Cuba is closer to Organization of American States, but not our shared principles

The 34-country Organization of American States' historic decision to lift its 1962 suspension of Cuba was the easy part. Now comes the real challenge: getting the OAS to demand that Cuba's dictatorship abide by the group's democracy clauses before the island can rejoin the organization.

That won't happen anytime soon, and you and I know it.

Unless Cuba's military regime decides to allow free elections, or the Obama administration decides to shelve its stated commitment to democracy in the Americas, the OAS decision at its General Assembly on Wednesday amounts to postponing the debate on Cuba's readmission.

According to the consensus agreement that was celebrated by all member countries -- including the United States -- as a ''historic'' achievement, the OAS lifted the more-than-four-decade-old suspension of Cuba, rooted in the Cold War, and started a process of inviting Cuba to rejoin the group based on the ''practices, purposes and principles'' of the OAS.

MIXED INTERPRETATIONS

But while Wednesday's decision gave a propaganda victory to Venezuela, Ecuador, Nicaragua and other admirers of Cuba's military regime, and while the Obama administration gave significant ground from its earlier effort to set conditions to lift Cuba's suspension, the devil may be in the details of Wednesday's consensus document.

The resolution, in addition to lifting Cuba's suspension, states that ''Cuba's participation in the OAS will result from a process of dialogue started at the request of Cuba's government and according to the practices, purposes and principles of the OAS,'' the organization said in a statement.

U.S. officials said this means that to take the next step and become a full OAS member, Cuba would have to honor the group's 1966 Democratic Charter, which requires that member states abide by ''essential elements of representative democracy.''

The OAS Charter is pretty specific. Article 3 says that these ''essential elements'' include ''respect for human rights,'' holding ''periodic, free and fair elections based on secret balloting,'' and having a ''pluralistic system of political parties.''

Cuban President Gen. Raúl Castro and his brother Fidel, who still commands significant power, have repeatedly said they will not allow political parties, free elections or freedom of speech. To protect themselves from such pressures, they have said they don't want to be part of the OAS, claiming that the group is a ''puppet of U.S. imperialism.''

But Latin American countries may interpret Wednesday's agreement differently, and say that Cuba already abides by the OAS' overall principles, and that its deviations from some OAS rules are no worse than Washington's trade embargo on Cuba. Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Wednesday that he is optimistic that OAS member countries will find a way to readmit Cuba to the