Cuba and the U.S. - a history lesson

The Wall Street Journal recently called on the Organization of American States to increase its interference in the internal affairs of Cuba and offer increased support to Cuban "dissidents" (o.k., the Journal didn't quite put it that way ;-) ). Today's Granma responds to that editorial with a bit of history of the OAS, specifically the circumstances in which Cuba's membership in that organization was withdrawn. Although it happened in 1961, it still provides an instructive lesson in the way the United States conducts foreign policy, and as such, I'm reprinting here in its entirety (the Spanish is here; the English is not online at the moment and I am indebted to Walter Lippmann of CubaNews for the translation) [emphasis added]:

About The Wall Street Journal editorial against Cuba
Request of an institution without any moral authority
By: Nicanor Len Cotayo

The newspaper of the great financial world of the United States, The Wall Street Journal, called for the Organization of American States (OAS), last Saturday, to offer more support to those Washington calls Cuban "dissidents". The newspaper claims that the lack of support for democracy in Cuba "is one of the reasons that the government of the United States has decided to push the OAS to do more to promote democracy in the region".

To understand the seriousness of the demand, it is worthwhile to briefly remember the way in which island was separated from that shoot-off of Washington policy in the area. It was on October of 1961 that the White House decided to pass judgement on Cuba in the OAS. It was a curious attitude because seven months before it had launched the invasion at Playa Giron.

To understand fully what occurred behind the scenes, they granted a credit of 99 million dollars to the President of Peru, Manuel Prado Ugarte who was visiting the U.S. capital at the time. Later, the Peruvian ambassador in Washington presented a request to the Secretary General of the OAS to call for a meeting of foreign ministers "as soon as possible". On January 3, 1962, just before the meeting, the White House announced a project to grant 15 million dollars to the governments of Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador for coffee production. A Costa Rican newspaper, ADELANTE, considered it a bribe on the eve of judging Cuba, since they were giving stability to a product with prices precisely damaged by the great importers of the United States. On January 22 of that same year, The New York Times revealed that the U.S. State Secretary, Dean Rusk, had warned his Latin American colleagues that financial aid depended on the support given to the sanctions against Havana. This was front page news in an article entitled "Rusk links aid to Latin countries to actions regarding Cuba" with a byline of Juan de Onis.

During the third day of the sessions in the Uruguayan resort of Punta del Este, seven countries, not counting Cuba, questioned the legality of the objectives Washington was trying to achieve. After a four hour-long meeting, the representatives of Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Ecuador, Bolivia and Haiti declared that "applying diplomatic sanctions was politically and legally unacceptable and valueless. They suggested that "the Bogota Charter did not contemplate the exclusion of a member State, that it was the responsibility of the OAS Council or a Special Commission to solve the problem, forewarning that a reform of the Bogota Charter requires another Special Inter-American Conference".

On January 30, seven days into the VIII OAS Foreign Minister's Consultative Meeting, a resolution was put to the vote calling for "the exclusion of the present Government of Cuba from participating in the Inter-American system" with 14 in favor, the minimum required. This result was held up at the time by someone who delayed his sellout, the Haitian Chancellor. Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Bolivia and Ecuador abstained and the one vote against was Cuba. In an analysis of these events, the Canadian newspaper, the Montreal Star, pointed out that among the 14 countries voting against Havana "there are seven that do not have a democratically elected government", a situation, it added "that damaged the prestige of the United States".

Now, 43 years later, The Wall Street Journal dares to request an institution without the least moral authority, such as the OAS, to help bring democracy to the island. Expressing itself in this impudent way, the newspaper of US big business uses the same rotten measures it had used to separate Cuba from that Organization.