HAVANA (Reuters) - Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro said on Tuesday Cuba had no desire to rejoin the Organization of American States, as called for by some of his allies, and did not even want to “hear the vile name of that institution.”

Castro, in his third column published on Tuesday, said the OAS “has a history that collects all the trash of 60 years of betrayal of the people of Latin America.”

He said the organization had been involved in “aggressive actions” that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

Cuba was suspended from the 35-member OAS in 1962 because the communist system created by Castro after he took power in a 1959 revolution was judged to be “incompatible” with the organization’s principles.

Castro has criticized the group for years, calling it the “Ministry of Colonies” of the United States.

Before the OAS’ Summit of the Americas set to begin on Friday in Trinidad and Tobago, several Latin American countries have said Cuba should be reinstated in the organization, which promotes regional cooperation and democracy.

Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told reporters in Rio de Janeiro on Monday that Cuba’s absence from the OAS “is an anomaly that needs to be corrected.”

OAS chief Jose Miguel Insulza told Brazilian newspaper O Globo that Cuba must show its commitment to democracy to be readmitted.

“We need to know if Cuba is interested in returning to multilateral organizations or if it is thinking only about the end of the embargo and economic growth,” he told the newspaper, referring to the U.S. trade embargo imposed on Cuba since 1962.

“It even offends us to suppose that we are desiring of entering the OAS. That train passed a while back, and Insulza still doesn’t know it,” Castro said.

Castro, 82, has not been seen in public since intestinal surgery in July 2006. He ceded power to his brother, President Raul Castro, last year but maintains a powerful voice through columns published in state-run Internet sites and newspapers.

In recent weeks, he has churned out columns at a prolific rate.

The first two on Tuesday dealt in part with Monday’s decision by U.S. President Barack Obama to let Cuban-Americans travel freely to Cuba and send as much money as they want to relatives there.

Castro said the travel measure was a positive, but small step toward improved U.S.-Cuba relations that Obama has said he will pursue.