Salsa superstar Ruben Blades, who has taken a break from his musical career to become Minister of Tourism in Panama, says that despite its announcement yesterday that it would not return to the OAS, “Cuba will rejoin the Organization of American States after a lot of emotion passes. There is a lot of emotion right now in the world,” said Blades, also a six-time Grammy Award winning singer. “So it’s a matter of processing. Eventually we will see a different scenario in Cuba as we have seen everywhere else.”
Officials in Cuba said yesterday that the nation would not apply for reinstatement in the organization, claiming that the organization is irrelevant. The OAS voted on June 3rd to lift its 47-year-old suspension of Cuba, a vote that reflected a compromise between Latin American leaders, eager for President Barack Obama to lift its trade embargo against Cuba, and the U.S., which has pressed the communist nation to carry out democratic reforms. The compromise requires Cuba to re-apply for membership and meet OAS standards for democracy and human rights.
Blades, 60, who announced last year that he would return to his musical career after his term as minister expires on June 30, said he is hopeful the Obama administration will improve U.S. relations with Latin America after the country committed “a lot of mistakes in terms of the way it handled foreign policy” in the region. “I do believe he is going to be able to create a good agenda for Latin America,” Blades said. “He managed to convey both proximity and at the same time authority” at the Trinidad and Tobago Summit of the Americas in April, he said.
“The scenario in Cuba is going to change and the way we judge other societies is also going to change,” Blades said. “I don’t think that the invitation now for Cuba to join is just an empty gesture. It is the result of an evolution that has been occurring for decades.”
Blades ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of Panama in 1994, but has not ruled out running again. “Now I have administrative experience, which I did not have in 1994,” Blades said. “Everything is a five cushion shot, you can have the ball in front of the hole but you can’t put it in there. This is the way bureaucracy is conceived.”
Blades, who won the 2002 world music Grammy for Mundo, is returning to his music. “I can’t afford another five years,” said Blades, adding he is returning to the private sector after accumulating debt as a public official. “I’ve got to do some of my own things.” The minister said he won’t take any official position in the next government but will help his successor, Salomon Shamah. “I don’t split my passions, because it makes me half or a third of what I am,” Blades said. “I have to concentrate in order to carry it through.”
The interview appears at http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aYQ98YhDbzQY&refer=latin_america
Photo: Getty Images. [Panama's Tourism minister, singer-songwriter Ruben Blades, holds an interview with the AFP at the ministry in Panama City, on March 11, 2008. Blades said he owes nothing to Puerto Rican salsa musician Willie Colon, who has sued him before a Puerto Rican court for 115,000 US dollars for a concert held five years ago. Blades also said he will return to music next year, when his term in office ends, to demonstrate he is one of the best exponents of salsa in the world.] http://www.daylife.com/photo/0acM4ARghCcTt
