``The NCEW's planned trip to Cuba later this month has been canceled
after the Cuban government said it would deny visas to all 38 members of
the NCEW delegation,'' the message said. ``The Castro government took the
action after The Miami Herald published a news story and editorial
regarding Cuba's earlier refusal to allow a Herald editorial writer to
take part in the trip.''
Kittle said he had been notified of the cancellation this week by a
representative of the Cuban government who cited three reasons:
The Herald's effort to join the trip.
A statement by Hage to a Herald reporter expressing the NCEW's
disappointment that Cuba had denied The Herald a visa.
Concern by Cuban authorities that NCEW members were making
``parallel'' reporting arrangements, with assistance from the U.S. State
Department, separate from the official briefings arranged by the Cuban
government.
Tom Fiedler, Herald editorial page editor, said Thursday that The
Herald had attempted ``from the beginning to reassure all of [the
delegation members] that we didn't want the Cuban government's problems
with this newspaper to in any way interfere with their opportunity to
evaluate firsthand the results of 41 years of Castroism.''
``Although it was against our wishes,'' Fiedler said, ``many of them
urged that NCEW cancel the trip entirely, arguing that to allow the Cuban
government to select who could participate was a dangerous precedent.
``So it's ironic that the Castro government preempted that debate by
canceling the visas of our colleagues seemingly out of its irritation over
those protests. That act describes more eloquently than words the Cuban
government's contempt for the free press,'' Fiedler said.
Kittle and Hage, in their message Thursday to delegation members,
called such a ``last-minute reversal of this kind by a foreign government
. . . unprecedented in NCEW experience.''
The Herald had submitted a visa application for Susana Barciela, a
Cuban-American member of The Herald's editorial board, to participate in
the delegation, and offered Fiedler as an alternate.
Hage, in comments to The Herald that were cited as among the reasons
for the trip's cancellation, said the group was ``very frustrated and
disappointed'' and that the rejection would ``absolutely be an issue of
discussion in some form'' when delegation members met with Cuban
officials.
A Dec. 28 Herald editorial on the rejection asked in a headline: What
is Castro Afraid Of?
The editorial called the rejection ``another example of the Castro
regime's determination to try to control the flow of information from the
island by selecting who can report it.''
On Thursday, Herald Publisher Alberto Ibargüen issued the
following statement:
``Fidel Castro is a dictator. Nothing better illustrates how
totalitarians act than when they're subjected to inquiry by a free
press: They shut everything down so they can control totally. This
ham-handed refusal to let open-minded editorial writers have a peek inside
their closed society is typical of this regime. People who believe in
democracy, yet romanticize the revolutionary Castro, should remember this
incident.''Cuba cancels visit by newspaper editorial writers