LASA president Charles Hale wrote in the organization’s summer 2006 issue that the primary reason for the change of venue was “the protection of scholarly freedom.” He said LASA has faced a “problem with visas for Cuban scholars at least since 2004.”

LASA’s international congresses, held every 18 months, bring together thousands of Latin American studies professors, students, and other academics, mostly from the United States but also some from other countries. For years the participation of invited Cuban academics has been an integral part of these events.

For this year’s congress, held March 15-18 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the U.S. government denied visas to 55 academics invited from Cuba—the entire delegation. Washington also denied visas to six other academics from Bolivia, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, and Uruguay. LASA sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice protesting that the visa denials “seriously interferes with LASA’s ability to carry out its core mission and represents an egregious affront to academic freedom.”

Just 10 days before the start of the 2004 congress in Las Vegas, Nevada, State Department officials informed all 65 Cuban scholars in the delegation that they would be denied entry.

The previous year Washington granted visas to 70 and denied entry to 33 Cuban academics invited to that year’s conference in Dallas, after LASA launched a campaign to reverse the government’s initial refusal to grant any visas.
 
 
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