However, in recent months, and with the Summit of the Americas coming up, Insulza added Cuba to his wish list.  Repeatedly, Insulza has expressed his deep desire to facilitate any future “conversations” between the U.S. and Cuba, and has promised to play an important role in “returning Cuba to the OAS.”

Hard facts that are not mentioned as the fight (albeit a very diplomatic one, of course) over who is in charge of the ‘Cuban affaire’ unfolds behind the scenes.

The new US administration needs a place where it can show its goodwill, and its intention to at least evaluate the embargo, without treating it as a political issue, and the Summit provides just such an opportunity. In addition, the Summit allows the US to address the current pressure by Latin American countries, and the almost natural support from the Caribbean nations towards Cuba.

Nevertheless, the Obama administration’s choice of the Summit of the Americas as its main tool to engage with Cuba is a strange one. The Summit was established in 1994 to create a FTAA, but today, with so many bilateral free trade agreements in place, it does not have much of a reason to exist.

The disproportionate importance given to the Summit may stem from a more general confusion.

Strictly speaking, the more appropriate forum should be the Organization of American States, where Cuba remains a member (although it was suspended in 1962, nearly forty years before the OAS adopted an Inter-American Democratic Charter pledging that all states in the Americas would be democratic). In contrast, the Summit is is a purely commercial and financial endeavour where the Organization of American States and its 34 member states function under the umbrella of the ‘inter-American system’ (which includes the Inter-American Development Bank, the Pan-American Health Organization, and similar organizations).  The Summit, however, already has too many mandates, many of which it cannot address.

The OAS recently intervened in another bilateral dispute, after Ecuador accused Colombia of sending military forces across their joint border and violating its sovereignty.  Until now, the mediation of the OAS (and Secretary-General Insulza) has been a failure.  The two countries have achieved more in private talks that anything through the OAS.  This shouldn’t be a surprise, since the OAS Mission to Support the Peace Process in Colombia (MAPP/OAS), is funded by Plan Colombia.

A 2005 report by Human Rights Watch has the following to say about the MAPP/OAS:

Until now, conflicting versions about the real intentions of Cuba has been fulled by the fact that Insulza claims that Raul Castro told him that Cuba wanted to return to the OAS, while the Cubans consistently refutes it.

Just as the Summit is set to begin, Fidel Castro made that more than abundantly clear:

Insulza says that to enter the OAS, Cuba first has to be accepted by the institution. He knows that we do not want to even hear the infamous name of this institution. It [the OAS] has never provided any service to our people, and it is the embodiment of betrayal. If you add up all the aggressive actions of which it was an accomplice, they reach hundreds of thousands of lives, and tens of years of accumulated blood. Their meeting [the Summit] will be a battleground that will embarrass many governments. Do not say, however, that Cuba throws the first stone. We are even offended by the assumption that we are eager to join the OAS. That train passed a long time ago, and Insulza has not found out yet.