How could so many “leaders” get it so wrongly? Is it sentimentality? Is it nostalgia? Is it the egotistical need of political leaders for their ‘coup de grâce’ – that grand strike by which to be remembered? So, without requiring, bargaining or negotiating any further ounce of freedom and liberty for the Cuban people we have voted to agree Cuba back into the fold of free nations at the OAS level. Fine! Great! I am all for it! I too am a bit sentimental about the iconic Cuban revolution – but I am not a democratically elected leader of anywhere – I do not carry the same level of moral responsibility and ethical obligation that elected leaders do (off-course I am raising the standards too high for our elected members) – but even I would have required more freedom for the Cuban people!
So my question to Caribbean and Latin American leaders is a simple one – why do we believe that the people of Cuba are entitled to less freedom and liberty than the rest of us in Latin America and the Caribbean?
It is becoming more and more apparent as President Obama progresses into his role as President of the U.S.A, especially if you followed his speech in Egypt to the Muslim world, that the days of a confrontational, antagonistic, aggressive, control-freak America is over. President Obama went as far as recognising not just the democratic system of government but other forms/systems of government! Compared to other American administrations over the past 60 years, you will all agree that in this administration Cubans have a friend and not an enemy, and the world has a peacemaker and not an antagonist.
How then are the Castro brothers going to justify denying Cubans rights to freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of opposition, rights to free assembly, rights to free movement, rights to individual/self determination? Can you who sit in Dominica, Venezuela, St Vincent, and other free countries in the Region imagine those basic rights taken away from you? Would you like that for yourself? I would think not!
Cuba does not want to re-enter the OAS at this moment because the principles of the OAS will impede the Cuban administration ability to keep the Cuban populace under control!
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