Canadian assessment of the OAS Summit. Opposition to U.S. imperial domination.

[ckaihatsu]

[EmergencyResponseforUSAttackonIranorSyria] Canadian assessment of the OAS Summit. Opposition to U.S. imperial domination.


Seventh OAS Summit of the Americas in Panama City
Opposition to U.S. Imperial Domination Is the
Order of the Day


Banner from march held as part of the People's Summit taking place in Panama City
parallel to the OAS Summit.
http://www.cpcml.ca/Tmlw2015/W45015S.HTM#1

The Organization of American States (OAS) is holding the Seventh Summit of the Americas in Panama City. It opened on Friday, April 10 and will conclude Saturday, April 11. The OAS is headquartered in Washington, DC and was brought into being as an instrument of U.S. domination in the Americas on April 30, 1948 on an anti-communist basis, to oppose the people's aspirations by undermining the progressive and communist forces in the region.

The Summit is presided over by outgoing Secretary General José Miguel Insulza. He will be replaced on May 26 by Luis Almagro, who was elected as the new Secretary General on March 19. Almagro served as Uruguay's Foreign Minister under President José Mujica (2010-2015). The Summit takes place every three years. The OAS website says it "offers the opportunity for countries to jointly define a hemispheric agenda at the highest level to address urgent challenges and propel positive change."

The central theme the Heads of State and Government of the Americas are addressing this year is "Prosperity with Equity: The Challenge of Cooperation in the Americas," within which there are several sub-themes including education, health, energy, environment, migration, security, citizen participation and democratic governance.

The OAS website says nothing about the growing opposition facing the U.S. imperialists. Latin American news agencies widely report that the main issue on the agenda is to hold the U.S. to account for its long history of interference in the region. Most notably, U.S. President Barack Obama is being held to account for his March 9 executive order and sanctions claiming Venezuela is a threat to the U.S.


Placard at People's Summit demands Obama rescind his decree against Venezuela.

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino pointed out on March 25 that the U.S. government has budgeted U.S.$1.9 billion in 2016 for the promotion of so-called freedom of the press in Cuba, Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua, amongst other unsavoury activities. Patino insisted that the U.S. stop making such "ridiculous proposals" if it wants to have a "friendly" Summit of the Americas.

The hostility toward the anti-Venezuela decree indicates that the hidebound U.S. imperialists have clearly not learned the lesson from the sharp rebuke they received in 2009, when attempts to isolate Cuba utterly backfired and the 1962 resolution expelling Cuba from the OAS was overturned. While Cuba has warmly welcomed the broad support represented by the rescinding of the 1962 resolution, it has repeatedly made clear that it considers the OAS fundamentally flawed and that it will not return to the body. Instead it will be putting its weight behind other regional bodies that genuinely defend the interests of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. While it will participate in the meeting of heads of state at the Summit, as well as four parallel forums for social, youth, business and university sectors, it will not retake its seat in the OAS.

Prensa Latina reports that the OAS has given credentials to figures from different Cuban and Venezuelan anti-government groupings financed by the United States and inserted by Washington and the OAS as part of the designated civil society component of the Summit. Some two dozen Cuban counterrevolutionaries (residents in Cuba and abroad and financed from abroad) are authorized to participate in the social forum, while others are likely included in other U.S. NGOs opposed to Cuba. Organizations such as the Hostosian National Independentist Movement of Puerto Rico, as well as environmental groups, trade unions, the Cuban delegation to the Civil Society Forum and other groups were not given standing.


Cuban President Raúl Castro shakes hands with U.S. President Obama. Cuba's presence at the OAS is a great achievement, a product of the region's unanimous demand that Cuba be included.

Canadians should be vigilant of developments at the Summit of the Americas, not only being at the ready to defend the sovereignty of all countries from U.S. imperialism, but also to reject any Canadian support for U.S. imperialist intrigues.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has expressed a desire to meet with Cuban President Raúl Castro during the Summit, although in 2012, the U.S. and Canada were the only two OAS members to oppose Cuba's participation in the 2015 Summit. Harper, notorious for his virulent anti-communism, did not say what he might speak about with President Castro. Under the Harper government, Canada has gained notoriety for the provocative, uncouth and undiplomatic manner in which the Prime Minister and former Foreign Minister John Baird have conducted themselves in international fora.

In recent years, the rise of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), has signalled the end of the OAS, with various governments referring to it as an unburied corpse. Faced with an agenda it cannot control, it seems that the U.S. and its lackey Canada are trying to sabotage the Summit. Already, reports are emerging that even before the Summit began, Canada and the U.S. colluded to block a final statement for the Summit from being issued.

Under the Harper government, Canada's servility to monopoly right and U.S. imperialist interests in Latin America and the Caribbean has only intensified. Canadians must reject the Harperites' humiliation of Canada as a toady of U.S. imperialism.


Press conference held by Cuban delegation to OAS Summit, April 8, 2015.
(With files from Prensa Latina, TeleSUR, CP; Photos I. Francisco, CubaDebate.)

[The Intransigent Faction]

Often, when I've seen this subject raised in the media or in conversations, there has been a distinct tone of resentment among the petty bourgeoisie. There's a sense of a loss of relative privilege for Canadian tourists in Cuba with the restoration of U.S.-Cuba diplomatic relations.