I believe, and the government believes, that the OAS is and remains the pre-eminent organization of our hemisphere. It proved that a year ago in Honduras at the general assembly of the OAS, a month before the coup took place in San Pedro Sula, in resolving the lifting of the suspension of Cuba from the OAS. It was a long and gruelling meeting. It pre-empted all of the other items on the agenda. Although many of us thought that the Bolivarian states would resist any conditional lifting of Cuba's suspension, in the end we did have consensus and all active members of the OAS agreed on the terms and conditions by which the suspension would be lifted and Cuba would be reintegrated. That experience provided a great deal of collaborative energy and cooperation. After the coup occurred in Tegucigalpa on the morning of June 28, we met also immediately. Countries had individually issued statements condemning the coup. It was a military coup. I guess it was the early morning, about four o'clock in the morning of July 4, when we reached a consensus to suspend Honduras and to lay out some of the early conditions that had to be met.
I think the OAS has proven itself again to be the organization of the Americas. The mechanism of consensus is one that is very difficult to achieve in terms of pre-empting situations like the coup because interpretations of the Inter-American Democratic Charter provide for non-intervention of states in issues within sovereign states. As at the United Nations, we see that there is a contemporization to address today's realities, which may require some shifting in the way we resolve crises. But I believe it is an organization worthy of our support, and, as I said, it remains the pre-eminent forum for issues like the crisis in Honduras to be addressed and resolved.