Latin America has important meetings in the upcoming days. Today will be the broadcast of the command of El Salvador, where a person who was a guerilla up until a few years ago, a representative from the Farabundo Martà National Liberation Front (FMNLF), will assume the presidency of the country.
The rise to power of journalist Mauricio Funes goes along with the presence of President Michelle Bachelet and distinguished representatives from governments throughout the whole continent, including the United States.
The FMNLF failed in the 1980s in its attempt to take power by force, but now it comes to the government by democratic means in a clear sign that times have changed in our region. The setting of the Cold War was left behind in the 1990s. However, some of its consequences still remain today.
The day after the ceremonies in El Salvador, the annual Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) begins. In the town of San Pedro Sula, the chancellors of America will try to remove another obstacle in the confrontation between blocs that ended in the last decade: the sanction of Cuba that it carried to its expulsion from the multilateral organization.
After reading the motives for its expulsion (links with the Chinese-Soviet bloc and the adhesion to the Marist-Leninist ideology), there still remains evidence that the resolution does not have meaning in the historic context of the twenty-first century.
This year, of the members of the OAS, the United States will be the only country that does not have diplomatic relations with Cuba, which makes the decision to not reintegrate the Caribbean nation to the multilateral organization relatively absurd. Nevertheless, Washington has insisted that Cuba should comply with the democratic clause of the international request before being incorporated.
The discussion about the democratic credentials of the Cuban state can take various, more general, assemblies. However, the elimination of the excluding decision of expulsion is a good step in order for Cuba to integrate itself into the American community.
Latin America has inhabited itself with governments of democratic origin with a distinct mark. This fact obliges one to leave behind the confrontation mentality of irreconcilable blocs, but does not correspond to actual reality.
The politics of Cuba’s rapprochement can serve justly to better the concepts and the practices of democracy that exist on the continent, including those of the United States and those of the island.
The presence of Barack Obama in the presidency of the United States and his shown disposition to dialogue at the recent Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago reinforces the idea that one of the most serious conflicts between countries that the continent has had - including the missile crisis - can be nearing its end.
As it is, it will depend a lot on the attitudes of the Cuban and U.S. authorities, since holding dialogues is like dancing tango; it takes two.
La asunción del mando del periodista Mauricio Funes contará con la presencia de la Presidenta Michelle Bachelet y de destacados representantes de gobiernos de todo el continente, incluido Estados Unidos.
El FMLN fracasó en los años 80 en su intento de tomarse el poder por las armas, pero ahora llega al gobierno por la vÃa democrática, un claro signo que los tiempos han cambiado en nuestra región.
El escenario de la guerra frÃa quedó atrás en los años 90. Sin embargo, algunas de sus secuelas duran hasta hoy.
Al dÃa siguiente de las ceremonias en El Salvador, comienza en un paÃs vecino, Honduras, la Asamblea Anual de la Organización de Estados Americanos (OEA).
Este año, de los integrantes de la OEA, Estados Unidos será el único paÃs que aún no tendrá relaciones diplomáticas con Cuba, lo que hace relativamente absurda la decisión de no reintegrar a la nación caribeña al organismo multilateral.
No obstante, Washington ha insistido en que Cuba debe cumplir con la cláusula democrática de la instancia internacional antes de reincorporarse.
La discusión sobre las credenciales democráticas del Estado cubano puede tomar varias asambleas generales más. Sin embargo, la eliminación de la excluyente determinación de expulsión es un buen paso para que Cuba se reintegre a la comunidad americana.
Las polÃticas de acercamiento a Cuba pueden servir justamente para mejorar los conceptos y las prácticas de democracia que existen en el continente, incluidas las de Estados Unidos y las de la isla.
Que asà sea dependerá tanto de las actitudes de las autoridades cubanas como estadounidenses, pues para dialogar como para bailar tango, se necesitan dos.
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Whether George HW Bush or Donald J Trump, Americanimperialism is unabated—the pathetic excuses and the violentshock-and-awe tactics don’t matter; the results do.