Almost exactly three years ago, on the occasion of the 6th Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia, we published an editorial opining that if President Barack Obama were re-elected in November of that year, that might herald “a new process of engagement” with Cuba. In that respect, we expressed the hope that, “with no prospect of a third presidential term and unhampered by the need to pander to domestic political considerations on Cuba, he [would] have the audacity to put an end to 50 years of American pique and lift the state of siege, thereby removing the justification for the resistance of Cuba’s ageing rulers to a new infusion of ideas and energy, technology and capital.”
As is now well known, President Obama and President Raúl Castro of Cuba announced a historic agreement, on December 17, 2014, after 18 months of secret negotiations, to signal a process of rapprochement between their two countries. While it seems that huge credit must go to Mr Obama for being bold enough to take this step in the face of a hostile, Republican-dominated Congress and continuing criticism from some quarters in the United States, equal commendation should be heaped on Mr Castro for reciprocating Mr Obama’s diplomatic advances. After all, it takes two to tango or, in this case, mambo.
And so it came to pass that in Panama, last week, at the 7th Summit of the Americas, the USA and Cuba sat at the same conference table along with the other 33 independent nations of the hemisphere; Mr Obama and Mr Castro dined together with their colleagues; the two leaders shook each other’s hand and they held the first presidential bilateral meeting between the two countries since the freeze in relations 54 years ago. The momentous nature of this aspect of the 7th Summit cannot be overemphasised; indeed, it will long be remembered as the occasion for healing a festering sore left over from the Cold War.
In applauding Mr Obama’s courageous move “to try something new” though, we must also be cognisant of the counterpoint offered by Mr Castro’s equally sensible affirmation of the need for “a lot of patience.” The normalisation of relations between the two countries is undoubtedly a complicated process and will inevitably have its ups and downs, but the overwhelming sense coming out of Panama is that it is now irreversible.
Already, since leaving Panama, Mr Obama has made good on his promise to remove Cuba from the State Department’s list of sponsors of terrorism. The way is now clear for the full restoration of diplomatic relations and the reopening of embassies in Havana and Washington. The US Congress has 45 days, counting from Tuesday’s announcement, before the order takes effect, but it cannot interfere with the decision without voting on separate legislation, a measure that the White House has deemed unlikely.
The carefully choreographed diplomatic dance in Panama was nearly upstaged, however, by Cuba’s closest ally in Latin America, Venezuela, with its temperamental President Nicolás Maduro and other members of the Venezuela-led Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) taking the Obama administration to task for its heavy-handed response to the deteriorating situation in Venezuela. Interestingly enough, their diatribes against the “empire” were launched after Mr Obama had delivered his plenary address and had left the conference room for the highly anticipated and historic bilateral meeting with Mr Castro.
Thankfully, Mr Maduro’s histrionics and the strident rhetoric of Presidents Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Rafael Correa could not and did not overshadow the reportedly cordial exchanges between Mr Obama and Mr Castro, with the latter giving his leftist counterparts an object lesson in statesmanship and diplomacy.
The Summit was undoubtedly a triumph for the two former adversaries, the USA and Cuba. It is therefore an unfortunate irony that, just as one obstacle to greater hemispheric cooperation and harmony is being removed, the spectre of another long-running rift has arisen. Perhaps, as Cuba’s return to the hemispheric fold is cemented, the virtues of mutually respectful dialogue will be fully appreciated and will prevail.
