As expected, the Organization of American States General Assembly in Honduras last week was dominated by wrangling over repealing the 1962 suspension of Cuba from the OAS. And the Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas got her wish that the meeting would be a “historic event,” with the announcement on June 3, that the 34 assembled nations, after two days of intense negotiations, had reached consensus on clearing the way for Cuba’s readmission to the OAS.
The resolution ending the 47-year old anachronism, born of the Cold War, has two main points. The first is the removal of the sanction against Cuba, without conditions. The second is that Cuba’s re-entry into the OAS will not be automatic, in that this will be the result of a process of dialogue begun at the request of the Cuban government and in line with “the practices, purposes and principles of the OAS.”
That consensus was reached, on the basis of unanimity with no dissenting voice, was all the more remarkable, as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, had left San Pedro Sula on the evening of June 2 very pessimistic about the possibility of a satisfactory compromise.
To achieve agreement in any negotiation, all parties have to make concessions. And the best type of consensus is usually one in which everyone can claim a victory of sorts. The result in Honduras would seem to indicate that a true spirit of consensus ultimately prevailed.
The USA proved itself to be flexible and willing to sit down at the table with its hemispheric partners in the new spirit of engagement promised by President Obama. The Americans therefore agreed to the lifting of the suspension of Cuba, yielding on the issue of imposing conditions and dropping any reference to the Inter-American Democratic Charter, which would have been an obvious deal-breaker. But they secured agreement on the key reference to “the practices, purposes and principles of the OAS.”
Cuba’s Latin American ALBA allies, led by Venezuela and counting on the presence of Presidents Manuel Zelaya of Honduras and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, were elated at the derogation of the 1962 resolution and President Zelaya was moved to declare, “The Cold War has ended.” But they did give way on the inclusion in the text of “the practices, purposes and principles of the OAS.”
According to reports emerging from San Pedro Sula, Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela were opposed up to the last minute to the inclusion of this point, which implies that Cuba will eventually have to subscribe to principles of democracy and multi-party elections, as spelt out in the Democratic Charter.
For Caricom, it has already been claimed that the resolution represents a vindication of a policy of engagement going back to the establishment of diplomatic relations with Cuba by Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago in 1972. Interestingly enough, it seems that the two Caricom members of ALBA, Dominica and St Vincent and the Grenadines, did not follow Caracas’s lead, opting to align themselves with the more moderate, consensus-seeking positions espoused by Caricom, Brazil and Canada.
And in the midst of serious questions about the relevance and future of the OAS itself, Secretary General José Miguel Insulza, from Chile, and Assistant Secretary General Albert Ramdin, the Caricom and Surinamese diplomat, both of whom had been saying that the time was right for a new approach to Cuba in the OAS, can feel relieved at and satisfied with the result, which reinforces the role of the organization as the premier forum for political dialogue in the hemisphere.
Indeed, for all the members of the OAS, the decision was a victory for multilateral diplomacy and the spirit of consensus. Thanks to diplomatic persistence and the political will of all involved, the adopted text allows everyone to feel satisfied to a certain extent. Washington can say that the resolution speaks of democracy and human rights, although these principles are preambular, and other countries can say that the sanction has been lifted unconditionally. It is close to being the perfect win-win compromise.
But what of Cuba? While the Cuban government has hailed the resolution as a victory for the Revolution, a righting of a historical wrong and a symbol of Latin American and Caribbean solidarity, Fidel Castro has denounced the OAS as a tool of the USA and an accomplice in all the crimes of the past against Cuba. The government has therefore reiterated that it had not sought nor will it be asking to be readmitted to the OAS.
Of course, given the present dispensation in Cuba, it is difficult to see how it could be reintegrated into the OAS without fundamental changes to its political system. And until the US embargo is lifted, the Cold War cannot be said to be really over in the Americas. It is therefore as much of a bilateral process that has to be played out between the USA and Cuba as it is a multilateral process. But an important door has been reopened and change will surely come, even if it takes some time yet.
