OAS 'agrees to let Cuba rejoin'

[dipsydoodle]

Source: BBC News

Foreign ministers of the Organization of American States have voted to lift the suspension of Cuba, apparently paving the way for it to rejoin.

Revolutionary Cuba was suspended from the Washington-based organisation in 1962 over its "incompatible" adherence to Marxism-Leninism.

The US secretary of state, who left Honduras before the vote, had urged democratic reforms as a condition.

>

The group's foreign ministers and ambassadors are still meeting in Honduras and are expected to clarify the terms of their agreement in the coming hours.

Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8082146.stm

[John Q. Citizen]

1. Good ! it's more than about time.

[Scurrilous]

2. Miami Herald article:

OAS member states agree to lift suspension of Cuba

<snip>

"Cuba's 47-year suspension from the Organization of American States will be lifted, thanks to an agreement reached Wednesday by foreign ministers assembled in Honduras, diplomats here announced.

"The cold war has ended today in San Pedro Sula," Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said.

The United States-- which had been pressuring the OAS for weeks to condition Cuba's readmission to the hemispheric group on democratic principles and commitment to human rights -- characterized the agreement as good news, saying it does in fact contain important clauses.

Ecuador's foreign minister, Fander Falconí, told reporters there are no such conditions.

"This is a new proposal, it has no conditions -- of any kind," Falconí said. "That suspension was made in the Cold War, in the language of the Cold War. What we have done here is fix a historic error."

more


Some interesting feedback from the locals...

[IndianaGreen]

11. The OAS is misnamed. It is not an organization of American lapdogs

Not anymore!

[struggle4progress]

3. "... The decision was taken by consensus, meaning the United States accepted it ..."

OAS votes to readmit Cuba after 47 years
By NESTOR IKEDA – 25 minutes ago
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iCncV0aWKpDUkVcCfUE13NLEdF-gD98JE03O0

[EFerrari]

4. The article in the OP quotes HRC as saying there was no consensus.

Maybe the consensus was reached that we couldn't stop them. lol

No importa. If the torture president had still been in office, he just would have yanked his SecState and gone home. Obama did better than that.

[dipsydoodle]

7. I think it more likely

the consensus was reached after she'd left given there were no dissension's. :)

[struggle4progress]

8. In committee work, one way to insist on having your way is to play "cast-iron butt"

and continue to sit until everyone else becomes exhausted and flees. It's possible that OAS played cast-iron butt with her, but I'd bet our Secretary has practiced that game herself over the years and can play it at the grown-ups table as well as anybody. She's often too conservative for my taste, but she's savvy

[EFerrari]

10. That's a great and hilarious phrase. Hillary did her job exactly.

And she was gracious about it.

[eridani]

18. Sounds like she was playing

"whatever you do, PLEASE don't throw me into that briar patch." If so, smart move.

[Judi Lynn]

5. It's a major step forward, and about time. As a couple of South American leaders have already stated

they are happy to have partners but they absolutely can't use any bosses.

[RedCloud]

6. Fidel Castro and Ho Chi Minh came to the USA looking for help.

War was a more profitable option for the USA back then and it shows what those two actually felt about being our ally first!

What assholes have been ruining our government. Needless fucking wars and persecutions out the wazoo.

[Vidar]

19. Good point. Mao did the same during WWII, but we preferred to gack a corrupt loser.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. Historic!

K&R

:kick:

[David__77]

12. Excellent news. And there are no "conditions."

Cuba will not be bullied. This is a tremendous blow to the US's Cuba policy of "regime change." Cuba is closer to the heartbeat of the Americas than is the US.

[Prophet 451]

13. Someone call Jesse Ventura

It seems that Ambassador post might not be a pipe dream after all.

[Judi Lynn]

14. OAS: For Brazil's Lula, Cuba Is Not the Ugly Duckling Anymore

OAS: For Brazil's Lula, Cuba Is Not the Ugly Duckling Anymore
Written by Newsroom
Thursday, 04 June 2009

Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva called the unanimous decision by the Organization of American States (OAS) to void the 1962 resolution that excluded Cuba from that body as a victory for the Latin American people and Cuba.

"I don't even know if Cuba wishes to come back to the OAS. They might not want it, anyway, they aren't marginalized anymore," Lula told reporters during a press conference in Costa Rica.

In response to other question, over if the decision strengthens the OAS, the president came back to talk over Cuba's entity exclusion during more than 40 years.

For the Brazilian leader the decision showed that common sense has finally prevailed: "Because nobody managed anymore to explain, nobody managed to understand anymore, how we could have a meeting of countries of the Americas while Cuba was not present, as if it were an ugly duckling."

Once again Lula urged the United States to lift its embargo to Havana: "Today, there no explanation in any part of the world for the Cuba embargo. The next step is to eliminate this ban little by little until everything comes back to normal."

More:
http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/10809/

[dipsydoodle]

15. The article you've posted confirms

and removes any doubt as to whether the decision was unanimous. I don't think such a travesty as the exclusion of Cuba for such a prolonged period will now reoccur in the future.:thumbsup:

[IndianaGreen]

16. When OAS kicked Cuba out, Latin America was run by rightwing dictatorships

Somoza, Trujillo, are a couple of America's strongmen in the region, kept in power to keep the people in check.

[dipsydoodle]

17. Indeed -

but that's all our yesterdays as we would say here in the UK. :hi:

[Mika]

20. But the US criminal treatment of Cuba continues - extra territorial US sanctions remain.

The Obama admin just last week instructed Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, and other instant messenger services to cut access to their services to Cubans in Cuba - in essence stepping up the sanctions against Cuba (all while mewling that Cubans don't have enough access to various forms of communication because of Castro).

This type of move is typical of the 5 decades old duplicitous hypocrisy the US has engaged in against Cuba.

---

[Judi Lynn]

21. Action worthy only of a Bush administration, or so one would have thought.

That kind of underhanded backstabbing is far more expected coming from a right-wing administration.

It would be important to find out who it was who came up with this dirty cheapshot maneuver, who sold it to President Obama. It's so hard to believe a healthy American leader with normal functioning could do something truly slimy like this to a tiny nation which has been victimized by the only form of economic warfare to have lasted this long in history.

[Mika]

23. Maybe in a short while Obama will lift the messenger ban and claim it as relaxing sanctions..

.. the same way that the Obama admin's simply reversing _{Bush 43's} most recent barriers on Cuban-American travel and remittances was claimed as some kind of magnanimous 'new era' of US/Cuba relations.

US policy regarding Cuba is nothing more than stagecraft for domestic consumption. The US gov cares not one whit about the wellbeing of Cubans in Cuba.

[Judi Lynn]

24. Clearly right! They would trash Cuba's health and educational systems in a heartbeat,

the systems which have made Cuba the best educated per capita, and the healthiest in Latin America, and replace them with privatization which would instantly degrade their high longevity, low infant mortality, superior literacy standards.

They have prided themselves on their excellent ratio of students to teachers, Cubans to their health providers. It would all be flushed instantly if the Cuba takeover planners in South Florida at the various universities there working on colossal government subsidized Cuba transition projects got their grubby mitts on that country.

[Judi Lynn]

22. Chávez: Readmission of Cuba to OAS marks the "beginning of a new age"

Chávez: Readmission of Cuba to OAS marks the "beginning of a new age"
CARACAS, Wednesday June 03, 2009

Chávez highlighted the fact that the member countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the People of Our America (ALBA) attended the 39th OAS General Assembly, held in Honduras, with a common proposal

Western Hemisphere

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez stated that by abrogating the resolution that had excluded Cuba from the Organization of American States (OAS), the Latin American countries showed that they are not "US colonies." He added that the move amounts to the "beginning of a new age."

The Venezuelan ruler highlighted the fact that the member countries of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) attended the 39th OAS General Assembly, held in Honduras, with a common proposal intended to call for the end of "the injustice against the Cuban people," state-run news agency ABN quoted.

"We are no longer the peoples the US empire used to drag and devastate. Here, we have dignity. From the heart of ALBA, a question emerged: Why is Cuba not (in the OAS) if the reality has changed compared to 60 years ago, when the United States forced people in this continent to severe ties with Cuba," said Chávez.

Further, he added that hemispheric body's decision to readmit Cuba after its exclusion in 1962 means "the beginning of a new age."

http://english.eluniversal.com/2009/06/03/en_pol_art_chavez:-readmission_03A2364885.shtml
Opposition newspaper

[ohio2007]

25. Fidel turns down the offer to join

Cuba (formally) turns down offer to rejoin Organization of American States

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3912946

Say it is a tool for the US.