Obama's efforts to engage Cuba facing big test
By MATTHEW LEE
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON -- A diplomatic tug-of-war over Cuba's outcast status in the
Organization of American States takes center stage at the group's
meeting this week in Honduras, testing U.S. efforts to engage the
communist nation.
Numerous Latin American countries are pushing to reverse the 1962
expulsion of Cuba from the 34-country group, although the Cuban
government insists it has no interest in returning.
An OAS official told The Associated Press that a decision on clearing
the way for Cuba to rejoin the group could be postponed unless there is
a consensus. In that case, Tuesday's meeting could produce a statement
supporting efforts to find a solution. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton, who left Washington on Sunday, is scheduled to attend.
In a positive development in U.S.-Cuban relations, a State Department
official said Sunday that Cuba has agreed to resume talks with the
administration on legal immigration of Cubans to the United States and
on direct mail service.
U.S. officials say they are ready to support lifting the resolution that
suspended Cuba from the OAS, but want to tie readmission to democratic
reforms in Cuba. Nicaragua, backed by Venezuela, Bolivia and others,
favors an approach that would declare Cuba's expulsion an error and
remove all legal hurdles to it regaining its membership.
Diplomats at OAS headquarters in Washington have tried frantically to
forge a compromise. Nicaragua has threatened to press for a vote on its
proposal.
Albert R. Ramdin, the OAS' assistant secretary general, sought to play
down the prospect of a final agreement on Cuba's status. "Theoretically
we can always vote, but in practical political terms it seems that it's
not an option," Ramdin said in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, the meeting site.
A vote could put the U.S. on the spot. Although the OAS generally
operates by consensus, a two-thirds majority vote, or 23 countries, is
all that's needed for a resolution to pass.
One senior U.S. official involved in the negotiations would not rule out
the possibility that Clinton might skip the meeting unless there was a
compromise acceptable to the U.S. The official spoke on condition of
anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations.
The administration is committed to a set of principles the OAS approved
in 2001 that enshrines democracy as a right of all people in the Western
Hemisphere.
The meeting comes at a delicate time in President Barack Obama's
outreach to Cuba. Already, his administration has lifted travel and
financial restrictions on Americans with family in Cuba. In addition
Sunday's news that Cuba has consented to restarting immigration talks,
Cuba has expressed a willingness to cooperate with the U.S. on fighting
terrorism and drug trafficking, and on hurricane disaster preparedness.
Cuban leader Raul Castro and his ailing brother, Fidel, have reacted
coolly to the easing of restrictions and demanded an end to the
decades-old U.S. embargo on the island.
U.S. officials have ruled that out - and Cuba's return to the OAS -
until Cuba makes moves toward democratic pluralism, releases political
prisoners and respects fundamental rights.
But Cuba's Communist Party daily Granma ended a three-day denunciation
of the OAS on Friday by saying Cuba "does not need the OAS. It does not
want it, even reformed. We will never return to that decrepit old house
of Washington."
Some in the OAS, notably the leftist presidents of Nicaragua and
Venezuela, Daniel Ortega and Hugo Chavez, maintain that neither the
United States nor the OAS can dictate what Cuba has to do to return.
When foreign ministers meet on Tuesday in San Pedro Sula, the U.S. will
be the only country in the hemisphere without full diplomatic relations
with Cuba. El Salvador, the only other OAS member without such ties,
planned to restore them on Monday when its new president, Mauricio
Funes, takes office.
Clinton was to attend the inauguration of Funes, the first Salvadoran
president from the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front.
The FMLN is the second former Central American foe of the United States
to take power democratically since Nicaragua elected Sandinista leader
Ortega in 2006. It's one more lurch to the left in Latin America.
---
Associated Press writer Nestor Ikeda contributed to this report.
Associated Press writer Nestor Ikeda contributed to this report.
Obama's efforts to engage Cuba facing big test - Florida AP -
MiamiHerald.com
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/florida/AP/story/1074256.html
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