The lone country in the hemisphere that's not a member of the Organization of American States -- Cuba -- promises to take center stage here, as more and more Latin American nations insist that the days of the communist country's isolation should be numbered.
The Fifth Summit of the Americas appears to be just the forum hemispheric leaders have chosen to raise the contentious issue. The summit was first held in Miami 15 years ago, but this is the first time pressure has been so strong to bring Cuba back into the regional alliance.
''I want to be clear: I want Cuba back in the Interamerican system,'' OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza said. ``I think it was a bad idea in the first place. . . . Cuba is a member of the OAS. Its flag is there.''
Insulza has supported Cuba's reincorporation into the group before, but experts say he often ''played footsie'' with the divisive topic and failed to outline a clear position.
In an interview Thursday with The Miami Herald, the organization's chief said he unequivocally supports Cuba's renewed membership in the OAS -- despite a democracy clause adopted by the group in 2001.
Thirty-four heads of government will arrive in Trinidad for a three-day summit that starts Friday, ostensibly to discuss issues such as energy, security and climate change. Two elephants in the room -- Cuba and the global economic crisis -- promise to dominate the agenda.
Insulza stressed he hoped the Cuba issue would be pushed back to the OAS General Assembly to be held in Honduras in June, and not be taken up here.
Cuba was suspended from the OAS at Washington's behest in 1962. The reason: its alliance with the Soviet Union.
`BAD IDEA'
Insulza said that since the grounds for Cuba's suspension are outdated and were a ''bad idea in the first place,'' the hemisphere's last remaining communist nation should be welcomed back, despite an OAS clause that says the people of the Americas ``have a right to democracy and their governments have an obligation to promote and defend it.''
Insulza said he was ``concerned that we still have standing a resolution that punishes a country for being a member of the Soviet-Chinese axis, for being Marxist-Leninist and several other things from the cold war.''
The secretary general's position will be difficult for some member states to accept, particularly since the organization adopted the democratic charter with much fanfare. Insulza acknowledged that the democratic charter would be hard for Cuba to swallow.
''Since Obama's election, Insulza has openly joined the ranks of Latin American leaders calling for Cuba to be included in the Inter-American system, although Cuba's full membership in the OAS would need to be reconciled with the Inter-American Democratic Charter signed in 2001,'' said Cuba expert Daniel P. Erikson, author of the recent book The Cuba Wars.
'If Cuba became a full member without accepting democratic standards and norms, it would badly weaken the OAS' credibility as a defender of democracy in the hemisphere.''
Retired Cuban leader Fidel Castro has already rejected the notion of reintegration into the organization.
''Insulza claims that, to enter the OAS, Cuba first has to be accepted by that institution,'' Castro wrote in a recent news column. ``He knows that we don't even want to hear the infamous name of that institution. It has not provided a single service to our people; it is the incarnation of betrayal. If you add up all the aggressive actions in which it was an accomplice, they amount to hundreds of lives and tens of bloody years.''
Castro's brother Raúl, who replaced him as president 14 months ago, spent the day Thursday in Venezuela with President Hugo Chávez, who held his own pre-summit meeting with his closest allies. Late Thursday, Castro indicated he would be open to talks with the United States but did not promise any action.
Chávez has said the region's more leftist governments are ''preparing their artillery'' to take up Cuba's cause at the summit.
`ON THE TABLE'
''We're going to Trinidad and Tobago to put that issue on the table,'' Chávez said.
Chávez said he would veto the final declaration due to be issued by this weekend's summit. The declaration is essentially an agreement signed by the 34 member nations of the OAS to outline necessary actions needed to advance common causes in the hemisphere.
A statement from Chávez said the document, on which the conference is based, was completely out of context as if ``no time had passed.''
Meanwhile the ''Ladies in White'' dissident group of spouses and moms of political prisoners in Cuba sent a letter to summit presidents, urging them to commit themselves to democracy and seek the release of political prisoners.
''We are not ghosts,'' the letter said.
Participants at the Fifth Summit of the Americas agreed that Washington was going to find itself cornered.
''You are seeing the whole international community pushing for this thing,'' said Khafra Kambon, a Trinidadian who runs a cultural organization. ``The thing Obama did allowing travel could ease the pressure that's building up by making a concession -- and it could also give people the sensation: This thing is moving.''
Obama's move was widely applauded.
''For Guatemala, every action Obama takes to get closer to Cuba, and every action that gets closer to ending the blockade has our support,'' said Fernando Barillas, spokesman for Guatemala's president, Alvaro Colom. ``Cuba has the support of Guatemala -- and the rest of Latin America.''
The United States is the only country in the hemisphere that does not maintain diplomatic relations with Cuba.
The last holdouts, Costa Rica and El Salvador, recently renewed ties with Havana.
''It's an important step forward, small but important,'' Colin Granderson, assistant secretary general for the regional Caribbean Community bloc, said of Obama's new travel measures. ``It will open the way to dialogue between the United States and Cuba, because Cuba has said it is willing to dialogue and the U.S. has said it is willing to dialogue.
``There needs to be dialogue -- Things can't go forward between the two without it.''
Miami Herald staff writer Jacqueline Charles contributed to this report.
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