Word: rios
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Technically, the OAS ministers are meeting to amend the 1947 Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (the Treaty of Rio), under which the embargo was initially imposed. The aim was to drop the two-thirds majority provision on the lifting of sanctions and replace it with a simple majority vote. The change requires a two-thirds majority, but at least 14 of the 21 Rio Treaty signers were expected to go along...
...attend a second OAS meeting where members will consider a resolution releasing them from their obligations under the embargo. The U.S. will support the resolution, in effect accomplishing what was not done at Quito: lifting the ban by a two-thirds vote. (Reason for another meeting: without it, the Rio Treaty amendment would have to be ratified individually by member states, a process that could take years.) Then, said one U.S. observer, "each country will be able to do as it pleases...
Many already have, and that is the problem as the U.S. sees it. So far, seven Rio signators have ignored the treaty in order to maintain or establish diplomatic relations with Cuba, including, most recently, Venezuela and Colombia. Although the U.S. has no plans to soften soon its own stance on Cuba, it is accepting the inevitable. It now prefers that the OAS formally end the ban rather than doing it de facto...
Lighter than helium and just about as dense, this adventure farce is a pleas ant enough way to pass a little time. Di rector Philippe de Broca (That Man from Rio, Cartouche) has a blithe liking for unlikely situations and hapless heroics...
...that U.S. bombers were not on their way. "Don't run for the air-raid shelters," he said. "Let us celebrate the great victory." The citizens of Hanoi needed no encouragement. Normally the most staid and restrained of people, they exploded in an all-day celebration that rivaled Rio's carnival in exuberance...