MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Insulza trusts dialogue will lift embargo and bring Cuba back to OAS

OAS secretary general says dialogue is now bilateral

The head of the Organization of American States, OAS said he was hopeful that with the revoke of sanctions to Cuba, the US embargo would eventually be lifted and Havana would rejoin the 34-member organization, but much dialogue would be required.

“It’s normal that pressures from the US government exist, but I’m hopeful that we are on the path to the end of the embargo on Cuba”, said Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary general of OAS in an interview with the Chilean press.

Insulza said he would not comment about what is happening inside Cuba, but he underlined that “democracy is better promoted with inclusion than with exclusion”. He added that exclusions, isolation, embargoes, interventions and aggressions are completely negative for the promotion of democratic values.

“But unfortunately there are those who still promote them” said the head of OAS.

Insulza said he was satisfied with the OAS resolution revoking sanctions because an organization can’t continue tied to events from the Missiles crisis, the landing at Playa Giron, the Moscow-Beijing axis which does not exist, “all junk from the Cold War”.

“Why when all world organizations adapt to new realities, OAS was to continue tied to a defunct, anachronic, bad and unexplainable situation for the new generations?” asked Insulza, a former Chilean Foreign Affairs and Home Secretary.

The OAS unanimously agreed last Wednesday to scrap a decision made in 1962 at the height of the Cold War suspending Cuba from the hemispheric group after Fidel Castro led the Caribbean nation to the Communist block.

Cuba's government welcomed the OAS move but said it was not interested in joining the institution, which it sees as an instrument of US dominance in the region.

When asked if the Honduras resolution revoking sanctions can be described as “historic”, Insulza said that if it “effectively contributes to lift the embargo on Cuba, and Havana returns to the OAS, with an overall normalization of hemispheric relations, then it will be historic, but we are just beginning on that path, it’s not over yet”.

Insulza said the issue had become bilateral, “for the US and Cuba to decide and what happens at that level will determine the future”.

But “I expect things to change” he added. ”They (Cuba) were saying very bad things about the OAS before. They're not saying those bad things now. People change and I think that we always have to promote a dialogue,“ he said.

Insulza said he planned to start talks with the Cuban government in a few months but said the OAS had no specific agenda or timeline for advancing the issue.

”As I said before, right now we're looking more to the bilateral dialogue they are going to begin with the United States. I think that's the main issue today,” he said.