Is Cuba Going to Be Let Back into the Organization of American States?
Forty-seven years after its suspension from the Organization of American States, the clock comes full circle next week when hemisphere foreign ministers gather in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
Although it’s not on the draft agenda, the hottest topic at the upcoming gathering of hemisphere foreign ministers is virtually certain to be the debate over Cuba’s reintegration into the Organization of American States, nearly a half century after the country was effectively booted out.
The operative part of the suspension resolution adopted in January 1962 in Punta del Este, Uruguay, reads:
- That the present Government of Cuba, which has officially identified itself as a Marxist-Leninst government, is incompatible with the principles and objectives of the inter-American system.
- That this incompatibility excludes the present Government of Cuba from participation the inter-American system. [1]
Within days after the suspension, President John F. Kennedy imposed the ongoing U.S. embargo against Cuba, an embargo that remains in place today and which also has become the center of ongoing debate in U.S.-Cuba relations.
The OAS suspension decision, at Washington’s behest, came at the height of the Cold War, only months before the installation of Soviet missiles in Cuba brought the world to the brink of a nuclear war.
The Soviet Union, Cuba’s key benefactor, has since collapsed. While Cuba remains one of the world’s few Communist countries, it is largely viewed as more of a nuisance than a serious threat. The majority of Latin American and Caribbean countries now maintain full diplomatic and commercial relations with the island nation.
While most countries broke diplomatic relations after Cuba was suspended from the OAS, Mexico, which continued to maintain relations with Cuba, objected vigorously to the decision. Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia and Ecuador also objected to the resolution.[2]
There were only 21 countries in the OAS at the time, with a two-thirds majority needed to approve of Cuba’s suspension.
Panama and Peru restored relations as early as 1970. And a resolution was adopted at a 1975 meeting of foreign ministers leaving member states free to make their own decision regarding bilateral relations with Cuba. [3]
Among those currently lobbying for Cuba’s reintegration into the hemisphere body is OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza. He told journalists at a mid-April hemisphere summit conference in Trinidad that “I want to be clear: I want Cuba back in the Inter-American system…Cuba is a member of the OAS. Its flag is there.” The reason for the suspension is not only outdated, he said, but that it was a “bad idea in the first place.” Insulza added that he was “concerned that we still have a resolution that punishes a country for being a member of the Soviet-Chinese axis, for being Marxist-Leninist and several other things from the Cold War.”[4]
Just prior to the Trinidad Summit, Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorin told reporters in Rio de Janeiro that Cuba’s absence from the OAS is “an anomaly that needs to be corrected.” [5]
Several of Cuba’s Caribbean island neighbors – who gained their independence from British rule well after Cuba’s suspension from the OAS – also are strong advocates of the Castro government’s reintegration into the organization.
Albert Ramdin, the OAS assistant secretary general, in discussing a the upcoming OAS meeting in Honduras at a news conference in Guyana, said that “Cuba will be raised, and at this point, in Washington, D.C., and I am sure in some capitals, a lot of discussion is taking place – how this process [reintegration] should take place."
“The time for grandstanding is over,” added Ramdin. “I think everbody agrees that Cuba should become part of the Inter-American system again, of inter-American institutions and the OAS. The question now is how to make that a reality, and what we believe is that it will be a process. It will not become a reality overnight.”
Ramdin noted that there is a “legal context that needs to be looked at by countries, by the institutions,” as well as the resolution that suspended Cuba and the countries which were members of the OAS at the time. “Most of the Caricom [Caribbean Community] countries, except for Haiti, were not members at that point in time.” [6]
While there appears to be considerable hemisphere momentum for lifting the suspension of Cuba’s membership, there also is significant resistance from the two most important countries: the United States and Cuba.
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Cuba shouldn’t be allowed back in the OAS until it makes political reforms, releases political prisoners and respects human rights.
“Any effort to admit Cuba into the OAS is really in Cuba’s hands,” said Clinton. “They have to be willing to take the concrete steps necessary” to meet the principles set forth in the organization’s Inter-American Democratic Charter adopted in September 2001. “If Cuba is not willing to abide by [the charter’s] terms then I cannot foresee how Cuba can be a part of the OAS and I certainly would not be supporting in any way such an effort to admit it.”[7]
The entire discussion may have been made moot, however, by the sounds coming from Cuba’s Fidel Castro in Havana.
The ailing Castro, in his occasional published ramblings, declared that the OAS “has a history that collects all the trash of 60 years of betrayal of the people of Latin America. It even offends us to suppose that we are desiring of entering the OAS. That train passed a while back, and Insulza still doesn’t know it.” [8]
[1] Eighth Meeting of Consultation of Ministers held in Punta del Este, Uruguay, January 22-31.
[2] New York Times, February 4, 1962.
[3] www.oas.org/columbus/docs/CP11, accessed May 23, 2009.
[4] Miami Herald, April 17, 2009.
[5] Reuters News Service, April 15, 2009
[6] Guyana Chronicle Online, May 21, 2009.
[7] Associated Press dispatch, May 20, 2009.
[8] Reuters News Service, April 15, 2009.