Punta del Este, Uruguay, January 1962. The threats of the United States Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) were fulfilled. The diplomat had stated days before that this inter-American mechanism would adopt measures against the Cuban Revolutionary Government. The OAS Inter-American Economic and Social Council was in session. There, Cuba’s representative Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara denounced President John Kennedy’s hostile policy against the emerging Revolution on the Caribbean island, detailing the continent’s historical reality and the exploitative character of Washington’s plans for the region, symbolized in the failed Alliance for Progress.
The mounting pressure against the Revolution found the ideal scenario within this Organization. Fidel himself reminded the Northern neighbor that the process initiated in 1959 did not require permission from Washington, and that “if the Yankees try to destroy the Cuban Revolution by force, they will not find their Guatemala here, but their Waterloo!”
Two years before, the 7th OAS Meeting of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs had taken place. In the background, popular support reaffirmed that “with or without the OAS, we will win the fight!” Cuban Foreign Minister Raúl Roa spoke during the plenary session. “Let us put it bluntly. The Revolutionary Government of Cuba has not come to San José, Costa Rica, as a defendant, but as a prosecutor. It is here to clearly present, without ceremony or fear, its implacable accusation against the richest, most powerful and aggressive capitalist power in the world.”
Cuba withdrew from the meeting: “I leave with my people, and with my people leave the peoples of Our America,” Roa stated.
In Havana, at the request of the people gathered in the Plaza de la Revolución, Fidel tore apart the Declaration of San José for attacking the sovereignty and independence of not only the island, but all the peoples of the Americas.
In Uruguay, January 31, 1962, Cuba was expelled from this “ministry of Yankee colonies” as Roa himself referred to it. Although the decision was reversed in 2009, during the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, the history of this inter-American mechanism has led Cuba to remain firm in its principles and refuse to return.
THE ORIGINS
The OAS emerged as part of the International Conference of American States in Bogotá, 1948. Colombia at the time was in a volatile state following the “El Bogotazo” (riots), sparked by the assassination of liberal leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán.
The guise of the OAS was to serve as a mechanism to unite the nations of the hemisphere. However, its real purpose was that of a puppet in the service of Washington. “America for Americans” was the only doctrine to which it responded.
An example of this was the complacency shown in endorsing intervention in the Guatemala of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954. The silence before the invasion of Playa Girón in April 1961, and the terrorist acts perpetrated in Cuba add to the list. Not to mention the pressures in the diplomatic sphere to ensure that, with just a few exceptions, the countries of the region broke off relations with Havana. The landing of U.S. Marines in Santo Domingo in 1965, with the consent of the OAS, is the first example of collective intervention in a country of the zone, the same that had the principle of “non-intervention by any State in the internal affairs of others.”
In 1982, one of the countries of the region entered into confrontation with a foreign power – the Falklands War, a dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom. The OAS response: a mere resolution and a tenuous condemnation one month after the attacks began.
Later came Grenada, 1983. Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was overthrown and killed in a military coup. U.S. Marines intervened in the small Caribbean island as a “preventive measure.” There was no unanimous condemnation from the OAS. Some countries approved military action, however this was eventually reproached for violating the Charter of Bogotá.
The OAS was silent before Operation Condor, before the various coup d'états across the region, before the thousands of disappeared. It was silent before the civil conflicts that bleed Central America. Thus it was discredited.
ZERO ISOLATION
Mar del Plata, 2004. The 4th Summit of the Americas, during which a discredited OAS faces a region now a little more aware of the need to integrate under purely Latin American principles. The proposal of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), like its predecessor the Alliance for Progress, was dealt the final blow. Other sub-regional mechanisms were found to be more efficient in solving problems. As a consequence, the OAS was relegated to the background.
Cuba was acclaimed for its resistance in other regional spaces. Justice was done. Never will the island return to a mechanism that is an instrument of domination. This goes against its principles.
