Eugene Ruyle, Professor of Anthropology at California State University in Long Beach, who is coordinating the visit of the two Cuban youth leaders, reported that he has asked other professors who invited these students to their campuses to call the State Department and demand the visas be granted right away. Organizers of the LASA gathering have organized a similar campaign.

Ernesto Fernández Sánchez, a member of the National Secretariat of the Federation of University Students of Cuba, and Estela Zulueta Valdés, a law student at the University of Havana, were set to arrive on March 19. They have received invitations from 29 professors to speak to students at campuses around the country under the auspices of the Committee for U.S.-Cuban Academic Exchange based at California State University in Long Beach.

During their month-long visit, the two students are scheduled to speak on campuses in Washington, D.C., and a number of states, including California, New Mexico, Iowa, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Texas.

"It’s really crucial to have interchange between Cuba and the United States, in spite of the U.S. embargo against Cuba," said Eugene Ruyle, who chairs the academic exchange committee. "As an educational event it is very important to overcome the prejudice from the media and distorted views about Cuba which many people have."

Ruyle said he called the State Department March 17 and had spoken to Sarah, an official there, who told him that the visas are awaiting clearance from the State Department. The two students had applied for the documents on January 20.

A meeting for the students is planned on the Long Beach campus on March 20. It will go ahead whether or not the State Department has granted the visas in time.

"We have printed the flyers, reserved the room, and everything else," Ruyle said, "students on campus are still planning to organize a meeting to talk about Cuba, and U.S.-Cuba relations."

Ruyle has written a letter to supporters of the tour around the country, urging "all inviting professors and local tour organizers to launch a public protest based on phone calls to the State Department against this attack on academic freedom and the exchange of ideas."

The letter asks the professors to call the State Department and request that Fernández and Zulueta be promptly granted visas to the United States. It also urges tour supporters to contact congressmen, senators, and other elected officials, and asks them to make similar calls to the State Department. Ruyle said he has asked professors and elected officials to call Sarah at the State Department directly at 202-663-1264. Those who need more information about this campaign, said Ruyle, can contact him at 562-985-5364 or at uscae@mail.com.

More than 100 Cuban scholars, including 40 invited to present papers, were planning to participate in the LASA event set for March 27–29. To date only four or five have of them have received a visa. The State Department reported that 67 have been cleared but none of them have actually received visas. Another 16 are pending, while 19 had their visa requests denied based on the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the president to deny entry to foreigners whose presence is deemed "detrimental to the interests of the United States."

Reid Reading, an organizer of the LASA conference, said in a March 17 letter that "time, and seats on international flights are just too short" for 44 of the scholars who would have been traveling on grants from LASA to attend--a result of the delays by the State Department.

According to Reading, despite occasional delays, nearly every one of the invited Cuban scholars has made it to the conference in past years. That is not the case this time, however. "For LASA 2003, it is clearly a different ballgame: people are being summarily denied visas without interviews," Reading wrote.

Kelly Shannon, a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, denied that there was any new policy aimed at excluding Cubans visiting for academic reasons. Under the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Reform Act, she said, visa applicants from Cuba and six other countries claimed by Washington to be "state sponsors of terrorism" must go through security checks by "federal U.S. law-enforcement and intelligence agencies and any other interested agencies." The act came into effect last summer.

Some of the Cuban scholars invited to this year’s conference were forced to pay an $85 fee and to undergo fingerprinting in making their visa application.

Organizers of the LASA conference have urged people to contact the State Department to ask that the visas be issued promptly. Calls can be made to the State Department Cuba desk at 202-647-9273; e-mails can be sent to cubanaffairs@state.gov.  
 
 
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