Time to Include Cuba
Editorial
April 17, 2012
Los Angeles Times

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/17/opinion/la-ed-
cuba-summit-20120417

     The policy of banning Cuba from the Summit of the
     Americas for nearly 18 years is backfiring.

Once again, Cuba was absent from the Summit of the
Americas. Yet the communist nation might as well have
attended the gathering last weekend in Cartagena,
Colombia, because it took center stage, despite U.S.
efforts to focus on other issues.

Ecuador'spresident refused to attend the summit in
protest of Cuba's exclusion. Colombian President Juan
Manuel Santos and Brazil'sDilma Rouseff, both moderates
rather than left-wingers, said there should be no more
Summits of the Americas without Cuba. A leftist bloc of
nations that includes Venezuela, Nicaragua, Bolivia and
some Caribbean countries said it won't participate again
unless Cuba does. And the meeting ended without a final
joint declaration because the United States and Canada
refused to agree to language specifying that Cuba would
be invited to future summits.

The controversy should serve as a wake-up call to the
United States: The policy of banning Cuba from the
gathering of the hemisphere's leaders for nearly 18
years is backfiring. It hasn't led to regime change any
more than the 50-year-old U.S. trade embargo on Cuba
has; it hasn't persuaded President Raul Castro or,
before him, his brother Fidel to embrace democratic
reforms, hold free elections or abandon human rights
abuses. Instead, it has fueled frustration among Latin
leaders. Today, the United States is the only country in
the hemisphere that has not restored diplomatic
relations with Havana. Even the Organization of American
States, sometimes called an instrument of U.S. foreign
policy, cleared the way for Cuba to return to the group
in 2009.

The Obama administration has denied that its goal in
excluding Cuba is to keep Cuban American voters in
Florida happy during a presidential election year.
Whatever the reason, the position is not playing well
with leaders in the region, who see embargoes and
political isolation as anachronistic policies from the
Cold War era.

The United States should abandon its push to keep Cuba
from attending the Americas summit. Engagement, not
isolation, is the best way to encourage change without
alienating allies.

___________________________________________

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