Washington, DC – Today, Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) received written notice from the State Department that the Bush Administration has temporarily delayed part of the draconian travel restrictions to and from Cuba.  Those restrictions could have forced the 80 American medical students studying in Cuba to abandon their studies in the middle of their final exams.  Since 2001, American students have studied at the Latin American Medical School in Havana, where tuition is free. Students pledge to return to their communities and offer low-cost health care to those who cannot afford it.

On June 23, Lee, joined by 26 Members of Congress, wrote Secretary of State Colin Powell demanding that the Bush Administration “find a way to protect these students who could be unfairly penalized by the politics of US-Cuban relations.” “The matter of these students’ education,” continued the letter, “is wholly divorced from the issue of the U.S./Cuban relations, and we must not ensnare them in the currents of international politics.”

Lee said today, “I am happy that we were able to get further delay in these travel provisions, but the reality is that they should never have been proposed in the first place. These students are not there for politics – they are there so that they can get an education and have the opportunity to make the world a better place. This delay should be made permanent.”

“These unfair and onerous restrictions by the Bush Administration are clearly a reflection of election-year politics and should be repealed.”

 

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