Door is open, but will Cuba walk through?
OUR OPINION: If Cuba fails to accept democracy, it does not belong in the OAS
Now that the hemisphere's diplomats have opened the door for the readmission of Cuba to the OAS, the question is whether Cuba is ready to come in from the cold. Don't bet on it.

As a practical matter, the decision changes very little. Acting by consensus after some hard bargaining behind closed doors, the Organization of American States lifted the 1962 suspension of Cuba, but it made clear that returning to the fold would mean accepting ''the practices, purposes and principles of the OAS.'' That should be easy enough for most countries -- but not for Cuba.

The reason that Cuba was drummed out of the OAS to begin with is that it had forsaken all pretense of abiding by the democratic principles that led to the founding of the organization. For decades, it sought to sabotage democratic governments throughout the hemisphere, a practice that continued until the Cold War ended and its Soviet patron disappeared.

Today, it remains the only country in the hemisphere whose leaders have never faced -- and dare not face -- a democratic election. The government routinely tramples on human rights and denies the most basic political freedoms, from free expression to the right of assembly and all forms of dissent.

The Obama administration is right to claim that engagement is a better policy than isolation, but we would have preferred stronger, enforceable conditions to readmit Cuba. This compromise ignores a totalitarian regime's strangulation of its people's basic human rights for 50 years. Cuba owes its isolation not to any maneuvering or machiavellian schemes emanating from Washington, but rather its own anti-democratic stance. That makes Cuba the odd man out, and Fidel and Raúl Castro doubtless prefer it that way.

To the end, Venezuela and Nicaragua fought to lift Cuba's suspension unconditionally, leaving a path open to readmission without any action on the part of the Castro goverment to amend its behavior or acknowledge the validity of democratic principles.

The failure of this initiative indicates that Cuba and its OAS allies have little to crow about.

There is undoubtedly a new and growing attitude of independence and assertiveness by the nations of the hemisphere against domination by Washington, as indicated by the gesture to lift Cuba's suspension. The Obama administration has worked deftly with regional countries to ensure that this does not become an obstacle to improvement of relations with our neighbors.

As long as OAS members continue to uphold and champion democratic principles, they should have no argument with the United States. The argument is with those who do not accept democracy and human rights, and they reside in Havana.
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