JFK Assassination Plus General Discussion & Debate > JFK Assassination Plus General Discussion And Debate

Cuba visas in 1963

<< < (2/2)

Steve M. Galbraith:

--- Quote from: John Anderson on January 24, 2018, 10:49:59 PM ---Ok thanks for that.

--- End quote ---
It's interesting that Silvia Duran Tirado, the Cuban Embassy staffer that Oswald met at the Cuban consulate in Mexico City, said she asked him that if he was a member of the CPUSA (as he falsely told her) why didn't he have them and the Cuban government arrange the visa.

From her HSCA testimony:
TIRADO - ....What I said is that when he said he was a member of the Party, of the Communist Party, the American, I said why don't they arrange, the Party, your Party with the Cuban Party, and he said that he didn't have time to do it.
CORNWELL - Did you ask him why hw didn't just have the Communist Party arrange his trip to Cuba?
TIRADO - Yes.
CORNWELL - the Cuban Communist Party? He just said he didn't have time?
TIRADO - Yes. Because there was a manner to do it. I mean, we get, for instance, the visa directly from Cuba and saying give the visa to this people that's coming and somebody say oh, yes, you have you visa here.

So apparently if you were a member of the CPUSA the travel restrictions didn't apply? Or they could just get around them by having the Cuban government prepare the visa in advance? That's pretty odd.

Full testimony here: http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/m_j_russ/hscadurn.htm

Steve M. Galbraith:

--- Quote from: Jerry Organ on January 24, 2018, 11:34:30 PM ---Mexico didn't care if Americans went to Cuba, as long as they had some sort of visa to get there.

Mexico wasn't part of the embargo, and even if they were, it still wouldn't oblige them to enforce American travel restrictions.

--- End quote ---

True, but Cuba didn't care for the restrictions either since they would grant visitation rights/visas to Americans who requested them.

Although Castro - as communists always do - would ban Cubans from not only visiting other countries without permission from the state but emigrating too.  In fact, he would shoot them if they tried.

RFK wrote a memo in 1963 (December 12) to Rusk where he called for the removal of the travel restrictions. He said they really weren't working anyway - groups were organizing to go there just to defy the ban or they could get to Cuba from third countries like Canada or Mexico, et cetera - and besides, it made the US look bad.

RFK memo here: https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu//NSAEBB/NSAEBB158/19631212.pdf

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page