Administration Puts Partisan Spin on OAS Charters

DOBBS FERRY, N.Y., June 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "Editors should give
serious attention to how reports of the OAS Assembly in Honduras characterize
the debate on Tuesday and Wednesday regarding Cuba's membership," urged John
McAuliff, the head of the Fund for Reconciliation and Development, a New York
based non-governmental organization that advocates normalization of
Washington-Havana relations.

"First, Cuba is still a member of the OAS. It was suspended, not expelled, in
1962 as the result of an intense and still-resented campaign by a US
government more dominant than today. Justifications for suspension did not
include internal democracy or human rights and are now moot."

"Second, virtually all OAS members support ending Cuba's suspension without
conditions, not only more left-leaning governments."

"Third, nothing in the OAS Charter, or subsequent documents, including the
Inter-American Democratic Charter (IADC) precludes Cuba taking up full and
active membership. The IADC is quite explicit about measures to be taken in
the face of 'unconstitutional interruption of the democratic order of a member
state,' i.e. a military coup. It incorporates aspirations that all members be
representative democracies with respect for human rights but does not affect
restoring the status of an existing member with a different political
orientation."

"Fourth, the US embargo and forced transition agenda with Cuba seriously
violate the OAS Charter, which is quite explicit that 'No State...has the
right to intervene, directly or indirectly, for any reason whatever, in the
internal or external affairs of any other State. The foregoing principle
prohibits not only armed force but also any other form of
interference...against its political, economic, and cultural elements.'"
(Article 19, see also 3e and 20)

McAuliff concludes, "Secretary Clinton should abstain if the OAS votes on
ending Cuba's suspension without conditions. She will demonstrate we are
listening and serious about a new collaborative role, even if domestic
politics bars joining the affirmative vote. Finally the Administration must
show Sen. Menendez (D, NJ) that he cannot control US foreign policy with
bluster and threats to cut off OAS funding."

Additional background at
http://obamacuba.blogspot.com/2009/05/oas-membership-for-cuba-two-scholarly.html
http://thehavananote.com/2009/05/an_unavoidable_test_at_the_oas.html
http://thehavananote.com/2009/05/will_cuba_be_unsuspended_by_th.html

[The Fund for Reconciliation and Development was founded in 1985 to bring
about normal US relations with Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos and, in the last
decade, Cuba. John McAuliff visits Cuba regularly, most recently in January
and May of 2009.]

SOURCE Fund for Reconciliation & Development

John McAuliff of the Fund for Reconciliation and Development, +1-914-231-6270,
+1-917-859-9025