a consensus agreement.
Several foreign ministers said it is now up to Cuba to decide
whether it will join the OAS under the "democratic principles" outlined
in the hemispheric body’s charter.
Cuba has often stated that it is not interested in joining the OAS, which Raúl Castro said in April "should disappear."
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said last week that "the OAS is totally anachronistic. It serves other interests.''
In 1962, 14 countries voted in favour of suspending Cuba, and
there were six abstentions - Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador
and Mexico – and only one vote against, cast by Cuba.
Later resolutions slapping OAS sanctions on Cuba only received two-thirds support.
"The people of the Americas are celebrating that this blotch
against Cuba has been wiped away and that justice was done to Fidel
Castro and the Cuban people," Honduran trade union leader Carlos Reyes
told IPS.
In an opinion column published Wednesday in the Cuban state
press, before the OAS resolution was announced, Fidel Castro praised
the signs of "rebelliousness" by the countries that advocated Cuba’s
full return to the hemispheric body.
- Posted in
14 Comments so far
Show AllHey Sabrina--
The new name and whatever meds you are now taking are an improvement. Welcome back!
Poet
You're one to talk about hate speech; glad to see you are calmer today, though.
Back to topic, this news is long overdue and I'm glad at least one website in the US is carrying it.
Johnny J-Rock
Finally we have latin America standing up to the Empire. However, El Comandante likened the OAS as a Trojan Horse and tool of the Empire. Cuba will not join.
Viva El Comandante, Viva Hugo, Viva Subcomandante Marcos!
For Cuba the correct reaction should be "thanks, but no thanks". Wouldn't it be ironic if El Norte (excluding Canada of course)found itself on the outside looking in as more and more Latin American states join the ALBA and seek funding from Banco del Sur instead of the IMF.
That's okay though because America will always have influence in Latin America as long as there are stooges for sale like Uribe and Calderon. Viva Rafael, Fernando, and Mauricio!
Poet
Touche!
Poet
This is good news for good people but beware the details, folks. There are corporations right now sharpening their teeth to get into the cuban market. Remember that behind the OAS are the multinational corporations which buy the politicians to screw the people for corporate profits. The vote from Haiti to oust Cuba back in 1962 was a quid pro quo for a new airport. These things don't change. Whenever you hear something this positive, know that an assasination is being planned by the corporations. It's wrong to blame the U.S. for this stuff. The multinationals are the ones to blame. The corporate system was started in Europe before the U.S. existed. It infected us and has coopted our countries actions ever since. How is Latin America different from the south after the civil war? They were an agrarian economy that had cheap labor and exported raw materials and food. The industrialized north had a field day. After the civil war, England was pushing the U.S. for, you guessed it, FREE TRADE. As newly elected president, Grant said, "For centuries England has relied on protection, has carried it to extremes and has obtained satisfactory results from it. There is no doubt that it is to this system that it owes its present strength. After two centuries, England has found it convenient to adopt free trade because it thinks that protection can no longer offer it anything. Very well then, gentlemen, my knowledge of our country leads me to believe that within two hundred years, when America has gotten out of protection all that it can offer, it too will adopt free trade."
This stuff isn't that hard if you just follow the money, folks. There are the elite corporatist assholes in the world and there are the rest of us (99.999 %). Wake the fuck up, folks.
"while the Obama administration had given out signals for change with Cuba, it would not stop defending democratic principles and respect for human rights"
People used to think that promoting democracy and human rights was beneficial, citing the USA and other industrial societies. But the benefits came not so much from democracy/human rights but from a combination of those and other things, such as stable rule of law, and social programs/infrastructure like Social Security, Medicare, VA, public research, non-profit energy and infrastructure, education and security services (police, etc). Further, many USans today believe they are enjoying the fruits of democracy/human rights in the void of such!
Cuba has provided many of the so-called benefits of democracy/human rights through its social programs, in the relative absence of democracy/human rights. But the facts go further, with significant democracy/human rights enjoyed in Cuba, especially at the local level, stronger than that in the USA. The only major restrictions in Cuba target ambitions to destroy the socialist government and re-institute private power/control over the economy and public policies like in the USA today. Meanwhile, the USA sends its agents to deliberately violate democracy/human rights worldwide. Tools and ideas can be used for good or evil. It's not so important which tools/ideas are being used but whether used for good or evil, in a universalist frame. Turns out Cuba is doing a lot more good than the USA will admit.
I think of their "what works" medical discoveries. If we could only apply some of that thinking to our health care we could operate for a fraction of the cost.
The U.S. cut them off and forced them to improvise. They started manufacturing bicycles and becoming organic farmers.
Now, they turn their noses up at the OAS!
While we occupy and "bring democracy" to the Middle East, we are loosing control of OUR satellite governments to the south. Obama had to give in. We can't be everywhere at once!
It's about fuckin' time!
If we are going to talk about Cuba and the OAS, let's talk about it.
Eight months after the defeat of the U.S. CIA and its Cuban invasion forces at Playa Giron and immediately following the Jan 22, 1962 OAS meeting which accused Cuba of "subversion" in the hemisphere, the Cuban General Assembly of the People responded in the Second Declaration of Havana on Feb 4, 1962 declaring-- (quote) In response to the accusation that Cuba wants to export its revolution, we respond: Revolutions are not exported, they are made by the people. What Cuba can give to the people of the world and already has given is its example. And, what does the Cuban Revolution teach? That revolution is possible, that the peoples can do it, that in the contemporary world there are no forces capable of stopping the liberation movement of the peoples of the world. Cuba creates a special sort of agony for the imperialists. What is it that is hidden behind the hate of the U.S. (yanquis) towards the Cuban Revolution? What rationally explains the intent that comes together in the aggressive plan of the most powerful and wealthy imperialist nation in the world and the oligarchs of an entire continent, that together presume to represent a population of 350 million human beings, against a tiny nation of seven million human beings, economically underdeveloped, without financial resources or military resource to threaten either the security or economy of any country? What unites and agitates them is fear. Fear explains it. Not fear of the Cuban Revolution, rather fear of the Latin American Revolution. Not the fear of the workers and students and campesinos and intellectuals and progressive sectors of the middle classes that have taken power in Cuba; rather it is the fear of workers, campesinos, students, intellectuals, and progressive sectors of the middle class in the oppressed peoples, hungry and exploited by yanqui monopolies and the reactionary oligarchies of America; the fear that the ransacked peoples of the continent will raise their arms against their oppressors and declare themselves, as Cuba has, free peoples of the Americas. (end quote)
In other words, in 1962, faced with naked aggression, political coercion, and imperialist manipulation, Cuba proudly and defiantly proclaimed to all of Latin America and the world, "Yes we can".
And in Honduras this week, Latin America demonstrated just that. They defied and defeated the empire in one of its principal institutions and rolled back one of its long standing and most symbolic actions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PDcH5mUsqc&feature=related&pos=5
Does anyone doubt that the empire will strike back? All friends of Latin America should be very alert to U.S. efforts, well underway, to subvert the trend well underway in Latin America. Time to stand up in solidarity with our Latin American brothers and sisters. Take your eyes off the Middle East ball every now and put them on Latin America where you can have absolute certainty that the most diabolic elements of the CIA and the U.S. military, in conjunction with international mercenaries and national oligarchs are well underway with their plans for counter-revolution and destabilization.