US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton fought off a barrage of criticism on Tuesday from Latin American leaders demanding Cuba’s re-entry to the Organization of American States (OAS), which made no decision on reinstating the communist nation.
At a meeting in Honduras of the 34-member hemispheric group, the refusal of the US to support Cuba’s return to the OAS was condemned as a dying vestige of US domination in the region.
“We cannot leave San Pedro Sula without correcting that other day that will live in infamy,” Honduran President Manuel Zelaya said of the decision to boot Cuba. “It’s time to correct that mistake.”
But Clinton said Havana should not return to the OAS until it embraces democratic principles and makes progress on human rights issues and the release of political prisoners.
She headed to the airport late on Tuesday for a flight to Cairo, where she will join US President Barack Obama, without the group reaching any agreement on how to proceed on Cuba.
“At this moment there is no consensus and there is no agreement to take any action,” Clinton told reporters before she left. “Since we don’t agree with the barebones proposal, if there is no action that’s fine with us.”
The OAS suspended Cuba in 1962 after Fidel Castro’s revolution steered the island toward communism and a close alliance with the Soviet Union. Cuba has said it is uninterested in rejoining the group.
Failure to rescind the suspension of Cuba would make Latin American nations “accomplices” in that decision, said Zelaya, who has moved closer to Venezuela’s socialist leader Hugo Chavez since taking power in 2006.
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega told a news conference the OAS “was created as an instrument of American political domination and expansionism in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
He played down Obama’s recent overtures toward Cuba and the region.
“He has shown goodwill but he’s trapped. The president has changed but not American policy,” Ortega said.
Clinton did not address the OAS assembly in public, but met with ministers from nine countries trying to find a way to reach consensus on Cuba’s re-entry and avoid a showdown vote that could antagonize either side.
“We are not interested in fighting old battles or living in the past,” she said in the text of a speech prepared for delivery to the group. “At the same time, we will always defend the timeless principles of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.”
Senior US officials said many countries at the meeting were not interested in sidetracking recent US overtures to Cuba.
“We have moved the debate very dramatically,” she told reporters. “We’re going to continue to push and make the case for an outcome the United States can support.”
Obama has pledged to engage Cuba and taken steps toward a more open relationship, lifting restrictions two months ago on travel and remittances to Cuba for Cuban-Americans with relatives on the island.
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