By: Melissa Lockhart Fortner

Note: This post reflects the views of the author, not those of the Foreign Policy Association. The author is an independent contributor.

This is an historic day.

I’ll allow the New York Times to report:

After two days of intense negotiations, the Organization of American States agreed Wednesday to lift a cold war provision that suspended Cuba from the group but also accepted a list of conditions, backed by Washington, that Havana would have to meet before being allowed to return.

The compromise was a stunning about-face for the 34-nation group, which had been in what appeared to be an intractable stalemate that threatened to polarize the hemisphere.

On one side, Washington had opposed any measure that would have ended Cuba’s suspension – imposed in 1962 – without requiring that the island nation agree to abide by the organization’s democratic principles before being allowed to return. Venezuela and Nicaragua led the opposition to any provision that set conditions for Cuba’s return.

On Wednesday, however, Venezuela and Nicaragua suddenly backed away from their hard line. A senior State Department official said President Obama had called at least one of his Latin American counterparts – including President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil – to press for help in ending the impasse.

The reactions to watch after today’s announcement will be: the Castros and other Cuban leadership; U.S. Congresspeople—namely those that threatened to block U.S. funding of the OAS; and Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, who originally strongly opposed any conditions to Cuba’s readmission to the group.

OAS 47-year suspension of Cuba lifted

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