Press Memorandum: Disgracefully, For All of Its Talk about Democratization, the State Department's Ideologues Clamp Down on Open Dialogue

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Council On Hemispheric Affairs
Monitoring Political, Economic and Diplomatic Issues Affecting the Western Hemisphere
Memorandum to the Press 04.69

Word Count: 1000

Thursday, 7 October 2004

 

Disgracefully, For All of Its Talk about Democratization, the State Department’s Ideologues Clamp Down on Open Dialogue

• State Department officials toy with the U.S.’ major Latin American affairs professional organization since last May, before vetoing visas to Cuban academics.

• As part of Washington’s “tightening…policy towards Cuba” and adhering to “the recommendations laid out by the White House-stacked Commission of Assistance to a Free Cuba” (A solidly unrepresentative right-wing body dominated by Miami ultras and like-minded individuals), the State Department denies visas to 67 Cuban scholars who were to attend the Las Vegas gathering of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) International Congress to be held October 7 through 9.

• The visa denials constitute an outrageous political move meant to appease ultra-right wing elements of Florida’s Cuban-American and Venezuelan expatriate communities, in advance of the November presidential elections.

• Secretary of State Colin Powell repeatedly has failed to be a firewall against such past and present Bush administration regional hardliners as Roger Noriega, John Bolton, and Otto Reich.

In the latest unwarranted extremist attack on even a semblance of rational bilateral relations between Cuba and the U.S., the Bush administration has denied visa requests for 67 Cuban scholars who were to participate in the Latin American Studies Association (LASA) International Congress being held in Las Vegas, Nevada from October 7 through 9. Darla Jordan, of the State Department’s Office on Press Relations, gave COHA the official bureaucratic line, stating that the scholars were denied entry under articles of the Immigration and Naturalization Act that “suspend entry…to officials and employees of the Cuban government and members of the Communist Party.” In actuality, not all of the would-be Cuban visitors fall into the categories covered by the regulation, and even if they did, analogous regulations affecting scholars coming from other leftist and rightist so-called “rogue nations” have routinely received waivers at the administration’s discretion.

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This analysis was prepared by Gabriel Espinoza Gonzalez, COHA Research Associate.

October 7, 2004

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