National Lawyers Guild: Bush Administration Denies Visa to Noted Cuban Attorney
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCTOBER 29, 2007
4:27 PM
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CONTACT: National Lawyers Guild
Marjorie Cohn, NLG President, 858-204-3565
Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, 212-679-5100, ext. 11
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Bush Administration Denies Visa to Noted Cuban Attorney
National Lawyers Guild Calls Visa Denial Punitive and Unrelated to National Security
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WASHINGTON - October 29 - 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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