Thread: Cuban journalists say U.S. denied them visas

Cuban journalists say U.S. denied them visas

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Two Cuban journalists covering the United Nations said Monday that the U.S. government denied them re-entry after they took a vacation in their homeland.
Ilsa Rodriguez Santana and Tomas A. Granados Jimenez have covered the United Nations for the Prensa Latina news agency since 2005.

"We would also want to voice our strongest protest against such an outrageous and arbitrary act, which violates all standards regarding relations between the U.N. and the United States as the host country," they wrote in a letter to the president of the United Nations Correspondents Association.

Tuyet Nguyen, president of the correspondents association, said the UNCA "has never been involved in helping journalists from any country get visas to enter the United States."

The U.S. State Department in Washington did not immediately respond to a call about the matter.

Prensa Latina said American officials in Havana opted not to issue the visas under a regulation that can deny entry to persons and groups considered prejudicial to U.S. interests, as well as Cuban government officials and employees.

Although the U.S. in recent years has increasingly denied entry to Cuban officials and others connected with the communist government, denying visas to full-time Cuban journalists permanently assigned to cover the United Nations was seen as highly unusual.

In the past, the U.S. has carried out expulsions of Cuban diplomats, including 14 from the island's Washington and U.N. missions in May 2003. They were judged by the U.S. State Department to be engaged in "inappropriate and unacceptable activities."
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Number one.......I could give a flying F what the UN has to say.....secondly......we CAN say NO!!!!!!!!!! Freedom isn't a blanket YES to anything and everything!