FOR CUBA, THE O.A.S. IS ALMOST BESIDE THE POINT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400130003-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 29, 2004
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: October 13, 1974
• Content Type: NSPR

YOR{ TIMES eI~J f~ .9 S {!
Approved For Release 2005/O/g 'i2~A~~77 ~fZ~P88-01315 =
- the United States from some of its major a n- er?can,
;. >> .
and O.A.'s., partrie= Peru, Argentina, Panama, Mexico. AI!
cultivated relations with Cuba.
The Kissinger `Dialogue'
vFo.r"'-uba, the .1,
or state Kissinger proposed
Mindful of this, Secretary
one year ago a new Hemisphere dialogue" starting with a
A ta convention of the organization's roreien ministers in 'Mexico
City last. February. The group met again in Atlanta in
April - and scheduled a further meeting for Buenos Aires
in March, 1975.
A ~. bst Beside a"ne knottiest issue on the a;enda from the , a n -
was that of Cuba. Ranged against the 13 or 14 14 Lanz
American states that comprise the pro-Cuba faction in the
O.A.S. are the conservative military-dominated governments
'" }? or Brazil, Cfact that aew and Uruguay. 1
?-~ The very fact that all o or the organization. members have
deferred since last year to consultations of the Hemisphere
By DAVID BINDER foreign ministers. would seem to imply that the o agar_ization
Itself was already a diplomatic fiction.
WASHINGTON--Fidel Castro once called the Oraaniza- `Would Canada consider joining the O.A.S?' a diplomatic ?
tion of American States "the whorehouse of imperialism." representative from the Ottawa Government, which attends
But the handsome vaulted, O.A.S. building with its palm organization sessions only to "observe" and which has
studded courtyard on the corner of 17th and Constitution never broken off relations with Cuba, was asked in Atlanta
in Washington looks much more like a retirement home last April. "Not bloody likely," was the reply. Judging
for the 23 ambassadors who meet there occasionally; from the polemics. of Mr. -Castro and his. aides, Cuba's
With few exceptions it'h-as always been like. this in the attitude would seem to be the same,
O.A.S. and its .predecessor groupings back to 1899 ',when Yet'the O.A.S.' remains as the only legitimate forum of
the first conference of American states was held in Wash the Latin-American and other Hemisphere states. Were the
ington.. Power was exercised by those who had power, O.A.S. to lift its sanctions in November and invite Cuba to l
principally the- United States, regardless of what ? high- become an active member in March, some: knowledgeable
minded officials of the Hemisphere organization said or did. observers believe Mr. Castro would do so. -
The outstanding exception often cited by O.A.S. defenders After all, Mr. Castro has been presenting himself simul-
occurred in July, 1969, when El Salvador and its neighbor,i taneously as a friend of the Soviet Union, a representative
Honduras, clashed over a series of soccer matches severed of the so-called Third World, a member of the nonalig eel.
relations and then actually went to war so bloodily that' grouping and a Latin-American patriot. Why not renew
more than 1,000 troops were kiIled..The O.A.S. stepped inj mem bersmp in the O.A.S. club as well? these observers ask.
crmly as a mediator and eventually persuaded both sides But the truth is that the Cuban question and some other
to quit fighting major issues are beyond the capacity of the organization.
.-Although inactive, Cuba still rates as one of 24 members; Some examples: The future of the Panama Canal, Vene-
of the organization, despite political and economic sanctions zuela s oil riches on a continent of want, and the seeming
voted against Havana in 1964. Now,, a majority of the other shift of Latin-American societies from left-wing diversity to
members plan to vote to lift the sanctions in a meeting of right-wing conformity.
foreign ministers in Quito, Ecuador, beginning Nov. S. The It is in this context that the end-of-September visit of
United States, will probably go along with the majority if Senators Jacob K. Javits and Claiborne Pell to Cuba ought
it is loft free to de ermine its own policy toward Cuba to be seen. They were warmly received by Mr. Castro as
.Sr. Castro's disillusionment with the organization began harbingers of a better relationship with Washington. He
with the abortive Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba sponsored released four of 33 American citizens held prisoner on his
by the United. States Central Intelligence. Agency in 1961. ,Island as a further "vesture of goodwill." Secretary Kissin-
It was a clear violation of the 1946 Treaty of Rio de Janeiro, gar called the Pell-Javits visit "very useful."
on which the O.A.S. is based. That.. treaty's declared pur- This would appear to mean that current. Hemisphere
"to id_ c; ecti ,, r