US rapprochement with Cuba

WASHINGTON — There is no backing down now on the restoration of Cuba to full membership in the family of Latin American nations, the Organization of American States (OAS).

Not least among the statements this weekend at the Summit of the Americas that are creating a feeling of unstoppable momentum were those of U.S. President Barack Obama himself. Right behind him were the statements of the region’s top conservative, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, as well as Jose Miguel Insulza, the top official in the OAS, which expelled Cuba four and a half decades ago.

Insulza, the OAS secretary general, said in a little-covered press statement at the summit in Port of Spain that he has been working in quiet consultations to arrange a vote on Cuba at the meeting next month of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States.

Obama, to be sure, stole the thunder of his critics on the left by making rapprochement with Cuba a central theme of his main speech to the gathered presidents. The action disarmed even Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who had mustered his allies to pressure — and possibly embarrass — the new president on the issue during his first encounters with Latin America’s top leaders.

But by boldly taking the lead at the summit, Obama may have lost control of the process. It is doubtful, after the developments he himself set in motion, that the United States can keep to the cautious pace of incremental concessions it started several weeks ago: limited travel and communications openings, conciliatory rhetoric and calls for Cuba to show some progress toward democracy.

U.S. officials were spreading the word about possible reciprocal actions Obama would welcome from Cuba, saying the “ball is in Cuba’s court.” Such metaphors are now sounding very much like yesterday’s news.

Even Colombia, the United States’ firmest ally in the region, is proclaiming that Cuba has done enough. Here’s President Uribe’s statement: “Cuba is contributing to peace and understands our security needs [in regard to Colombia’s ongoing conflict with leftist guerrillas] … . The government of Colombia considers it necessary to begin the process of reintegrating Cuba totally into the inter-American system … in every platform and in every way.”

OAS Secretary General Insulza’s statements also were aimed at breaking down the U.S. focus on Cuba’s lack of democracy as a reason to continue its isolation. The OAS resolution expelling Cuba had nothing to do with democracy. Instead, Insulza said, it was the charge that Cuba was an ally of the Soviet Union and China and was fomenting armed revolutions in other Latin American countries.

“It is a resolution that talks about Marxism-Leninism, about the Sino-Soviet axis,” he said. “Today China is the principal commercial partner of the United States and the Soviet Union has disappeared.”

Since the reasons for the 1961 resolution expelling Cuba no longer exist, the OAS General Assembly can remove the suspension by a simple vote reversing the resolution. Insulza wants that to happen at its next meeting, when the foreign ministers gather for the General Assembly in Honduras in late May. Insulza said he has begun the consultations with member countries, including the United States, to organize such a vote.

The action would remove, by unilateral and unconditional OAS action, the most important symbol of Cuba’s pariah status in the region. And it would depend on the agreement of neither the United States nor Cuba. (Cuba’s Raul Castro, in a show of sour grapes has been saying it has no desire to return to OAS membership even if invited, thank you very much.)

Similarly unilateral initiatives are in the works in the U.S. Congress to prepare legislation, first to open up travel to all Americans (Obama’s action so far is limited to Americans with relatives in Cuba) and expand trade — an issue dear to the heart of farm state representatives on both sides of the aisle.

With developments moving faster and faster in recent days, the balls and courts metaphor may soon give way to another one: On normalization with Cuba, the train has left the station.

Editor’s note: This dispatch was updated to correct the dateline.