The five unionists are Pedro Ross, secretary general of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC), Cuba's labor federation; Leonel González, director of international relations of the CTC; Manuel Montero, head of the CTC's North American Interests Bureau; Diana García, general secretary of the Public Administrative Workers Union; and Edison Brown, an official CTC translator.

On July 11, U.S. authorities informed the CTC leaders that the visas had been approved. Two days later, however, on the eve of their departure, they were informed that the visas had been rescinded.

In a letter to the tour sponsors, Ross protested the U.S. government's action, saying this was part of its "hostility toward this small country whose people have resisted heroically for 42 years" Washington's aggression and threats against revolutionary Cuba.

He noted that the intended visit was aimed at building on the success of a similar speaking tour last year, in which González, Montero, and Brown were part of the CTC delegation.

Organizers of the speaking tour asked supporters of democratic rights to send protest messages to the State Department. In some of the cities where events were scheduled for the CTC leaders, the meetings were turned into speakouts against the visa denials.

In New York, 50 people turned out for a July 18 meeting at the hall of Local 1199 of the hospital workers union. Luis Matos, of Local 1199 and the U.S. Health Care Trade Union Committee, and other speakers, condemned the U.S. government's refusal to grant visas to the Cuban unionists as an attack on the rights of working people both in the United States and Cuba. A similar meeting took place the evening before at Mt. Olivet Baptist Church.  
 
 
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