Cuban scientist barred from receiving U.S. prize

Cuban scientist barred from receiving U.S. prize


Verez-Bencomo has developed low-cost vaccine for meningitis, pneumonia




Updated: 9:59 a.m. ET Nov. 12, 2005
HAVANA - A Cuban scientist who helped develop a low-cost synthetic vaccine that prevents meningitis and pneumonia in small children says he was offended the U.S. government denied his request to travel to the United States to receive an award.

Vicente Verez-Bencomo was to accept the award recognizing his team's technological achievement during a Wednesday ceremony at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, Calif. He had also been invited to address a gathering of the Society for Glycobiology in Boston on Friday.

Verez-Bencomo said the State Department denied him a visa because the visit would be "detrimental to the interests of the United States."


"That is really offensive to me," the chemical engineer told The Associated Press as he sat on a stool inside the University of Havana's Synthetic Antigens Laboratory, where the vaccine was developed. "It's really a shame."

The State Department said it has a policy prohibiting comment on individual visa cases. The switchboard rang unanswered at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, which evidently was closed Friday for Veterans Day.

"It's incomprehensible that a civilized nation can confuse someone who has dedicated his life to saving the lives of children with someone who goes against the interests of the United States,"

Verez-Bencomo said with a sigh. "I wasn't going there to talk about politics, I was going to talk about science."

Verez-Bencomo led a team that developed a vaccine for Haemophilus influenza type B, also known as Hib, a bacteria that causes meningitis and pneumonia. The diseases kill up to 700,000 children worldwide each year.

Before the development of a similar vaccine more than a decade ago, Hib was the biggest cause of meningitis among infants in the United States. That earlier vaccine has all but stamped out the disease in the western world, but mass immunizations are too expensive for many poor countries.

The synthetic vaccine created by Verez-Bencomo's team can be produced at a relatively low cost because antigens don't have to be grown in a bacterial culture, making it an attractive alternative for poorer nations.

So far more than 1 million doses have been administered to Cubans. Science Magazine last month said the vaccine "may someday save millions of lives."

Officials at the San Jose Tech Museum were disappointed the government blocked Verez-Bencomo's trip.

The museum organizes the award ceremony every year to recognize individuals or groups who use technology to improve the environment, economy, education, equality and health.

"We recognized them for cutting-edge technology and wish he could be here to accept this," museum spokesman Tony Santos said.

"We wish that hadn't been the government's decision."

An editorial in the San Jose Mercury News also expressed disappointment.

"Verez-Bencomo won't be here to receive the award," it said, "because he's from Cuba. He's a scientist, not a terrorist, but our State Department nevertheless denies him entry. He brings ideas, not bombs, but we let ideology trump innovation."


http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10010619/

 

The Cuba/U.S. rhubarb has gotten childish. We're in the 5th decade of this bickering and it's gotten silly. At some point people have to accept things and move on.

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I guess there was money to be made off the Cuban baseball thing, unlike science. I haven't followed the Cuban baseball thing or when they were in the U.S. last.

I know the U.S. further limited visits to Cuba to once in 3 years, although people in the U.S. circumvent this by going to Canada or Mexico first. The govt is now trying to close these loopholes too.

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I remember hearing something about that a couple years ago. If the U.S. govt had any info that the scientist would have defected, they would have let him in.

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Well, it's their fault for Nationalizing the Oil industry!
(Isn't it funny how many international snafus involve oil?)
But yeah, i think we can check communism under the 'defeated box'.
I t'ink it's because the U.S. usually doesn't deal with the first generation of communists in countries (except for Mao, and that was nixon).

 

The U.S. invaded Cuba in 1898, occupied Cuba until 1902, occupied Cuba again from 1906-1909, and then yet again from 1917-1923. "A US governor virtually managed the finances of the Cuban government and representatives of US sugar interests were leading political figures. They enforced policies which suited US economic interests at the expense of Cuban national development." http://www.rcgfrfi.easynet.co.uk/ratb/cuba/history3.htm


Perhaps it is the U.S. fault for meddling with Cuban affairs in the first place?

 

Lots of countries were occupied or colonised by various countries. However, Cuba's 50 year dictatorship and economic suicide was not the answer.

 

if i remeber correctly, wasnt this all started by someone who didnt make a baseball team? but im all for science. dude shoulda been like an american though. you fly into mexico, then fly into the states.

 

Poor excuse.

What 50 year dictatorship are you refering to? The United States dictorial control over Cuba from 1898 to 1959?

 

The U.S. govt doesn't care if it's a dictator. They'd be supporting Castro, much like they supported the Shah and Saddam, if they thought Castro was doing something in the interest of the U.S. govt.

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Ah, of course Batista wasn't a brutal dictator now was he?

 

I thought the term 'dictator' was a title used in Rome during emergency periods, and not in Cuba? I assume that, since Castro is the President of Cuba, it would be more correct to say "Castro's Presidency".

Anywho, Castro has not led Cuba for 50 years, and in addition to that fact, he has, for some time now, been elected in a democratic way.

But I will refrain to comment on Pointbreak's post until we get a clarification...

 

I agree, blaming colonialism is a poor excuse for a half century of dictatorship under Castro, and it is an even worse excuse for passing the dictatorship on to his son.

 

Not a half century.
Why do you think the Cuban revolution came about?

Uh, okay? What has this to do with Castro?

 

You are correct, Castro has only been a dictator for 46 years. in 2009 he will celebrate a half century of his dictatorship.

Because Batista was unpopular and inept. Castro seized power by force. At the time communism was a popular among radicals who hadn't figured out how many tens of millions were dying from the stupidity of communist economics in the USSR and China. Anyway, there is no law of nature that says a revolution can't replace a bad regime with an even worse one, as happened in Cuba.

Castro has decided that his son Raoul will inherit the dictatorship when he passes away or gets too old to rule (similar to North Korea, previously the only hereditary communist dictatorship). Raoul, as head of the military, is well placed to take power as in any totalitarian state those who control the levers of repression control the country. The only problem is that Raoul is almost as old as Castro, so who would replace him is a more difficult question.

 

i believe raul is his brother

 

Here you have proved you know nothing of the Cuban revolution. Raúl is Fidel's brother. Raúl participated in the attack on the Moncada barracks, was imprisoned at the Isle of Youth, welcomed Ernesto "Che" Guevara to the 26th of July movement, and was soon promoted to Commandante during the struggle in the Sierra Maestra.

I would like you to back up your claim that "Castro has decided that his son Raol will inherit the dictatorship" (sic)

Please define "dictator".

If he gets elected.

If his health allow him to remain President.

If he is not assasinated by Cuban exiles or the CIA by then.

Batista represented U.S. interests in Cuba, just like the other "leaders" in Cuba until 1959.

True. What is your point?

Castro was a lawyer. When he tried to put Batista to trial, the whole juridical system was controlled by Batista's men. It was impossible to put him to justice. So he started a rebellion against the Batista regime.

Yet another fault in your reasoning.

The Cuban revolution was not a communist revolution.

Are you actually claiming the Cuban revolutionary government is actually worse than the US supported Batista-regime?

 

As I now assume you are refering to the Cuban revolution...


---
The 1953 census divided the population of Cuba into 57 percent urban, 43 percent rural.
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Before the revolution:

* 90 percent of the rural population were malnurished
* 50 percent of the rural population were illiterate
* 25 percent unemployment in total
* 24 percent illiteracy, 50 percent illiiteracy in rural areas
* 54.1 percent of the rural population did not have a toilet, not even a privy
* Under Batista, approximately 20,000 human beings were executed, and many more tortured

Ray Brennan, Chicago newspaperman, gave a vivid account of the reality when Cuba was a colony of the United States:

Parasites grow and mulitply within the bodies of little children.
Some of those worms, the size of an ordinary lead pencil, gather in clusters or balls, clog the intestinal system, block elimination, and cause anguished deaths. Such parasites often get into the body through the soles of the feet of children walking without shoes on infected ground. After a child dies the parasites may come slithering from the mouth and nasal passages, searching for a living organism on which to feed. What has been done about it over the years? Nothing.


This is history, however, thanks to the revolution.

Unemployment is down at 1.9 percent.

Child mortality is as low as 5.8, lower than that of all of the Americas, including the United States (7.0), with the exception of Canada, which is at 5.0. Highest is Haiti (76).

Illiteracy is gone. Everyone could read and write a few years after the revolution.

Before the revolution, Cuba had soem 6,000 doctors. Today, the island has 71,000 doctors, and Cuba is even providing medical services to over 85 million people around the world.

 

This came to a head over Russian crude oil which was to be delivered to Cuba under a trade agreement between the two countries signed in January, 1960. In June the three big oil companies (Jersey Standard, Texaco and Shell), under pressure from the US government, refused to refine the Russian oil. But the Cuban government then ‘intervened’ (a form of supervision) and put the oil through. The companies retaliated by refusing to deliver oil from Venezuela. Cuba then agreed to take all its oil from Russia.

The Eisenhower administration hit back in July by cutting the remaining 700,000 tons of Cuban sugar due to be delivered under the quota agreement. This was calculated to bring the Castro regime to its knees. But Russia immediately stepped in and agreed to take the 700,000 tons of sugar. At the same time, on 6 August, the Cuban Telephone Company, the Electric Company, the oil refinery and all the sugar mills – which up to then had only been ‘intervened’ – were all nationalised. In the next four months, in a rapid succession of blows and counter-blows, all Cuban and American big business was taken over.


http://www.socialistworld.net/publications/Cuba/index.html