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fyi, this is a good example of the absurdity of US Cuba policy.
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"The Rev. Raul Suarez, who runs the Martin Luther King Memorial Center
and is pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Havana ... has traveled
to the United States about 20 times since 1980 to speak to church groups
and at universities. Mr. Suarez, 69, is also an elected member of the
Cuban Popular National Assembly, but says he is not a member of the
Communist Party ... Mr. Suarez was scheduled to speak about antipoverty
initiatives, his work spreading Martin Luther King Jr.'s philosophy of
nonviolence in Cuba and his work to increase religious tolerance under
Fidel Castro's regime ...
'I am inspired by the example of Martin Luther King Jr., who, despite
suffering, looked for solutions for the anguish and problems of his
people, an example I have tried to follow in my own life ... 'It has
made me understand my Christian faith, not just as a hope for an
afterlife, but as a better way to live this life, and transform the
world."
---- Original Message -----
From: "Compaņero" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2004 12:43 AM
Subject: U.S. Denies Visa to Cuban Minister
The Providence Journal
U.S. denies visa to peace activist from Cuba
Despite appeals by Sen. Lincoln Chafee and other members of
Congress, the Rev. Raul Suarez will not be allowed to speak
at the University of Rhode Island on multiculturalism.
01:00 AM EST on Saturday, February 7, 2004
BY JENNIFER D. JORDAN
Journal Staff Writer
A Baptist minister and peace activist from Cuba who was
scheduled to speak at the University of Rhode Island on
Tuesday has been denied a visa and cannot enter the
country, according to the U.S. State Department.
The decision -- which follows President Bush's recent
crackdown on Cuban visitors and heightened security
measures -- drew criticism from local civil-rights leaders,
who said a pastor preaching nonviolence should be welcomed,
not shut out.
The Rev. Raul Suarez, who runs the Martin Luther King
Memorial Center and is pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist
Church in Havana, said in a phone interview yesterday that
he has traveled to the United States about 20 times since
1980 to speak to church groups and at universities. Mr.
Suarez, 69, is also an elected member of the Cuban Popular
National Assembly, but says he is not a member of the
Communist Party.
Yet, for the third time since 2001, Mr. Suarez said his
U.S. visa application has been denied, despite letters from
Sen. Lincoln Chafee and a group of 11 members of Congress
asking the State Department to let Mr. Suarez come next
week. He was also scheduled to speak at Black History Month
events in Mobile, Ala., and Boston.
Mr. Suarez said he is saddened by the decision.
"I am in favor of improving the relationship between the
American and Cuban people," he said. "There is no reason to
separate us."
But Cubans, particularly government officials, have largely
been banned from traveling in the U.S., said Gonzalo
Gallegos, a public-affairs adviser for the State
Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.
"With few exceptions, entry into the U.S. by officers and
employees of the Cuban government has been suspended,"
Gallegos said, citing a 1985 presidential proclamation.
However, the policy was not always strictly enforced.
That changed after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Cuba was singled out last October by President Bush in a
policy speech, when he said "we are strengthening
reenforcement of those travel restrictions to Cuba that are
already in place."
Cuba is on the government's short list of countries with
"state-sponsored terrorism," which automatically triggers
closer scrutiny of visas originating in those nations,
Gallegos said.
Such a letter-of-the-law interpretation is absurd in cases
such as Mr. Suarez's, said Steven Brown, of the Rhode
Island affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union.
"This is another really terrible example of how, in the
name of fighting terrorism, we are throwing out our civil
liberties," Brown said.
Melvin Wade, director of URI's Multicultural Center, met
Mr. Suarez last summer while on a research trip to Cuba,
and invited him to deliver URI's 10th-annual
multiculturalism lecture.
Yesterday, Wade said he was "dismayed and disappointed"
that Mr. Suarez would not be allowed to enter the country.
"It is so important for us as American citizens to have the
ability to make good foreign-policy decisions and to enter
into dialogue with people who may have different points of
view," Wade said. "To think of him as a terrorist or as a
security risk is so far from what this man is."
Mr. Suarez was scheduled to speak about antipoverty
initiatives, his work spreading Martin Luther King Jr.'s
philosophy of nonviolence in Cuba and his work to increase
religious tolerance under Fidel Castro's regime, Wade said.
Bernard LaFayette Jr., director of URI's Center for
Nonviolence and Peace Studies, has worked with Mr. Suarez
since the 1980s, and went to Cuba to dedicate the Martin
Luther King Jr. Center, a social-service agency that builds
homes for the poor, offers programs for children and the
elderly and runs nonviolence workshops.
"It's unfortunate that his visa has been denied, because
he, of all people, represents the philosophy those of us in
the nonviolence movement espouse," LaFayette said.
LaFayette said URI will try to bring Mr. Suarez to Rhode
Island again, and Mr. Suarez said he hopes to come one day.
"I am inspired by the example of Martin Luther King Jr.,
who, despite suffering, looked for solutions for the
anguish and problems of his people, an example I have tried
to follow in my own life," Mr. Suarez said. "It has made me
understand my Christian faith, not just as a hope for an
afterlife, but as a better way to live this life, and
transform the world."
=================================================
U.S. Denies Visa to Cuban Minister
c The Associated Press
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - U.S. officials blocked a Cuban minister from coming
to America to speak at several Alabama churches for Black History Month,
denying the pastor a visa to travel.
The Rev. Raul Suarez, of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Havana, canceled
his trip this month. State Department officials on Friday declined to
comment on Suarez's application, citing confidentiality rules. Officials at
the
U.S. Interests Section, the American mission in Havana, also declined to
comment.
``Our policy is that we do not comment on individual cases,'' said
Brenda Greenberg, a State Department spokeswoman. ``It's a privacy issue.''
Suarez was invited by the Society Mobile-La Habana, a Mobile-based
sister cities group. The visit was to have included speeches to local civic
groups and sermons at area churches.
Members said they received a call Friday from a State Department
official informing them that Suarez's visa application, submitted Nov. 10,
had
been denied.
``Whatever the reason, the decision is not helping America's reputation
in the world for freedom to travel,'' said Jay Higginbotham, the group's
board chairman.
Higginbotham was told Suarez was refused a visa because he is a deputy
on Cuba's National Assembly, or parliament. The U.S. government has
traditionally denied visas to many higher-ranking Cuban officials and
leaders of the island's Communist Party.
But, Suarez told The Associated Press that he has never belonged to
the Communist Party, nor any other political organization in Cuba.
``Every country has the right to grant a visa or not, but I worry
about shutting down such a fluid exchange between the churches of both
countries,'' he said.
Suarez, who serves as director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
Center in Havana, also was scheduled to walk a portion of the
Selma-to-Montgomery National Historic Trail and visit other significant
sites of the civil
rights movement.
Suarez said he has received visas to the United States several times
over the past decade, most recently in 1999.
While Cuba became officially atheist in the years after the 1959
revolution that brought President Fidel Castro to power, the government has
since
shifted from open hostility to a wary embrace of religious
organizations.
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