By Víctor Carriba, Special Envoy of Prensa Latina to the Panama Summit in 2015
Havana, Jun 6 (Prensa Latina) After more than half a century of exclusion from the Organization of American States (OAS) and an absence of 20 years at the summits of Americans, Cuba was invited in 2015 to participate in those meetings which are held every four years.
And he did it without conditions and in the person of one of the main protagonists of the 1959 Revolution, Army General Raúl Castro, at that time as head of state of the largest Antillean island.
The handshake and the first official meeting between the Cuban president and the then US president Barack Obama in Panama on April 11, 2015 marked a milestone in the long discrimination suffered by the Caribbean country due to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the northern power since 1960.
That exchange between the two rulers specified the starting point of the effort, first, to reestablish diplomatic relations (an idea that became a reality three months after the meeting in Panama), and then move towards the normalization of non-existent ties for more than half a century.
«It was time for me to speak here on behalf of Cuba» and «they owe me six summits from which they excluded us.» This is how Raúl Castro began the speech at the premiere of his country in the continental forum that for the first time brought together the 35 States of the continent at the same table.
The inclusion of Cuba in that conclave was the result of a generalized and energetic Latin American and Caribbean demand the danger that ignoring, that claim represented for the very existence of the Summits of the Americas.
«I appreciate the solidarity of all the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean that made it possible for Cuba to participate on an equal footing in this hemispheric forum,» said Raúl Castro in the presence of the head of the White House, for whom he had words of appreciation for his decision to move towards a new era in relations with the largest of the Antilles.
In Panama, the Cuban head of state said that Obama had no responsibility in his country’s history of attacks and aggressions against Cuba.
But that approach was cut short after the arrival of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States (2017 and 2021) and the application of hundreds of coercive measures that strongly intensified the blockade of more than six decades.
Speaking to the journalists who covered the first official meeting between the highest authorities of both countries, the US president thanked Raúl Castro «for the spirit of openness shown towards us.»
Everything can be discussed if it is done with respect for the ideas of the other party, including the issues on which they disagree, the Cuban president pointed out that, there are many differences in the complicated history between the two countries, «but we are willing to move forward ”.
For his part, Obama maintained that «after 50 years in which we had not changed the policy, we had to try something new… we are beginning the road to the future and to leave behind the circumstances of the past.»
However, Raúl Castro pointed out on that occasion that the blockade is applied against Cuba in all its intensity, “it causes damage and shortcomings to the people and is the essential obstacle to the development of our economy. It constitutes a violation of International Law and its extraterritorial scope affects the interests of all States”.
Cuba was expelled from the OAS in 1962 and has repeatedly insisted that it does not intend or want to return to that organization controlled by the United States.
One thing is certain: both presidents made the Panamanian summit historic.
"An Island on a Continent" 