Monday, June 01, 2009

Cuba and the OAS

There has been much handwringing about whether Cuba should re-enter the OAS, with an accompanying explosion of op-eds (check out Ileana Ros-Lehtinen) arguing against it.

Lost in the noise is the fact that Granma has just published its third and last installment of a series excoriating the OAS and claiming that Cuba is not interested in re-joining because it will not accept conditions, most prominently free elections (there seems to be no "stay in power 50 years without free elections" clause). Instead, he is in line with Hugo Chávez, who has suggested that a new organization should be built that excludes the United States. Is it a ploy? I don't know, but the last paragraph doesn't allow much wiggle room:

As for Cuba, it does not need the OAS. It does not want it, reformed or not. Blood and infamy ooze out of every one of its pores. We will never return to that old run-down old house of Washington, witness to so much selling-out and so many humiliations. Raúl expressed it with the words of Martí: Before we enter the OAS, the North Sea would have to unite with the South Sea and a snake will be born from an eagle’s egg.

If that is true, then all this OAS talk is moot.

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