The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.60/No.13           April 1, 1996 
 
 
Fight Launched To Get Visas For Cuban Youth  

BY MACEO DIXON
BOSTON - The Faculty-Student Cuban Youth Lectures Committee, based at Roxbury Community College here, launched a protest campaign March 16 to pressure the State Department to grant visas to Cuban youth leaders Maika Guerrero and Iroel Sánchez to visit the United States.

Guerrero and Sánchez are associate researchers at the Center of Studies for Youth in Havana, which provides information on the situation facing youth, particularly with respect to employment, education, and culture. They were invited by 119 professors and student groups across the country to speak on U.S. campuses in April. The Roxbury-based committee is hosting the visit of the two Cuban youth, who are also members of the Union of Young Communists (UJC).

On March 4 Guerrero and Sánchez submitted their visa applications to the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. On March 13, the U.S. Interests Section returned the forms and the letters of invitation to the Cuban youth without registering their submission. U.S. officials said there were some "unclear details" about the Center of Studies for Youth. Guerrero and Sánchez resubmitted their applications March 14.

"Not only is this move... highly unwarranted, but it also seriously delays the entire visa process which officially starts the day the applications are actually registered," said a letter to the State Department by the Boston-based Lectures Committee. "We feel this procedure may even prevent the free and open exchange of ideas offered by this lecture series from taking place within the spring academic schedule."

The letter is signed by Claudia Kaiser-Lenoir of the Romance Language Department at Tufts University; Tom Reeves, professor of Social Sciences at Roxbury Community College; and Thomas Bidell of the School of Education in Boston College.

Lenoir, one of the spokespeople for the Lectures Committee, said the claim of "unclear details" about the Center of Studies for Youth is a pretext to deny the youth the visa.

She pointed out that in the last four years five other colleagues of Guerrero and Sánchez from the same center were granted visas in response to similar invitations and spoke on many of the same campuses. The five were Ibis Alvisa González and José Antonio Concepción in August-October 1992, Pável Díaz Hernández in March-April 1994, and Kenia Serrano Puig and Rogelio Polanco Fuentes in March-April 1995.

"We are therefore very much concerned that the action by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana may represent a change in policy of granting such visas in the interests of academic freedom and free speech," said the letter by the Lectures Committee to the State Department.

"We urge you to take prompt action on the matter by giving favorable consideration to the applications and grant Guerrero and Sánchez visas to travel to the United States immediately, in time for their lectures scheduled for April."

Last April Kenia Serrano, a leader of the Federation of University Students, participated in the Caribbean Focus Program of Roxbury Community College (RCC), coordinated by Tom Reeves. Serrano gave a lecture and held meetings on campus on the Cuban revolution. Through this process, a student exchange program was created between the RCC and the Center of Studies for Youth.

Bruce Rose, vice president for academic affairs at RCC, sent a letter to colleagues at the University of Havana March 15.

"We are also pleased to host this year's Cuban Youth Tour Committee, extending invitations and organizing a visit to our college, as well as scores of other universities," Rose said.

"We sincerely hope that these exchanges will be the first of many between our two institutions of higher education, as the laws of both of our nations allow. Such exchanges are especially called for between two institutions dedicated to adult community education."

The RCC students left for Cuba March 16. About a dozen of them were granted travel licenses by the U.S. Treasury Department earlier in the week.

"Clearly, one part of the student exchange has been approved by the U.S. government," noted Kaiser-Lenoir. "Justice should prevail. The State Department should grant visas to Guerrero and Sánchez immediately."

The Lectures Committee is asking professors, student groups, elected officials, civil rights and women's rights organizations, trade unionists, and all democratic-minded people to call and send letters to the State Department immediately demanding that visas be granted.

Letters should be addressed to Michael Ranneberger, Coordinator for Cuban Affairs, U.S. Department of State; and Richard Nuccio, Special Advisor for Cuban Affairs to the Secretary of State; both at 2201 C St. NW, Washington, D.C., 20520. Tel: (202) 647-7024; Fax: (202) 736-4475.

Copies should be sent to the Faculty-Student Cuban Youth Lectures Committee, c/o Tom Reeves, Caribbean Focus Program, Room 3-353, Roxbury Community College, 1234 Columbus Ave., Boston, MA, 02120. Tel: (617) 427-0060 ext. 5151; Fax: (617) 541-0339.

 
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home