OAS waffles on Cuba readmission issue

Several Latin American leaders such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez have pushed for the readmission of Cuba into the Organization of American States (OAS). Yet representatives at Wednesday’s OAS Permanent Council meeting couldn’t unite on a proposal for Cuba’s possible return.

During the reported three hours of debate, Nicaragua and Honduras introduced separate plans to permit Cuba to return to the OAS since the country was shunned in 1962. In a surprise move, the U.S. put on the table its own resolution inviting Cuba "to initiate a dialogue… regarding its eventual reintegration into the inter-American system consistent with the principles of sovereignty, independence, non-intervention, democracy." (The State Department emphasized that the proposal meant “no change of policy” to Cuba though that didn’t stop Cuban-American legislators from blasting the move).

In the end, the council agreed to create a working group to present a single recommendation at the OAS General Assembly meeting next week in Honduras. It may be seen a step towards progress by OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza who remarked in March:

Insulza, in an interview in Medellin, Colombia, said the 1962 OAS resolution that banned Cuba from the Washington-based assembly because of its links to communism, China and the Soviet Union no longer makes sense.

“One of the countries has disappeared and the other is buying a lot of U.S. Treasuries,” Insulza said at the Inter- American Development Bank’s annual meeting. “Please, if they’re going to be excluded, let’s come up with some better criteria.”

Image- radiojamaica.com
Online Sources- Miami Herald, Reuters, Bloomberg, El Universal, U.S. State Department

Daily Headlines: May 27, 2009

* Ecuador: Demonstrators at Chevron’s annual shareholders meeting are expected to rally for several environmental causes such as the company’s purported dumping of toxic water in Ecuador.

* Peru: Indigenous leaders and the government are holding talks in order to end a six-week protest over land rights in the Amazon jungle.

* Mexico: Twenty-seven “high-ranking” officials including ten mayors were arrested and charged with cooperating with drug gangs.

* Cuba: Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez said that he would “love” to join Cuba outside the Organization for American States and create a separate regional entity.

Image- MSNBC
Online Sources- BBC News, Bloomberg, Houston Chronicle, El Universal, The Latin Americanist