The Biden Administration’s efforts to rally its “international partners” into an alliance against Cuba isn’t yielding hoped-for results, as the Washington Post complained on July 29. The State Department’s July 25 “joint statement” decrying Cuba’s violation of human rights was supposed to be a powerful expression by the world’s democracies but, embarrassingly, did not include any European governments, the U.K. or Canada, and aside from the expected five Ibero-American nations (Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador plus Guatemala and Honduras) the other “great powers” included Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, South Korea as well as Greece and Austria. The irate Cuban-American congressman Bob Menendez (D-NJ) ranted that Canada and Spain prioritized their commercial ties with Cuba over human rights, to which the Spanish embassy in Washington acerbically replied that while it supported human and political rights in Cuba, “the easing of external restrictions, including on remittances and travel” would be helpful “in encouraging reforms in Cuba.”
Meanwhile, the Organization of American States (OAS), which usually serves as an instrument of U.S. policies in the Western Hemisphere, suffered a setback July 28 when its Permanent Council was forced to postpone a meeting called to discuss “the situation in Cuba,” after several members threatened to boycott it. In a letter to the Permanent Council, the Coordinator of the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) 13 delegations, Sir Ronald Sanders, pointed out that Cuba hasn’t belonged to the OAS since its 1962 expulsion, does not participate in its activities and has shown no interest in rejoining. Therefore, he said, “it is the considered opinion of our delegations that the proposed convocation of this meeting which has been called without consultation, would be unproductive and would serve no useful purpose.” And, he warned, “should you decide to proceed, our delegations will be obliged not to attend.” He asked that his letter be sent to all member nations “urgently.”
