Cuba says not to return to OAS
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E-mail Xinhua, February 16, 2012
Cuba said Wednesday that it is willing to attend the sixth Summit of the Americas if invited but does not have the intention to rejoin the Organization of American States (OAS).
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez made the remarks while addressing in Havana the Political Council of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our Americas (ALBA) attended by foreign ministers and senior representatives from the ALBA member countries.
The meeting discussed the common agenda on economic integration and Cuba's attendance at the Summit of the Americas to be held on April 14-15 in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, among other issues.
"We reiterate that Cuba will not return to the OAS, and it is not interested in having any relationship with the organization that has served for purposes of domination, occupation and aggression," Rodriguez said.
"The OAS serves to the United States as a platform to attack and plunder Latin America and the Caribbean countries," Rodriguez added.
Rodriguez said that if invited, his country would attend the summit.
Rodriguez was also responding to recent remarks by U.S. Undersecretary of State for Public Affairs Mike Hammer that if Cuba wanted to attend the summit, it had to accept the process of returning to the OAS.
Cuba was suspended from the OAS in 1962 due to the U.S. pressure. The suspension was officially lifted in 2009 but Havana has not shown any interest in regaining its membership in the continental bloc.
