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Last Latin American Nation
Resumes Diplomatic
Ties With Cuba
Havana - With the resumption of
diplomatic relations with El Salvador on Monday,
Cuba now has restored formal ties with all Latin
American countries.
El Salvador's move followed the restoration of
diplomatic ties between Cuba and Costa Rica in March
this year.
The historical agreement on the re-establishment of
relations was signed in Salvador, capital of El
Salvador, by Salvadorean Foreign Minister Hugo
Martinez and Cuban Vice Foreign Minister Alejandro
Gonzalez, in the presence of El Salvador's new
president Mauricio Funes.
"This is an event that leads El Salvador to reach
the level of the times and to surpass its historical
debts with Cuba... a step that should have been
taken long ago. At no time should the ties with Cuba
be interrupted," Martinez said.
Cuban Vice President of the Council of State Esteban
Lazo said the event was a victory of the people that
had been able to "surpass pressures and threats to
make a choice with mind and heart."
With the restoration of ties with Cuba, Funes, who
was sworn in as El Salvador's president on Monday,
fulfilled a promise during his campaign to renew
ties with the Caribbean island nation.
El Salvador severed ties with Cuba in 1961 when the
United States pressed countries in the region to cut
ties with the island.
As part of Washington's isolation campaign against
Cuba, Havana was also excluded from the Organization
of American States (OAS) in 1962.
Latin American countries, however, have gradually
restored relations with Cuba, and by 2009, only two
countries in the region-- Costa Rica and El Salvador
-- had had no diplomatic relations with Cuba.
In March, Costa Rica restored ties with the
Caribbean island nation, saying that "today the
world is completely different from those days."
Salvadorean Vice President and Education Minister
Salvador Sanchez Ceren said the severing of ties
with Cuba "was one of the biggest mistakes" in his
country's foreign policy.
Even without diplomatic ties between El Salvador and
Cuba over the past years, 515 Salvadorean students
have graduated from Cuban schools and more than 800
are being trained in the country, most of them as
health professionals, according to local media
reports.
Analysts say that for Cuba, the restoration of ties
with El Salvador means the consolidation of its
successful diplomacy, and for El Salvador, this
could mean the beginning of a series of social
programs with Cuban support.
Meanwhile, the United States has taken steps to
readjust its policy towards Cuba, with Latin
American countries calling for direct dialogues
between Washington and Havana and Cuba's return to
the OAS. |
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