Cuba Says Washington Impeded U.S. Scientist’s Trip to Havana

HAVANA – The United States is maintaining its “hostile policy” against Cuba by preventing a U.S. scientist from traveling to Havana to participate in a pharmaceuticals workshop, Communist Party daily Granma said Wednesday.

Washington, according to the newspaper, “denied permission to travel to Cuba to Harold Baseman, an instructor with the Parenteral Drugs Association and member of the presidency of the scientific committee of that U.S. entity, which shows the continuity of the hostile policy against our country.”

The paper said that Baseman was supposed to participate this week in Havana in the 6th International Workshop on Aseptic Processing in the Biopharmaceutical Industry, which scientists from China, Italy, Germany, Peru, Mexico, Argentina and other nations, are attending.

The administration of President Barack Obama in January announced new flexibility in the regulations governing travel from the United States to Cuba for some groups, including students, academics, journalists and the members of religious organizations.

Last week, the Treasury Department published the new regulations, which say that those groups can travel freely and without requesting U.S. government authorization to the communist-ruled island if they are going there to visit a “close relative” who is Cuban or works for the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.

The new rules also say that professionals who are attending events such conferences or symposia can travel to Cuba without asking prior permission from Washington, along with students and professors who are going there to participate in educational activities.

In April 2009, Obama had pushed for the relaxation of rules on travel to Cuba so that Cuban Americans could travel to the island whenever they wished. EF