US Bars Brain Trauma Experts from Global Research Conference in Cuba; Decision Denounced as Harmful to US Health, Political Payoff to FL

3/11/2004

From: Sarah Stephens, 202-232-3317, Mavis Anderson, 202-546-7010, Lissa Weinmann, 718-416-1653, or John McAuliff, 646-287-3423

WASHINGTON, March 11 -- Four leading organizations devoted to legal travel by Americans to Cuba have written Secretary of State Powell and Treasury Secretary Snow to denounce the Bush administration's decision to bar leading U.S. experts in brain injury from attending a global conference on coma and death that is occurring now in Cuba.

"This decision to bar travel to Cuba for our scientists and others to attend this conference has no basis in law, will harm the ability of American health care providers to provide cutting edge health care to U.S. citizens, and is nothing more than a political payoff to far-right Florida voters at the expense of the national interest," said the organizations in a letter released today.

U.S. law, which restricts travel by Americans to Cuba, actually permits researchers to travel to the island under licenses granted by the Treasury Department for narrow or general reasons. Nearly 100 U.S. scientists applied for permission to travel to the Fourth Annual Symposium on Coma and Death, a conference that is taking place in Havana, Cuba from March 9-12.

Brain injuries kill 50,000 Americans each year, according to the Bush administration's Centers for Disease Control.

The groups wrote Secretary Snow, whose department licenses travel to Cuba, and Secretary Powell, whose department can order such travel licenses to be cancelled, and urged them to stop blocking such legally-permitted, research-oriented travel to Cuba. The groups cited a number of upcoming conferences whose American participants could also be blocked from attending.

The organizations signing the letter include: the Center for International Policy, Americans for Humanitarian Trade with Cuba, the Latin America Working Group and the Fund for Reconciliation and Development.