National Post.
Canada, March 19, 2001.
When the Summit of the Americas takes place in Quebec City next month, only
one nation in the Western Hemisphere will be excluded: Cuba. The omission is
worth noting. Though Cuba is a dictatorship that has been suspended from the
Organization of American States since 1962, many countries have made great
efforts over the years to rehabilitate the nation's diplomatic standing. The
romantic view that Fidel Castro, Cuba's dictator, is simply a people's
revolutionary who ran afoul of the United States is remarkably stubborn. Witness
the apparently serious gesture of Hallgeir Langeland, a Norwegian
parliamentarian, who has nominated the dictator for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize.
Canada has been among the world's worst offenders in this respect. At the
1994 Summit of the Americas in Miami, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien said
it was hypocritical for the OAS to exclude Cuba. In 1998, he personally visited
Cuba and said he would like Mr. Castro to attend the 2001 Summit of the
Americas. In 1999, he declared the nation should be welcomed into the "gran
familia" of the Americas. But on Thursday, John Manley, Canada's Minister
of Foreign Affairs, told a parliamentary committee that he agrees Mr. Castro
should be barred from attending next month's meeting in Quebec City. "Cuba
is not ready to participate in the summit," Mr. Manley said, "because
it lacks a commitment to democratic principles."
Mr. Manley's statement is part of a welcome trend. In the last two years,
Canada's relationship with Mr. Castro has cooled considerably. It has become
obvious to Ottawa that its policy of engaging the Havana regime has had little,
if any, positive impact on human rights. According to Human Rights Watch, "Despite
a few positive developments ... the Cuban government's human rights practices
[are] generally arbitrary and repressive. Hundreds of peaceful opponents of the
government remained behind bars, and many more were subject to short-term
detentions, house arrest, surveillance, arbitrary searches, evictions, travel
restrictions, politically motivated dismissals from employment, threats and
other forms of harassment." Cuba is different from such countries as Haiti
and Colombia, which have poor human rights records but at least embrace
democracy in theory. Under Mr. Castro's Communist regime, there is no freedom of
the press, and political dissidents are routinely imprisoned, including four who
were sentenced to lengthy jail terms in 1999 despite Mr. Chrétien's
personally voiced protests.
There was a time when Cuba was just one of many Latin American
dictatorships. Now, however, it sticks out like a sore thumb. In Quebec City,
members of the OAS are expected to consider making adherence to democratic
principles a prerequisite for OAS membership. It is also expected that
dictatorships such as Cuba will be excluded from the free trade agreement -- the
Free Trade Area of the Americas -- that delegates will discuss. Those who still
doubt the link between globalization and democracy should take a good look at
the vignette that plays out in Quebec City. While his democratic neighbours
build a trade framework that benefits every nation in the Western Hemisphere
save his, Mr. Castro will be stewing, by himself, in Havana.
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