By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 9, 2019 — My Facebook reminder this morning was posted with the following caption: “Oswald, we care about you and the memories you share here. We thought you’d like to look back on this profile photo from 5 years ago.”
I can’t recall who took this photo, but it was taken five years ago in my office at the Embassy of The Bahamas in Washington, D.C., where I was Press, Cultural Affairs and Information Manager for four-plus years prior to the change of government after the May 10, 2017 general elections.
Having been a journalist since I had the good fortune to be hired in May of 1960 by the Nassau Daily Tribune and “tutored” daily by two of The Bahamas’ greatest journalists – Arthur A. Foulkes and Sir Etienne Dupuch – during my tenure at the Embassy, in addition to routine Embassy-related press releases, I had the very rewarding experience of covering the Organization of American States (OAS), which in some respects is a mini-United Nations.
My diplomatic tenure at the Embassy ranks extremely high among my enjoyable work-related experiences, and I thoroughly relished having the opportunity to cover the OAS on a regular basis. Of course, the fact that I was actively involved in politics in The Bahamas since the 1960s made the experience all the more enjoyable.
At the very first general assembly meeting of the OAS I attended, I realized just how important an organization like the OAS is to fostering civility among countries populated with peoples of different cultural backgrounds and diverse ideological and political views.
Those of us who are citizens of countries where democratic principles are the foundation of our laws — and hence govern our way of life — sometimes are prone to forget the important role that the United States of America has played and continues to play in preserving the tenets of democracy throughout the world.
Consider this excerpt on how the OAS was founded that was gleaned from an article on the Internet:
“The United States and twenty other governments in the Western Hemisphere signed the OAS charter in 1948 to increase regional security and commercial cooperation. Additionally, the United States hoped the new organization would serve as a bulwark against the spread of communism. Member states pledged to strengthen regional peace and security, promote representative democracy, and encourage economic and social cooperation. The OAS came into being a year after member states signed the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, known as the Rio Treaty, which established a defensive military alliance in the region. Since then, its membership has increased to thirty-five states; there are seventy permanent observers.”
Twenty-one member states met in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1948 to sign the OAS Charter. They included Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, United States of America, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Subsequently, the following 14 member states joined: Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago (1967); Jamaica (1969); Grenada (1975); Suriname (1977); Dominica and Saint Lucia (1979); Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (1981); The Bahamas (1982); St. Kitts & Nevis (1984); Canada (1990); Belize and Guyana (1991).
Cuba was suspended in 1962 for “not being democratic”, and although the suspension has been lifted, Cuba has not rejoined, so the OAS now has 34 members.
The Bahamas is one of the 15 Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries that are OAS members and they should have a lot of clout as a voting block with regard to decisions reached by the OAS, but as the current tough stand taken by the OAS against Venezuela in support of a United States-led effort to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has proven, CARICOM members do not always “speak with one voice.”
Prime Minister the Most Hon. Dr. Hubert Minnis was one of the five leaders of Caribbean nations — four of which are members of CARICOM — who were recently invited by U.S. President Donald Trump for a meeting at his Mar-a-Lago Palm Beach Resort because of their support for the U.S. sanctions against Venezuela.
Meanwhile, Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley strongly criticized those CARICOM leaders who met with President Trump and he led a delegation of other leaders of CARICOM countries to New York to discuss the Venezuelan crisis with officials of the United Nations rather than the OAS.
The unity of CARICOM may be put to a test again as a result of the current policies of the OAS towards Cuba. According to the OAS website, “The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS) will host a press conference by the NGO Cuban Prisoners Defenders (CPD)” on Tuesday, May 14, in the San Martín Room of the OAS headquarters at 17th Street and Constitution Avenue, N.W.
“During the event, CPD will present an international complaint that has submitted to different fora (the International Criminal Court, United Nations Committees, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and others) on serious human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed by the Cuban regime. The complaint refers to the thousands of Cuban medical personnel who are forced to serve in medical missions abroad, under conditions of slavery, for the economic benefit of the Cuban government,” according to the OAS website.
OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro will give the opening remarks, which will be followed by presentations by Carlos Rojas, Congressman for Granada, Congress of Deputies, Spain; Javier Larrondo, founder, Cuban Prisoners Defenders; Sebastián Rivero, criminal attorney and founder, Cuban Prisoners Defenders; and Blas Jesús Imbroda, former President of the Bar Association of the International Criminal Court (2017-2019).
Although the press conference is only being hosted by the OAS, it is interesting to note that virtually all of the CARICOM-member countries of the OAS have good diplomatic relations with Cuba.
Nonetheless, the OAS continues to demonstrate its diplomatic importance to CARICOM-member countries.
In 2018, the OAS sent “election observation missions to Ecuador, El Salvador, and Costa Rica, among other countries,” according to an article on the Internet.
“Other recent initiatives include partnering with the Brazilian government to provide humanitarian and employment assistance to tens of thousands of Venezuelan refugees in the country; collaborating with the World Trade Organization to promote sustainable tourism in the Americas; and assisting the governments of Chile, Colombia, Jamaica, Panama, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico to adopt national cybersecurity plans,” the article stated.
