When Cuba defeated OAS' trap

On March 17, 1960, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower approved the "Covert Action Program against the Castro regime", based on terrorist and subversive operations, infiltration and armed aggression, together with measures such as the economic, commercial and financial blockade, attempts at political isolation and diplomatic sanctions.

As ordered by the CIA, the latter would be carried out by the Organization of American States (OAS), but they would be the first major failure of the program.

The CIA rushed to mobilize its puppets and gave the Peruvian government the task of requesting an OAS meeting on August 22 to 29, 1960, in San José, Costa Rica, intended to lay a trap for and accuse Cuba of deploying a policy inconsistent with the alleged democratic principles of the region.

Cuba was expected to assume a defensive stance and try to justify itself while the vast majority of the member states, then U.S. allies, would lead global media to denounce the Cuban role as a promoter of Soviet policies in the region. However, the maneuver failed from beginning to end.
Cuba was living a true Revolution, very different from the nationalist process that the CIA thwarted in 1954 in Guatemala as a result of President Jacobo Arbenz’s weakness, a move that White House try to repeat in the Island.

The Leader Fidel Castro discerned the U.S. strategy from day one and denounced that it was just a Yankee plan built on a 53-million-dollar loan to Peru, contingent on the attack on the Cuban social project. He also declared that Cuba would attend to not only decry the aggression against its economy but also reveal others against the peoples of Latin America, stating that, "If the Yankees try to destroy the Cuban Revolution by force, they will not find their Guatemala here but their Waterloo!”

Foreign Minister Raúl Roa García, whom the peoples of the region would dub ‘Chancellor of Dignity’, led the Cuban delegation to the meeting, where he demolished the imperialist plans.

In one of his speeches, Roa said: "Let us not beat about the bush. The Revolutionary Government of Cuba has not come to San José de Costa Rica as a prisoner, but as a prosecutor. It is here to launch a loud accusation, without hesitation or fear, against the richest, most powerful and aggressive capitalist power in the world.

On August 27, Roa denounced the U.S. pressure on several foreign ministers to glean support against the island and the interference of U.S. VP Nixon, who said that "it would be enough to end Fidel Castro’s government", as well as the Pentagon’s statement that “the U.S. troops were ready to assault Cuba if requested by the Conference of Foreign Ministers".

Before leaving the session, Foreign Minister Roa declared: "Mr. Chairman and Foreign Ministers, the Cuban delegation that I am honored to chair has decided to walk out of this Meeting of Consultation of American Foreign Ministers. The fundamental reason that moves us to do so is that, despite all declarations and postulates made here in the sense that Cuba could have, within the Organization of American States to which it belongs, protection and support against the aggressions of other American states, they have not had any echo, resonance or reception. I am leaving with the people, and with my people the peoples of Latin America are leaving too".

Part of the audience gave him a big hand while the slogans "Homeland or Death" and "We shall overcome" were heard and some sang the National Anthem. Once in the street, the Cubans were joined by Costa Rican supporters. That day, the first diplomatic step of the anti-Cuban subversive plan approved barely five months before, failed right down the line.