MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

OAS taskforce to evaluate re-admission of Cuba

US insist Cuba must show some “democratic gesture” before returning to OAS

The Organization of American States (OAS) moved Wednesday to create a taskforce to evaluate various proposals to readmit Cuba into the body, in the face of disagreements on the subject.

The taskforce was to start meeting Thursday and should report its conclusions before the foreign ministers of OAS countries meet at the organization's General Assembly on June 2 in Honduras.

Wednesday's was the first official discussion on Cuba at the OAS since the Castro regime was suspended from the organization in 1962, at the behest of the United States.

Honduras and Nicaragua presented motions to lift the OAS suspension ban on Cuba but so did the US demanding some democratic opening from the regime, before proceeding to fully re-incorporate Havana.

The debate follows months of nearly unanimous demands from Latinamerica to put an end to Cuba's isolation and readmit the Caribbean country to regular diplomatic status in the hemisphere.

At the Summit of the Americas last month, US President Barack Obama called for a change in tone - but stopped short of suggesting that the US might lift its decades-old economic embargo on the island.

Cuba's perceived status has changed as more democratic consolidated governments are in power in Latinamerica and as former Cuban leader Fidel Castro stepped down from power. Many see the US election of centre-left Democrat Obama as providing the final piece for a change in policy toward Cuba

However in spite of the debate, Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruno Rodríguez said that his country is not thinking about returning to the OAS, even when Secretary-General José Miguel Insulza voiced his plans to ask the General Assembly for Cuba's reinsertion.

“We are proud of being outside the OAS and we do not miss it at all. The return of Cuba to the OAS is not subject to discussion. The OAS has been, and continues being, a tool of the United States,” said the Foreign Minister, who also attended the meeting with Chávez.

“The OAS is nowadays totally anachronistic, is in the interest of alien parties, and we feel that ours is the way of Latin American and Caribbean integration,” added Rodríguez.

The Venezuelan government also had a dissenting position in support of Cuba.

“We would love to join Cuba among the countries excluded from the Organization of American States (OAS) to form a new body of free nations” said President Hugo Chávez.