hard
talk forum The OAS: Should it Re-admit Cuba?
Hector Morales
Cuba Hasn’t Been Given a Free Pass.
(CON TINUED ON PAGE 22)
demise and the withering of the Cuban regime’s campaign to export violence accelerated the long-simmering
movement to lift Cuba’s exclusion.
The U. S. took the position that Cuba
must first demonstrate its commitment to democratic principles and
practices and adhere to the terms of
the Inter-American Democratic Charter adopted by the OAS in 2001.
As preparations began for this
year’s OAS General Assembly, the
Cuba issue loomed over the proceedings. There were real concerns
that the battle over Cuba’s status
would crash the meeting, harm the
organization itself and damage prospects for multilateral diplomacy in
the hemisphere. The U.S. and other
member states were faced with a
dilemma: although the historical
underpinnings of the 1962 resolution had vanished, Cuba remained
an anomaly in a region in which all
other countries accept democracy as
their form of government. Cuba was
not a democracy; it suppressed the
rights of its citizens and of a free society; and it rejected a market-based
economy. As such, it continued to
defy the central values that define
the inter-American system today.
The central problems for the U. S.
were: first, how to address the widespread determination within the
inter-American community to lift
the 1962 suspension unconditionally;
and, second, how to create a structure for dialogue and a process that
could lead to Cuba’s reincorporation
into the OAS. In the months leading
up to the OAS General Assembly, the
atmosphere grew increasingly tense
when various member states, and
in particular some of the countries
in the Alianza Bolivariana para las
Americas (ALBA), circulated proposals that the 1962 resolution be lifted
but demanded no action on Cuba’s
part to adopt the core principles of
the OAS.
The U.S. proposed an alternative.
At a working group meeting held
parallel to the General Assembly
proceedings, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented a text that
lifted the 1962 suspension, but conditioned Cuba’s renewed participation
on a commitment to the democratic
principles of the Inter-American
system. Her agile negotiations with
the foreign ministers were an impressive demonstration of the U.S.
In early June, the Organization of American States (OAS) in its
General Assembly in San Pedro Sula,
Honduras, approved an historic resolution on Cuba and created a pathway for that country to rejoin the
OAS as member in good standing.
This resolution was agreed to by consensus from all 34 member nations.
It bridged a historic divide in the
Americas and reaffirmed a shared
commitment to democracy and fundamental rights for its citizens. U.S.
diplomacy, the people of Cuba and
the whole hemisphere are the beneficiaries of this achievement.
The history that led to this step is
well known. In 1962, in the midst of
the Cold War, the OAS voted to exclude Cuba, which joined the organization in 1948, from participating in
the Inter-American system because
it had proclaimed its allegiance to
Marxist-Leninist doctrine and was
fomenting and participating in subversive activities in the hemisphere.
While this unprecedented action by
the OAS signaled its determined opposition to the spread of communism,
the ouster of a member state was
controversial from the start. Three
decades later, the Soviet Union’s
20 Americas Quarterly FALL 2009
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