House members blast student visit with US fugitive in Cuba

Three House Republicans are criticizing an educational trip to Cuba that they say led to a meeting with a fugitive from U.S. justice last year, and have called on President Obama to ensure that future visits do not allow these sorts of meetings to take place.

Travel to Cuba is allowed for several specific reasons, including educational activities, although they require a license from the State Department. But House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.) and Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) said a 2011 trip went to far, and cited reports in The Daily Iowan that said a University of Iowa student was allowed to meet with someone wanted for a crime in the United States.

"We are appalled that on at least one occasion, 'educational activities' licensed by your administration included a meeting between American university students and a fugitive from U.S. justice," they wrote to Obama in a letter they released Tuesday.

"Accordingly, we ask that you determine how many such meetings have occurred since the 2011 regulation changes regarding 'educational activities' and 'people-to-people' travel, and that you take all appropriate measures to ensure that licensed travel (through travel-related transactions to Cuba) do not again facilitate meetings between U.S. travelers and fugitives wanted by the United States."

Their letter said it is unclear which fugitive the student might have met with, but said there are several possibilities, including Joanne Chesimard, who killed a New Jersey State Trooper, and Charles Hill, who killed a New Mexico State Trooper. It also noted that Victor Gerena fled to Cuba after robbing a Wells Fargo armored car in Connecticut, and William Morales, the leader of the terrorist group FALN.

"It is a perpetual shame that these and so many other fugitives from U.S. justice remain at large just ninety miles from our shores," they wrote. "It is an abomination to surviving victims, their families, and the families of those who were murdered, that an American fugitive remains free in Cuba to apparently spout enemy propaganda to American students by virtue of a license granted by your administration.

"We sincerely hope that this is not an example of the type of 'educational activities' anticipated by your 2011 changes which weakened the regulations enforced by the Treasury Department, and that you will strengthen efforts to guarantee that licensed travel to Cuba will not be used as a tool of the Castro dictatorship to advance its anti-American agenda."

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