The diplomat Luis Almagro, chancellor of Uruguayan President José “Pepe” Mujica, seeks to be the next Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS). And to cement his bid for the leadership of the Pan American entity, he submitted a proposal in tune with the times: the return of Cuba to the membership of that organization.
This would not only establish a representative sent from Havana, but the largest island of the Caribbean will actively participate in the Pan-American system.
“For this, I believe we should find a viable and consensual way to make this happen, and Cuba can enrich with its contributions,” Almagro said in a speech read to the Permanent Council of the Organization, in Washington, United States. His candidacy is the only standing, after removal of the other applicants.
He recalled that “we have turned the page and Cuba has been reinstated in June 2009 at the OAS General Assembly in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. However, still is lacking its effective re-entry. ”
“The effective readmission of Cuba to the OAS will become a milestone in the history of our organization,” said the Uruguayan FM till the mandate of Mujica, a former leftist guerrilla, who traveled in 2013 to Santiago de Cuba, invited by Raul Castro, to deliver a speech during the fiftieth anniversary of the events of July 26.
Almagro presented a plan to revitalize the Pan-American organization in a time when more than one Latin American president has downplayed its usefulness. No wonder, Uruguayan Foreign Minister opened his speech by saying that “in 2015 we should leave behind once the OAS of the Cold War.” The expulsion of Cuba occurred after Fidel Castro rapprochement with the Soviet Union.
But the proposal of the candidate for Secretary General of the OAS is unlikely. Cuba is more enthusiastic towards regional integration projects of recent origin, as the Organization of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
Raul Castro will travel to Montevideo to attend the inauguration of Tabaré Vázquez, who will replace Jose Mujica as president of Uruguay. If somebody asks Almagro about his proposal, he may find that a change of opinion is unlikely.
Perhaps no surprises announcements about that. The Cuban leader has never mentioned reentry into the Pan-American organization in his speeches, unlike the constant proposals for dialogue with the US, which led the negotiations for normalization of relations with Washington.
For the president of Cuba, before his country enters OAS “the North Sea will join the South Sea and a snake will hatch from an eagle’s egg” as expressed in Brazil a few years ago, paraphrasing a quote from Jose Martí.
