Vol. 73/No. 17      May 4, 2009

Thirty-four nations in the Americas were represented at the summit. Cuba was excluded, as was the U.S. colony of Puerto Rico.

As of June 1 of this year every country in the Americas except the United States will have established normal diplomatic relations with Havana. Washington broke diplomatic relations in January 1961 and pressured the Organization of American States (OAS) to expel Cuba in January 1962. One week later, U.S. president John Kennedy imposed a total trade embargo on Cuba and severely restricted travel to the island.

The inhumane embargo has been denounced repeatedly by the United Nations and increasingly by many governments in Latin America. Several heads of Latin states made it known they would challenge the embargo at the April 17-19 summit.

Leading up to the summit U.S. president Barack Obama sought to deflect criticism of Washington’s Cuba policy by lifting restrictions April 13 on travel for Cuban Americans visiting relatives on the island and on sending remittances to family members there.

Addressing a meeting in Venezuela April 16, Cuban president Raúl Castro said, “We have told them in public and in private that we are ready to discuss everything: human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners, everything they want to discuss.” He was speaking at a meeting of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), a trade pact between several Latin American countries, including Cuba, to promote cooperation and development.

Castro went on to say Cuba is open to freeing those Washington terms “political prisoners” and sending them, along with their families, to the United States, if Washington frees the five Cuban revolutionaries unjustly held in U.S. jails for 10 years on frame-up “conspiracy charges.”

At the opening session of the summit April 17, Argentine president Cristina Fernández, the first speaker, called for lifting the embargo, receiving applause from the audience, reported the Mexican daily La Jornada. “The blockade against the sister nation of Cuba is an anachronism,” she said, noting that Cuba has “expressed its total readiness to talk with the United States on all issues.”

Other heads of governments spoke of the thousands of Cuban medical personnel who have volunteered their help in many Latin American countries.

Earlier in the week the governments of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Dominica, and Honduras—gathered at the ALBA meeting in Venezuela—issued a declaration opposing the embargo and condemning the exclusion of Cuba from the summit.

Mexican president Felipe Calderon told CNN he had also urged Obama to end the embargo when the U.S. head of state visited Mexico April 16. Calderon said the embargo was “useless.”

In his speech to the summit April 17, Obama said, “The United States seeks a new beginning with Cuba.” The U.S. government is ready “to engage with the Cuban government on a wide range of issues—from drugs, migration, and economic issues, to human rights, free speech, and democratic reform.”

At a news conference at the conclusion of the summit, Obama said Castro’s offer to discuss issues such as human rights and political prisoners was “a sign of progress.” He also charged that Cuban authorities “take a lot off the top” in fees to process remittances sent to families in Cuba from relatives living in the United States.

Cuban leader Fidel Castro responded to Obama’s news conference in a “Reflections” column April 21.

“In affirming he’s prepared to discuss whatever issue with the U.S. president, the Cuban president is saying that he’s not afraid to take up anything. It’s a demonstration of bravery and confidence in the principles of the revolution. Nobody should be surprised that he would talk about pardoning those punished in March 2003 and sending them all to the United States, if that country were ready to free the Cuban Five.”

Castro was referring to 75 Cubans convicted and jailed in 2003 for collaborating with U.S. officials to organize counterrevolutionary activities directed against the Cuban government.

As far as fees on remittances, Castro noted, “All countries charge fees for money transfers.” He added, “Not all Cubans have families abroad that send them money.” The Cuban government uses part of the fees it collects to make food, medicine, and other goods available to those Cubans most in need, Castro explained, a policy that is “just.”

Meanwhile, José Miguel Insulza, general secretary of the OAS, announced he would press for restoring Cuba’s membership in that body. The Cuban response was swift: “If one were to add up all the aggressive actions to which [the OAS] was an accomplice, they would span hundreds of thousands of lives and several bloody decades,” wrote Fidel Castro in his “Reflections” column April 15. “Insulza even offends us by presuming that we are eager to join the OAS.”

Raúl Castro told the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina, “We are not interested in the OAS.” Paraphrasing José Martí, Castro added, “Before returning to the OAS the North and South seas will join and a serpent will be born from an eagle’s egg.”
 
 
Related articles:
Cuba’s example is focus of New Jersey meeting
Students in Montreal discuss Cuban Revolution  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home