[NYTr] Noted Cuban Atty Denied Visa; NLG Condemns Action as Unrelated to Natl Security
 
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:06:56 -0500 (CDT)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
National Lawyers Guild - Oct 29, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Contact: Marjorie Cohn, NLG President, 858-204-3565
Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, 212-679-5100, ext. 11

BUSH ADMINISTRATION DENIES VISA TO NOTED CUBAN ATTORNEY

National Lawyers Guild Calls Visa Denial Punitive and Unrelated to
National Security

October 29, Washington, D.C.  In one of the first acts of the Bush
Administration's latest crackdown on Cuba, the United States Department
of State has apparently denied a visa to Guillermo Ferriol Molina,
Vice-President of the Labor Law Society of the Cuban bar association
and a member of the Board of Directors of the UN-affiliated
International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL). Mr. Ferriol had
been invited to the U.S. to speak at the 70th anniversary Convention of
the National Lawyers Guild this week, as well as at Sarah Lawrence
College in Yonkers, New York.

On Friday, October 26, the State Department informed aides to
Representatives Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Mike Doyle (D-PA) that Mr.
Ferriol's visa had been denied on October 21.  The State Department has
not yet informed Mr. Ferriol of this decision.  The decision to deny
the visa, which overturned a preliminary decision more than a month
earlier by the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, followed a lengthy
security advisory opinion check.

The State Department informed Doyle's aide that the visa was denied
because Mr. Ferriol allegedly works for a union that is connected with
the Cuban government, citing Presidential proclamations 5377 and
212(f), which prohibit entry of certain non-immigrants. However, Mr.
Ferriol does not work for a union. In addition to his duties with the
Labor Law Society and the IADL, both nongovernmental organizations, he
is employed by CIMEX, a private company capitalized by the Cuban state
which operates more than 80 enterprises in different industries
throughout Cuba. In 2002, Mr. Ferriol was granted a visa to speak at
the National Lawyers Guild Convention and at Sarah Lawrence, and his
trip took place without incident.

National Lawyers Guild President Marjorie Cohn denounced the decision,
citing it as "part of yet another shortsighted and futile attempt by
the Bush Administration to decide Cuba's future by punishing the people
of both the United States and Cuba."

In his October 24 announcement of new initiatives designed to hasten a
"transition" in Cuba, Bush called on Cuban officials and ordinary
Cubans to rise up against the current regime.  Cuban Foreign Minister
Felipe Perez Roque responded by stating, "Cuba's reaction is one of
indignation, but of absolute serenity and confidence in our strength.
The word in order here is courage." He also laid out 12 initiatives
that he proposed President Bush use as a way to aid Cuba, which
included things such as respect for Cuba's right to independence and
sovereignty, lifting the travel ban, the release of the "Cuban 5" (five
Cubans imprisoned in the U.S. for their roles on reporting terrorist
plans against Cuba by Cuban exiles in Miami), the extradition of Luis
Posada Carriles (the alleged mastermind behind the bombing of a Cuban
civilian jet and tourist hotels) and the immediate closing of the
Guantanamo Naval Base.

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