Cuba is proud to be outside of the OAS

CARACAS, May 25 (PL).— Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said today that his country is very proud to be outside of the Organization of American States (OAS), a mechanism he described as anachronistic.

In talks with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, after a meeting of foreign ministers of the ALBA bloc (Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of Our America), Rodríguez affirmed that Cuba does not need to be a member of the OAS.

There is no discussion about Cuba’s re-entry into the OAS, which historically has been an instrument of the United States, and still is today, Rodríguez stated.

The foreign minister affirmed that it is time for the new era that has opened up in Latin America and the Caribbean to spread to the OAS.

"One way or another, the OAS is totally anachronistic; it serves other interests, and we feel that our path, Cuba’s path, is one of Latin American and Caribbean integration, without a presence from outside the continent," the minister emphasized.

It is in relation to that principle that Cuba observed with great interest and hopes the processes in Salvador de Bahía in December and other important meetings where Latin American and Caribbean integration was established as a principle, and a perspective was opened up in this respect, he noted.

"That is why I think that this meeting of the ALBA today has been a fruitful and productive one, not just because of the discussion of these issues on the international agenda, but in our own process of genuine autochthonous integration, of our peoples and of our governments, who are working for our peoples and not for the empire," he concluded.