All Blog Posts from World Watch

Despite decades of harshly criticizing the Organization of American States as a puppet of Washington, Cuban TV welcomed today's scrapping by OAS Foreign Ministers of the 1962 resolution excluding the island from active membership.

For 47 years, the Cuban flag has been displayed along with those of the other member countries but its seat has remained empty, barred as an "undemocratic" state. However, with the exception of the United States, all the rest of the countries in the Western Hemisphere now maintain normal diplomatic and trade relations with the Castro Government. And as the OAS debated what to do about Cuba, the President of Paraguay began an official visit to the island.

The state-sponsored Mesa Redonda, an early evening political talk show, broadcast the adoption by consensus, described by the Honduran Foreign Minister Patricia Rodas as "the beginning of a new history" for the regional organization.

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The ground under U.S. policy toward Cuba took a significant shift today.

Mauricio Funes was inaugurated as President of El Salvador and, as announced previously, he immediately restored diplomatic relations with Havana. That left Washington as the odd man out, the only country in the Americas without normal relations with its Caribbean neighbor and long-time thorn in its side.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in San Salvador for Funes' assumption of power, was nevertheless very upbeat in remarks to the press. She described the Obama administration's May 22 offer to resume bilateral migration talks with Cuba as "part of our effort to forge a new way forward on Cuba that advances the interests of the United States, the Cuban people and our entire hemisphere," adding that the Administration was "very pleased" with the Cuba's acceptance of the offer.

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