Students Vow to Go to Cuba for Conference
A group of students and activists from Los Angeles have vowed to go to Havana later this month for an international youth conference, even if the U.S. government denies them visas.
“I don’t care what the government says, I’m going anyway,” said UCLA graduate student Karla Alvarado. She was one of a dozen people who attended a news conference Thursday at the Los Angeles headquarters of the American Civil Liberties Union in the Westlake area.
“I demand my right as a U.S. citizen to travel to Cuba to meet with other students from around the world, to talk about the issues that concern us,” she said.
As part of the decades-old economic embargo against the Communist island nation, the U.S. government has banned travel to Cuba except for journalists, academics and those visiting relatives. To get around that travel ban, people often go to Mexico and then fly to Havana.
If the students go to Cuba, they could face a $50,000 fine and a government investigation when they return, said Sam Mistrano, legislative director for the ACLU of Southern California.
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