OAS' Cuba move touches off outcry

Furious members of Congress on Wednesday threatened to cut off funding for the Organization of American States after top diplomats gathered here for its annual assembly repealed Cuba's suspension from the hemispheric group, ending a decades-old remnant of the Cold War.

''The OAS is a putrid embarrassment,'' declared U.S. Reps. Mario and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, both Miami Republicans, in a joint statement.

The lifting of Cuba's 1962 suspension was the result of weeks of back-room brokering, plus an hours-long private meeting in San Pedro Sula with foreign ministers, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

It ended Wednesday with the OAS' leftist bloc accepting a paragraph that refers to Cuba abiding by ''practices, purposes and principles of the OAS,'' words that Cuba's allies had just the night before flat-out rejected, sources close to the negotiations said.

In the end, representatives on both sides gathered here declared victory, although Cuba's rejoining the organization will not be automatic.

Cuban-American members of Congress blasted the move as a betrayal.

''Far from strengthening the OAS, today's resolution flies in the face of the organization's founding charter,'' Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, also a Miami Republican, said. ''No U.S. taxpayer funds should go towards supporting this sham of an organization that once prided itself on its historic commitment to democracy and human rights.''

Retracting Cuba's suspension does not mean the hemisphere's last communist country automatically rejoins an organization that prides itself in being the region's leading promoter of human rights and democracy.

The resolution lifting Cuba's suspension says Cuba has to take the next step by initiating dialogue with the OAS and its participation would be ''in conformity with the practices, purposes and principles of the OAS,'' a key paragraph that Washington lobbied to include.

But sources close to the talks said that, faced with pressure from Cuba's allies, the U.S. State Department was forced to drop its appeal to include a specific reference to the OAS's 2001 Inter-American Democratic Charter, which calls for its member states to embrace democracy.

The United States said the decision was a solid step in the right direction, and credited Clinton for helping craft an agreement that just weeks ago would have contained no references to OAS core values.

''Today's resolution was an act of statesmanship,'' said Thomas Shannon, the State Department's top diplomat in the hemisphere, who was recently named ambassador to Brazil. ''Today, we addressed and bridged an historic divide in the Americas while reaffirming our profound commitment to democracy and the fundamental human rights of our peoples.''

Clinton added in a statement: ''I am pleased that everyone came to agree that Cuba cannot simply take its seat.''

Cuba has publicly reiterated that