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From: "Michael Erisman" <PSMERIS@scifac.indstate.edu>
Mon, 30 Jan 1995 10:18:35 -0500
To: Multiple recipients of list <lasnet@mcfeeley.cc.utexas.edu>
Subject: NEWS RELEASE--CUBA TRAVEL CHALLENGE
NEWS RELEASE
On January 23, 1995, the six members of the second travel-
challenge delegation returned from Cuba. Considering the licensing
requirement imposed by the Federal Government on August 20, 1994,
to be a blatant violation of First Amendment Rights, they refused
to request licenses from the Treasury Department before travelling.
Upon their return, those who landed in Miami were held for four and
one half hours by Treasury and Custom agents and threatened with
arrest. In the end, however, their passports were returned and
they were released.
The members of the delegation were Joel Edelstein of the
University of Colorado, Michael Erisman of Indiana State
University, Jean Handy of the University of North Carolina, Jack
Hopkins of Indiana University, Reid Reading of the University of
Pittsburgh, and Wayne Smith of Johns Hopkins University. They were
supported by Margaret Ratner of the Center for Constitutional
Rights.
Asked by Treasury agent if in future they would request
licenses, members of the delegation answered that they would not,
since to do so would not only be to condone but to cooperate with
a regulation flagrantly at odds with the First Amendment.
Asked further if there would be additional delegations, they
answered in the affirmative, indicating a new groups of academics
was already forming to travel in defiance of the offending
regulation in late February.
This is not an isolated effort. The seven professors named
above found some 25 other American academics in Cuba who had also
travelled without licenses. The Freedom to Travel Campaign in San
Francisco has taken hundreds of American citizens to Cuba over the
past year in defiance of travel controls, and now Cuban-American
groups have vowed to insist on their rights and to travel to the
island to visit families despite the August 20 prohibition against
such travel.
LASA members interested in joining the February delegation (at
your own expense) should contact Wayne Smith at (202) 232-3317; or
fax (202) 232-3440.
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* H. MICHAEL ERISMAN TEl: 812/237-2429 (Office) *
* Chair, Political Science 812/237-2430 (Dept.) *
* Department *
* Indiana State University FAX: 812/237-3445 *
* Terre Haute, IN 47809 Direct To Dept *
* *
* E-MAIL: PSMERIS@SCIFAC.INDSTATE.EDU (Internet) *
* PSMERIS@INDST (Bitnet) *
* *
*******************************************************************
Prof. Chris Chase-Dunn
Department of Sociology
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD. 21218 USA
tel 410 516 7633 fax 410 516 7590 email chriscd@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu