The Obama administration, in a stunning turn of events, is using
authority under a Reagan-era proclamation to bar some of Cuba’s most
vibrant and candid intellectuals from entering the United States.
This decision prevents these leading academics from attending a Latin America Studies Association meeting in San Francisco on Wednesday. But, more important, the White House is sending a profoundly counterproductive message about the U.S. commitment to the freedom of expression and the ability to travel.
One scholar — who has worked for better relations between our
countries — said she was “speechless and humiliated” to be excluded and
labeled this way. Who can blame her?
President Barack Obama has actually been making subtle reforms in U.S. policy — allowing unlimited travel to Cuba by Cuban-Americans; restoring some channels of “people-to-people” exchanges; and yes, having a more permissive policy of granting visas under the discretion provided to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
One likely explanation for the visa denials is that they were an attempt to placate rabid right-wing legislators, who have sharply criticized Obama’s policy. But they may also be a gift to hard-liners in Cuba, who argue that any effort to improve relations with Washington is a waste of time.
The Reagan administration expanded the battlefields of the Cold War into Latin America. Ronald Reagan issued a presidential proclamation in 1985 barring “officers or employees of the government of Cuba or the Communist Party of Cuba” from entering the U.S. The idea was to punish and isolate Cuba.
President George W. Bush used this authority indiscriminately. His administration barred world-famous musicians like Ibrahim Ferrer, Los Van Van, Chucho Valdés and Carlos Varela from attending the Grammys or playing concerts in Miami. The Bush White House regularly prevented Cuban scholars from attending LASA meetings in the U.S. After it denied visas to all 75 Cubans whom LASA had invited in 2003, the organization vowed not to return to the U.S. until visa policies changed.
This decision prevents these leading academics from attending a Latin America Studies Association meeting in San Francisco on Wednesday. But, more important, the White House is sending a profoundly counterproductive message about the U.S. commitment to the freedom of expression and the ability to travel.
Some of the dozen prominent Cuban scholars now excluded
had received visas over the past two years to lecture at Harvard,
Columbia and the City University of New York. One, Oscar Zanetti, had
been a visiting scholar at American University on a Guggenheim
fellowship. Yet U.S. officials determined that their attendance at the
LASA meeting is “detrimental to the interests of the United States.”
President Barack Obama has actually been making subtle reforms in U.S. policy — allowing unlimited travel to Cuba by Cuban-Americans; restoring some channels of “people-to-people” exchanges; and yes, having a more permissive policy of granting visas under the discretion provided to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
One likely explanation for the visa denials is that they were an attempt to placate rabid right-wing legislators, who have sharply criticized Obama’s policy. But they may also be a gift to hard-liners in Cuba, who argue that any effort to improve relations with Washington is a waste of time.
The Reagan administration expanded the battlefields of the Cold War into Latin America. Ronald Reagan issued a presidential proclamation in 1985 barring “officers or employees of the government of Cuba or the Communist Party of Cuba” from entering the U.S. The idea was to punish and isolate Cuba.
President George W. Bush used this authority indiscriminately. His administration barred world-famous musicians like Ibrahim Ferrer, Los Van Van, Chucho Valdés and Carlos Varela from attending the Grammys or playing concerts in Miami. The Bush White House regularly prevented Cuban scholars from attending LASA meetings in the U.S. After it denied visas to all 75 Cubans whom LASA had invited in 2003, the organization vowed not to return to the U.S. until visa policies changed.
