Commentary: While other countries are battling for Cuba to rejoin OAS, Cuba says it is not interested
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| Published on Saturday, June 6, 2009 |
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By Oscar Ramjeet
In San Pedro Sula, Honduras
I write from the Press Centre while the 39th Annual Assembly of the Organisation of American States (OAS) is in progress and I am somewhat at a loss as regards the tremendous move by nearly all of the 34 member nation for Cuba’s re-entry into the western hemispheric bloc, and Cuba seems not to be keen.
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| Oscar Ramjeet is an attorney at law who practices extensively throughout the wider Caribbean. He is also a special correspondent for Caribbean Net News. Feedback to: oscar@caribbeannetnews.com |
All the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries, as well as most of the Latin American countries, have been supporting the communist country to rejoin, but it seems as if the Castro administration, maybe because of its frustration, is thinking otherwise.
On Tuesday night, the host country, Honduras joined the radical leftist governments pushing for Cuba’s immediate return to the OAS.
The delegates put severe pressure on US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a closed door session specially arranged to see if a compromise could be reached as regards to the 47-year-old suspension.
Clinton remains adamant in maintaining the US demands that the OAS abides by the democratic principles enshrined in its own Charter and requires Cuba to free political prisoners and improve basic rights before it returns to the fold.
But the radical Latin American countries like Venezuela, Bolivia, and Nicaragua are setting no conditions because they call Cuba’s suspension a “historic mistake.”
As indicated, I am baffled at the situation, because it was only two or three days ago that Cuba issued a statement that it wants nothing to do with the OAS. The statement said, “The OAS central topic has now become a second class theme and Cuba has once more manifested its disinterest in becoming an active member in the organisation.”
The Cuban official newspaper stated that Havana has no interest in being part of such a continental organisation. “Cuba does not need the OAS. It does not want it even if it is reformed; we will never return to Washington,” said the Cuban Communist Party mouthpiece.
It went on to say that that this position had already been expressed by Fidel Castro and president Raul Castro.
Even though Cuba rejects the OAS, analysts said, many countries want to use the debate to push for the lifting of the decades-old US embargo on Havana, while others want to embarrass the United States.
Moreover, despite the negative position taken by Cuba, the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, continued to debate the topic. In El Salvador, when Mauricio Funes was being installed as the new president, Zelaya said, “If the OAS did not rectify its position about the reintegration of Cuba in the organisation, it would be condemning itself.”
The Honduran leader made a very important point when he said, “It is not to include Cuba, what we fight for is for the principles of the OAS in the 21st century. We cannot want that any other country passes through what Cuba went through just because it has a different ideology.”
In his lengthy speech, OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza said, “On the matter of Cuba, I do not think any additional comments are in order at this time, since my position is well known and the Foreign Ministers will express an opinion in the next few hours. This matter involves the principal values that underlie our system. The inclusiveness proclaimed in our founding Charter and the democracy we have enshrined in our Inter American Democratic Charter. Therefore we should not shy away from discussing the topic. However, with an eye in particular on the past, let us focus on the desire to forge a consensus. We want to move forward and to leave behind a past that for many is not positive, but not at the cost of falling once again into divisiveness. In recent years, we have always been able to function best and most harmoniously by following that rule.” | | | | Reads : 810 | | | |
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