FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: OCTOBER 2, 2009
FOR MORE INFORMATION: CAMILA GALLARDO
305-215-4259
CANF DECRIES NEW YORK PHILLARMONIC ATTEMPT TO DISGUISE TOURIST TRAVEL TO CUBA AS ‘CULTURAL EXCHANGE’
Today, the New York Philharmonic announced that it had been denied a visa by the U.S. Treasury Department to engage in travel to Cuba as part of a program of cultural exchange. Their statement is at best misleading. Under current restrictions, the New York Philharmonic may have been granted a license to perform as was done recently in the case of pop singer Juanes, however, the group applied for licenses for 150 individuals who are ‘friends’ and ‘donors’ of the Philharmonic and had promised to donate $10,000 in exchange for a trip to Cuba—a blatant attempt to disguise tourist travel.
The Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) supports cultural exchange between the United States in Cuba because we believe them to be mutually beneficial to the people of both nations and in particular because they provide the Cuban people with exposure to the outside world, its varied cultures, music, and arts. At the same time, we are adamantly opposed to tourist travel to Cuba because it provides no benefit to the Cuban people while providing critical hard currency to a regime which uses those resources to continue repressing its own people.
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