Hillary Clinton Says No Consensus on Cuba At Americas Meet
Wednesday, June 3, 2009 at 11:06 am
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has failed to find common ground with her counterparts from Latin America on how to readmit Cuba to the Organizaton of American States.
“There is no consensus,” Clinton told reporters on Tuesday as she left the day-long negotiations in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula and prepared to fly to Egypt to join President Barack Obama.
She handed over to her staff to push the US line that Cuba meet democratic standards before it returns to the Organization of American States (OAS), a regional grouping with 34 active members.
US officials had portrayed her high-level presence as important to bridging the divide in the organization, but she conceded Washington was fighting a virtually solitary battle, even if other states saw some of its points.
“The Obama administration is obviously pretty much by itself in making clear that this (issue) has to be carefully thought through,” she said.
But she said she has warned her counterparts from the 33 other active OAS members that there risked being “consequences” for an organization whose charter embraces the principles of democracy.
“Until then, we will seek new ways to engage Cuba that benefit the people of both nations and of the hemisphere,” she said.
In a break with his predecessor George W. Bush, Obama has lifted curbs on travel to Cuba and the transfer of funds by relatives of Cubans in the United States.
But many in the region consider the US pace of normalization too slow.Senior US officials also said earlier that, in a bid break the deadlock, the OAS has formed a 10-country working group to debate the various positions, but gave few details of the discussions.
The officials said the group is made up of delegates from the United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Belize, Jamaica, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Mexico and Honduras.
One was that the OAS, despite its tradition to make decisions by consensus, carries out a rare vote against the US stand; another could leave the working group to try to resolve the differences over the next days and weeks.
Even though Cuba itself rejects the OAS, analysts said, many countries want to use the debate to push for a lifting of the decades-old US embargo on Havana, while others want to embarrass the United States.
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