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Editorial. Posted on Wed, Nov. 20, 2002 in
The Miami Herald.
University Had Little Advance Notice
The visit to FIU last week of a former member of Fidel Castro's
revolutionary government was disappointing and troubling. Most worrisome is the
fact that the State Department issued a visa to Víctor Dreke Cruz, a
former security official from a country on the U.S. terrorism list, who is
accused of numerous human-rights violations.
The lapse highlights the State Department's continuing inability to screen
properly those entering this country. Had the State Department known about Dreke
Cruz's background, it wouldn't have issued him a visa, a government source said
this week. Unfortunately, that's too little, too late.
Dreke Cruz, vice president of the Cuba-Africa Friendship Association, was
invited by professors from the FIU anthropology department to discuss a book
about his military experiences with Che Guevara in Castro's ill-fated 1960s
subversion campaign in the Congo. Those military expeditions contributed to
thousands of deaths during years of civil conflict. By some accounts, Dreke Cruz
participated in executions and torture in Cuba. That awareness only adds to the
pain and suffering of families and friends of his victims, now living in Miami.
University administrators apparently had little advance notice of Dreke
Cruz's visit. President Modesto Maidique defended the visit as an exercise in
academic freedom and freedom of speech. While noting that Dreke Cruz wouldn't
have been his choice for a speaker, Mr. Maidique emphasized that university
administrators shouldn't be arbiters of speaker appropriateness. He is right.
Of course, while this is clearly an issue of academic free speech, if the
invitation had been announced earlier, details about Dreke Cruz's background may
have come to light sooner and both the State Department and professors involved
would have been able to make their decisions fully informed of the facts.
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