HOME	Your Most Trusted Source of Foreign News and Views About the United States

Original Article (Spanish)

By Marina Menéndez Quintero

October 16, 2005

Ibero-American Leaders Issued a Collective Slap at U.S. Policy Toward Cuba.

I differ from those who contend that the discussion - of semantics - between the words blockade and embargo, was a needless expense of energy at the 15^th Summit of Salamanca [the 15^th Annual Ibero-American Summit].

For those looking beyond the letters, the difference between the two words is not a matter of form, but of essence. And in a world subject to such pressures as ours, it isn't possible to deny that it is commendable to speak without subterfuge and with transparency.

When pronouncing, with all its letters, words against the political genocide of the United States against Cuba, the Ibero-American Summit touched earth, finally, with both hands, and put its finger on the wound of one of the longest and most scandalous injustices against any nation in Ibero-America.

The appearance at the meeting of some backbone is all to the good. If there has been anything that has characterized Ibero-American leaders up to now, it has been their failure to face up to their responsibilities, and their habit of laying down like lambs in the face of wrongdoing.

Cuban Anti-Blockade Poster

Three lustrums [five year periods, or 15 years] after the Ibero-American Summit's inauguration, the intentions that first animated the group's creation, to foster cooperation and to safeguard the principles of coexistence, have been hindered by those seeking to undermine it on this side of the planet [the United States].

Although it is important that the Summits maintain their defense of sovereignty and national integrity, it is more important that they contribute more financially and put forward policies that, at the very least, address ancient evils like poverty: and no longer allow Summit participants to issue final statements without taking real action to address the issues discussed.

With good reason, many people today request less talk and more action over an issue [the blockade] that reunites the former American colonies with their old possessors: Spain and Portugal. I count myself among those that think so.

Cuban Children Protest Out of Their Own Free Will ... NOT!

Nevertheless, when using for the first time the word blockade to demand – and this is new - that Washington end the siege against Cuba, the 15th Ibero-American Summit seems to have left behind the lethargy of empty gestures. Perhaps it is the urgency prompted by Washington's use of a policy so obviously criminal that it will not brook further delay, a policy that has been rejected 13 times by the United Nations General Assembly. Or perhaps it is also a certain fatigue - Latin American and European – in the face of interference from the United States.

It was this unjust policy, more than anything else, that inspired the formation of a group to equal the bossy presence of the United States. Then the whole of Ibero-America ended their session with yet another sampling from that great power.

Although Washington later issued a press release rectifying its original statement, declaring that "the United States has no comment on the content of the final statement of the 15th Ibero-American Summit," the American Embassy in Madrid had already addressed the delicate issue, the day before yesterday, when one of its officials expressed concern at the acceptance of Cuba's proposal to insert the blockade into the final statement. 

Why did the American Embassy collect up its ball of string later? [withdraw it's statement of disapproval?] Who knows! The one thing that is certain is that Washington removed its arm when, across of the table, Ibero-America accepted the challenge by, for once, tightening its fist and planting its elbow ... without flinching.