A law graduate, Bárgaza is a staff member in Havana of the National Secretariat of the University Student Federation (FEU) of Cuba. Lafourié is a student at the Higher Institute of Medicine in Santiago de Cuba and a member of the National Committee of the Union of Young Communists (UJC). They have been invited to speak to a wide spectrum of student organizations, professors, unions, and Cuba solidarity groups.

Tour organizing committees across the country launched an emergency campaign to get prominent individuals and organizations to fax letters to the Canadian ambassador in Havana in order to get the two Cuban youth into the country. The Canadian embassy in Havana had refused to issue visas to Bárgaza and Lafourié and told them to return to the embassy on March 20--four days after their tour was to begin--when their request for visas would be considered again. The two youth leaders were granted visas March 20.

Bárgaza and Lafourié will speak at public events in the Toronto area March 21-23, Vancouver March 24-28, and in Winnipeg March 28-30.

The Montreal leg of their trip will be from March 30 through April 6. The tour committee in Toronto is working at reorganizing some meetings in southern Ontario later in April that had to be canceled because of the embassy's action.

At the same time, Canada's minister of External Affairs, John Manley, confirmed Ottawa's opposition to the Cuban government's participation in the April 20-22 third Summit of the Americas to be held in Quebec City. Of the 35 countries in the Americas, only Cuba has been denied an invitation to the summit. Ottawa had supported the invitation of Cuba to the first two summits, held in Miami in 1994 and in Santiago, Chile, in 1998.

Cuba "should first of all show a little respect for democracy, it should tolerate the right to dissidence in the country, it should stop harassing those who have views different than those of the regime," in order to attend the summit, Manley said.

In a letter to the Toronto Globe and Mail, Camilo Garcia, second secretary of the Cuban embassy in Ottawa, wrote "Cuba has not asked nor is asking to be invited to the Summit. The exclusion of Cuba, nevertheless, will indeed be a way of avoiding its point of view from being reflected in the debate of the Summit."
 
 
...and begin visit to colleges in United States

BY ROSE ANA BERBEO
Two Cuban youth leaders will be touring U.S. college campuses the last week in March and first two weeks of April, speaking on the topic "Youth in Cuba Today."

Yanelis Martínez Herrera and Javier Dueñas Oquendo received U.S. visas for the visit after they were invited by dozens of students and faculty at campuses in Illinois, southern New England, and Minnesota. The tour is being coordinated by the Cuban Youth Lectures Committee in Chicago.

Martínez, 22, is a fifth year law student, and a member of the National Secretariat of the Federation of University Students (FEU). She has served as president of the FEU at the University of Camaguey, and at its Law School. She was a delegate to the 9th Congress of Jurists of Cuba.

Dueñas, 28, teaches journalism at the University of Havana, where he has served as vice president of the Federation of University Students. He has traveled to Russia and Mexico, giving talks on youth in Cuba.

The youths' first stop will be Chicago. Their schedule includes the following: March 27, 9:30 a.m., University of Illinois at Chicago: Rafael Cintron-Ortiz Latino Cultural Center, 803 South Morgan St., Lecture Center B2. Sponsors: Rafael Cintron Ortiz Latino Cultural Center and the Latin American and Latino Studies Program. At 6:00 p.m., Loyola University: Crown Center Auditorium, Rogers Park campus. Sponsors include the Honor's Society of the Department of Communication, others.

March 28, 3:30 p.m., Columbia College: 624 S. Michigan, Room 1409. At 7:30 p.m., Northeastern University: Student Union, Room SU 214, 5500 N. St. Louis. Sponsors, Chimexla and others.

March 30, 7:00 p.m., "Noche Cubana," Casa Guatemala Celebrates Voices of the Americas, Dulce Vida Cafe, 1338 W. Madison.

The youth will be meeting with farmers attending the Family Farm Defender's conference in Wisconsin during the first week of their stay and will be visiting campuses in southern New England, April 2-6.

In Minnesota, events are planned at St. Thomas University, Hamline University, St. Cloud State, the University of Minnesota, and Gustavus Adolphus colleges from April 9-14.

The youth will also be visiting Hartford University in Connecticut, Brown University in Rhode Island, and Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts.  
 
 
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