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Powell
Assails Cuba at OAS Assembly
Gustavo
González
SANTIAGO, (IPS) - U.S. Secretary of
State Colin Powell spoke out against the
Cuban government Monday during the 33rd
general assembly of the Organisation of
American States (OAS), and he insinuated
that differences with some Latin
American countries about the Iraq war
are a thing of the past.
Cuba, which was expelled from the OAS in
the 1960s, was the major absence but
also Monday's protagonist of the
assembly, which Chile's President
Ricardo Lagos inaugurated Sunday in
Santiago. The meeting of the foreign
ministers of the 34 member states is to
wrap up Tuesday with a renewed
commitment to the hemisphere's
democratic governance.
Powell invoked the region's governance,
stating, ”Tyrants, traffickers and
terrorists cannot thrive in an
inter-American community of robust
democracies, healthy citizenries and
dynamic economies.”
The U.S. official thus upheld the policy
of President George W. Bush, which
equates the Cuban socialist government
of Fidel Castro with insurgent groups in
other countries, particularly the
leftist FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia), which he accuses of
financing their activities through drug
trafficking.
In his 10-minute address, Powell urged
the nations of the Americas to ”find
ways to hasten the inevitable democratic
transition in Cuba” and maintained
that ”the people of Cuba increasingly
look to the OAS for help in defending
their fundamental freedoms against the
depredations of our hemisphere's only
dictatorship.”
He noted the Cuban government's
executions of three men who had hijacked
a passenger ferry and the long prison
sentences handed down against 75
dissidents in April. And he praised the
countries that proposed an OAS
resolution three weeks ago that would
express official concern about the human
rights situation on the island.
Although Powell did not mention them,
the initiative was proposed by Canada,
Chile and Uruguay, but they failed to
garner enough signatures.
The U.S. secretary's speech marked a
contrast with the presentations of other
foreign ministers, who warned of the
crisis of democratic governance
resulting from corruption, from the
distancing between political parties and
citizens, and from unsatisfied social
demands -- phenomena common to most of
the countries of the Americas.
Chile's Foreign Minister Soledad Alvear,
elected chair of the OAS assembly,
underscored in her address that while
more than half of the Latin American
population resoundingly supports
democracy, only a third say they are
satisfied with this system of
government.
President Lagos said Sunday, ”If the
social panorama is left behind, the
concept of governance itself is not
complete,” and he underscored that
”achieving social cohesion in a
country is essential for political
governance.”
Powell, meanwhile, stressed that
”political democracy and economic
opportunity come together in good
governance.” He went on to state that
the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)
”would create greater prosperity for
nearly 800 million people in 34
countries of our hemisphere.”
Washington is the most ardent champion
of the negotiations to create the FTAA,
which would extend from Alaska to Tierra
del Fuego, encompassing all countries of
the Americas except Cuba.
The U.S. secretary of state, who heads
to Buenos Aires on Tuesday, held
bilateral meetings with several of his
Latin American counterparts before
meeting with Lagos, with whom he spoke
for a half-hour behind closed doors.
In a subsequent press conference, the
Chilean president reported that only the
first three minutes of the meeting were
spent discussing the opposing positions
of the United States and Chile on the
war against Iraq, which had been
manifest in the United Nations Security
Council. The rest of the conversation
was ”about the future,” he said.
Chile and Mexico, the two Latin American
countries currently holding seats in the
U.N. Security Council, opposed the U.S.-
British attack against the Iraqi regime
of Saddam Hussein. The war was launched
Mar. 20 with the pretext of destroying
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, but
no such arms have been uncovered in the
Arab country to date.
The U.S.-led invasion had the full
support of the Central American
governments and Colombia, while Brazil,
Argentina and Venezuela joined Mexico
and Chile in rejecting the pre-emptive
war.
While Lagos received Powell in La Moneda,
the presidential palace, some 20
protesters gathered outside, shouting
slogans in solidarity with Cuba and
against the Bush government. Sunday,
during the inauguration of the assembly,
a similar demonstration took place
outside the meeting venue, the Diego
Portales building.
”The OAS responds only to the
particular interests of the United
States. These are meetings where North
America sets the rules for the rest of
the countries. What did the OAS do when
the United States ignored the U.N. and
attacked Iraq, where we are still
waiting for the much-talked-about
weapons of mass destruction to
appear,” protester Eugenio Ordaz told
IPS.
Lagos, in explaining to the press the
brief reference to Iraq in his meeting
with Powell, said, ”I didn't think it
was appropriate to initiate a
conversation about the future without
settling issues from the past.”
Most of his conversation with the U.S.
official, he said, was dedicated to
discussion of the difficult negotiations
at the World Trade Organisation.
According to reports about the meeting,
Powell did not officially present Lagos
with a request for Chilean troops to
join the foreign forces in Iraq, which
are under U.S.-British command.
Sources from the Chilean Foreign
Ministry told IPS that the Lagos
government is sticking to its position
that all aspects related to Iraq's
future should be dealt with in the U.N.,
and should give priority to
reconstruction efforts.
Powell could make the request for troops
Tuesday to Argentina's President Néstor
Kirchner.
According to the Argentine daily 'Clarín',
the Argentine government has already
decided that it would reject such a
proposal.
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