Former Cuban president Fidel Castro said on Tuesday that Cuba had no desire to rejoin the Organization of American States (OAS), as called for by some of Cuba’s allies, and that he did not even want to “hear the vile name of that institution.”
Castro, in his third column published on Tuesday, said the OAS “has a history that collects all the trash of 60 years of betrayal of the people of Latin America.”
He said the organization had been involved in “aggressive actions” that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
Cuba was suspended from the 35-member OAS in 1962 because the communist system created by Castro after he took power in a 1959 revolution was judged to be “incompatible” with the organization’s principles.
Castro has criticized the group for years, calling it the “Ministry of Colonies” of the US.
Before the OAS Summit of the Americas set to begin tomorrow in Trinidad and Tobago, several Latin American countries have said Cuba should be reinstated in the organization, which promotes regional cooperation and democracy.
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told reporters in Rio de Janeiro on Monday that Cuba’s absence from the OAS “is an anomaly that needs to be corrected.”
OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza told Brazilian newspaper O Globo that Cuba must show its commitment to democracy to be readmitted.
“We need to know if Cuba is interested in returning to multilateral organizations or if it is thinking only about the end of the embargo and economic growth,” he told the newspaper, referring to the US trade embargo imposed on Cuba since 1962.
“It even offends us to suppose that we are desiring of entering the OAS. That train passed a while back and Insulza still doesn’t know it,” Castro said.
Castro, 82, has not been seen in public since intestinal surgery in July 2006. He ceded power to his brother, President Raul Castro, last year.
The first two of Fidel Castro’s columns on Tuesday dealt in part with Monday’s decision by US President Barack Obama to let Cuban-Americans travel freely to Cuba and send as much money as they want to relatives there.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was