Ecuador's foreign minister on Wednesday urged the Organization of American States (OAS) to right wrongs committed over the decades against Cuba, by allowing the reentry of the Caribbean nation barred from OAS meetings since 1962, according to the president's press office.

Speaking at the 39th edition of the OAS general assembly, the minister, Fander Falconi, said that Cuba had been isolated due to U.S. pressure, in breach of international law as applied in the Americas, during 1962's eighth meeting of OAS foreign ministers held in Uruguay's capital Montevideo.

"It is time to see us, all the nations of the Americas, to regard each other with respect and in equality, to honor our differences and seek to complement each other, to rectify our mistakes and build the new institutions which our dream of regional integration demands," he said.

Nicaragua is seeking to table a motion that would bring Cuba back to the organization without any preconditions, which is backed by the continent's left-wing governments including Venezuela and Ecuador. The United States, the only nation in the Americas not to recognize the Cuban government, is trying to promote a motion that would let Cuba back in only if it substantially reforms its society.

On Wednesday in Honduras, Falco said that the nations of the Americas are "impatient to free themselves from foreign teachings and to revindicate the sovereignty of our peoples, to their free will, equality and against discrimination."

Falconi also argued that the OAS had failed as much as it had succeeded in its mandate of strengthening democracy while fighting poverty, terrorism, drug trafficking and corruption.

"Now is the time to make the dreams of (Simon) Bolivar and take care of the prophetic mistrust of Jose Marti," he said.

Simon Bolivar, 19th century general who helped nations from Venezuela to Bolivia achieve their independence from Spain, dreamed of one great South American nation called Gran Colombia. Jose Marti helped lead Cuba to independence and warned of growing U.S. domination in the region.

Source:Xinhua