It’s imperative to address here today the remarkable rejection by the Latin American and Caribbean nations, gathered at the OAS General Assembly in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula, of the traditional U.S. policy of hemispheric domination. They made it plain on June 3 by voting in favor of revoking Cuba’s exclusion from the organization and thus ruled null and void the resolution adopted to that effect in Punta del Este, Uruguay, in January 1962 47 years ago. It has long been used to justify the constant attacks that several U.S. administrations have launched on Cuba ever since.
This widespread opposition to the Empire’s thirst for our region is so firm that, oddly enough, the U.S. government found itself forced by the current political situation to rethink its Cuba stances not without a lot of kicking and screaming to adhere to the general decision to lift the ban. Obama’s government issued a press release read by U.S: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, saying “…a consensus has been reached that is centered on the future, not in the past. Now, Cuba could reintegrate into the OAS in the future if the OAS decided that its participation should be in accordance with the purposes and principles of the organization… “
It was with great joy that the Honduran Foreign Minister announced this historic, if belated, decision. Many Latin American and Caribbean governments, mainly Venezuela, Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, took the stand that repealed the disgraceful resolution adopted at Punta del Este [in 1962] against the fundamental rights of the Cuban people.
All OAS members except Mexico, the only Latin American country that never gave in to the Empire’s will in 1962, have thus settled a historic debt to the Cubans.
Here in Miami, even many hours after the decision was made public, our ears were ringing with the shrill, pitiful howling of the beasts who lead the counterrevolution, aware of its imminent demise. As Republican representative Iliana Ros-Lehtinen, spokesperson of the Cuban American extreme right and a helpmate of terrorists, licked her wounds, said in a bitter press release: “Instead of preserving the democratic principles and fundamental liberties of the OAS, the member countries, led by their Secretary-General, could not move fast enough to mollify their idols in the Cuban tyranny.” Poor woman…
For years, and especially in the last few months, the Cuban government has made it known that it will never rejoin the OAS. Fidel recently wrote about its decision in one of his reflections: “Cuba respects the views of the governments of our Latin American and Caribbean brothers and sisters who think differently, but we would not like to be a part of that organization.”
In another recent one he explained: “The OAS was an accomplice to all the crimes committed against Cuba […] At one time or another, every one of the Latin American countries was victim of interventions and political and economic aggressions. There is not one which could deny it. It is naïve to think that the good intentions of a president of the United States could justify the existence of that institution which opened the doors to the Trojan horse that supported the Summit of the Americas, neoliberalism, drug-trafficking, military bases and economic crises. Ignorance, underdevelopment, economic dependency, poverty, the forced return of those who emigrate in search of jobs, brain drain, and even the sophisticated weapons of organized crime which were the consequences of the intervention and pillage coming from the North. Cuba, a tiny country, has demonstrated that it is possible to resist the blockade and move forward in many areas, even to cooperate with other countries.”
Cuba has won. It has achieved success without the OAS.
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