MEDELLIN, COLOMBIA 1-3 June 2008 OAS holds 38th General Assembly. Cuba and Malvinas the pressing issues?

Government ministers and a few leaders from North, Central and South America and the Caribbean at the Organization of American States 38th General Assembly are likely to begin by applauding the organization for averting a war. They could feel pressed to reconsider Cuba, the 35th member, and worry about a new potential fight over the Malvinas (Falkland Islands) in the South Atlantic.

After Colombia, a close United States ally in Latin America, killed a leader of the country's biggest guerrilla group inside Ecuadorean territory on 1 Mar, Ecuador and Venezuela sent troops to the Colombian border and accused Colombian President Alvaro Uribe of following orders from Washington. The OAS succeeded in defusing a conflict that briefly roiled the Andes region.

Cuba has been suspended from participation since 1962. The question is whether the recent change of leadership is enough to move the OAS towards lifting the suspension on the agenda.

The high price of oil is all but certain to put the Malvinas (Falkland Islands), a relic of the British empire that is claimed by Argentina, high on the agenda. Britain and Argentina fought a five-month war there in 1982. The OAS refers to a peaceful resolution for the disputed islands as a "theme of permanent hemispheric interest." Oil has been discovered in the area. Drilling, now economically feasible there, is expected to commence in the next year. With an eye on the oil, Argentina's new president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, has taken a harder line on her country's claim. She meets British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in April to press that claim. Argentina has accused London and the Falklands of reneging on a 1995 agreement to co-operate over exploring offshore reserves. Mar/08

RELATED READING:

Drilling for oil to start in Falklands (Telegraph 9 Mar 2008)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/09/wfalk109.xml

OAS web
http://www.oas.org/