The Cartagena Summit: Is the Ball in Obama’s Court?

At the Summit of the Americas held in Trinidad and Tobago in April 2009, Barack Obama, who was then a newcomer to the White House, promised he was open to improving relations with Cuba due to several complaints from Latin America and the Caribbean. The White House tenant smiled upon receiving the book “Las venas abiertas de América Latina” (“Open Veins of Latin America”) as a gift from Hugo Chávez, and many people expected a change in how the United States viewed the region.

Three years later, another summit is to be held, this time in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. The coup against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya is the most visible sign of the price paid by those who believed in the new direction announced by Obama. Zelaya sought and achieved the repeal of Cuba’s expulsion from the Organization of American States (OAS) while a meeting of this organization was being held in his country. This triggered the former pro-coup mechanism, which the United States has used in the region for more than a century in order to defend its interests. The other mistake the Honduran president made was to include Honduras – a nation that functions as American property in Central America – into the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA), whose member countries are Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda.

The presidents of ALBA countries met this weekend in Caracas in remembrance of the 20 years of rebellion led by Hugo Chávez in Venezuela against then-president Carlos Andrés Pérez and his pro-American government. They also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Second Declaration of Havana. Due to the forthcoming encounter with Obama, ALBA leaders have agreed to consider not attending the summit in Cartagena if Cuba is not invited, and so they will be organizing a meeting in Havana prior to the summit. “I suggest that if Cuba does not go, [if it] is not invited to the Summit of the Americas, no country of ALBA, at least of ALBA, should attend the summit,” said Rafael Correa, the Ecuadorian President. Correa added that it was essential to lift the criminal blockade against the Cuban people and reject the arrogant attempts to exclude Cuba from regional forums. From his point of view, one of the central issues in the summit should be lifting Cuba’s blockade.

The Ecuadorian statement was received with applause. “I agree with you, Rafael,” said Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez. “If Cuba is not invited to the Summit of the Americas, and hopefully this will not affect relations with the government of Colombia, it has nothing to do with Colombia, we will consider not attending the summit.” He suggested first consulting the Colombian government about the issue to see whether the host intended to invite Cuba, since it was all speculation without confirmation.

Bolivian leader Evo Morales stated they would attend the summit only if Cuba attended; otherwise they would take no part in it. He noted that this could be the “last” Summit of the Americas. With regard to this issue, Cuban President Raúl Castro declared: “We have never asked for such a measure, but this won’t stop us from supporting it, because we consider it very just.”

Colombian Foreign Affairs Minister María Ángela Holguín said from Bogotá that the issue would be addressed “based on an understanding from all countries.” The statement points to Washington and contradicts her previous statement that the ball was in Cuba’s court, since Cuba hadn’t shown any interest in joining the OAS, whose members are all invited to the summit in Cartagena. Cuba, like the other ALBA countries, does not recognize the OAS as a legitimate forum. In Latin America, the OAS is seen as an instrument of U.S. domination, and the dialogue set to take place in Colombia in April about equality between the United States and Latin America is aimed at changing the subordinate relationship Latin America has with the United States.

It would be very difficult for Obama, who is a candidate for re-election this 2012 and will have to travel to Miami to ingratiate himself with the Cuban American ultra-right (as other Republican candidates did) to give a “new direction” to relations with Cuba now, having not done it before. It’s much less likely that he’ll agree to a meeting with Cuba as equals. Even a child knows that the important decisions about the OAS are made in the U.S. Department of State. However, the summit in Cartagena is likely to be a watershed where Obama’s promises will no longer work. The ball Holguín is talking about is likely to become the goal itself for Washington, demonstrating the inefficiency of an old organization trying to operate in a continent that is no longer the one that expelled Cuba from the OAS in 1962, but rather one that has responded to the expulsion by giving birth to the Second Declaration of Havana.