Venezuelan Prof. Visited by Feds in Pomona, Bolivian Prof. Denied U.S. Entry Visa

For the second time in two years, the U.S. government is blocking a prominent foreign scholar from teaching in this country due to so-called security reasons. Eighteen months ago, the U.S. denied a visa to Tariq Ramadan to teach at the University of Notre Dame. The Swiss-born Ramadan is considered to be one of the leading Muslim scholars in Europe.

Now the U.S. government is blocking an indigenous Bolivian professor from entering the country to teach at the University of Nebraska.

The professor's name is Waskar Ari. He is a member of the Aymara indigenous people in Bolivia and a leading authority on religious beliefs and political activism in Bolivia. He received his PhD at Georgetown and has spent many years studying in the United States.

A State Department official told the Chronicle of Higher Education that the government has "derogatory information " about Ari that renders him ineligible for the visa. But the government has not shared that information with Ari or the university. The government has not officially rejected Ari's visa but it has effectively blocked him from teaching the past two semesters.

Meanwhile in California a Venezuelan-born professor has also come under the watch of federal agents. Last week Pomona College professor Miguel Tinker-Salas said he was visited and questioned by two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies working for the FBI's federal anti-terrorism task force. The agents questioned the Latin American studies professor about the political situation in Venezuela and his ties to the Venezuelan government.

The questioning has rattled the education community.

Pomona College President David Oxtoby said he was extremely concerned about the chilling effect this could have on free scholarly and political discourse.

Today we speak with both professors:

* Miguel Tinker-Salas, professor of Chicano and Latin American Studies at Pomona College in California.
* Waskar Ari, a visiting professor at Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz, Bolivia. As an Aymara activist, he founded the Kechuaymara Foundation in La Paz and other 7 grassroots organizations in Bolivia and Peru. In addition, he was the first director of the largest Internet site on Aymara peoples, Aymaranet.org. He is the author of a number of books, including some on the issues of indigenous movements, human rights and the Aymara people.

LISTEN ONLINE:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/16/158211


TRANSCRIPT:
AMY GOODMAN: Today, we're going to speak with both professors, Professor Waskar Ari, who joins us on the phone from Bolivia, and Professor Miguel Tinker-Salas, who is in a studio in Puerto Rico, where he's attending the LASA International Congress, that’s the Latin American Studies Association Congress in San Juan. We begin with the professor in San Juan. Welcome to Democracy Now!

MIGUEL TINKER-SALAS: Thank you very much. Good morning.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s very good to have you with us. Professor Miguel Tinker-Salas, tell us what happened. When did the sheriff's deputies come to your home?

MIGUEL TINKER-SALAS: They came to my office last Tuesday as I was having office hours. I have my door always open, and I noticed two individuals walk by who, obviously by their age and dress and stature, were not students. And they joined and milled around outside my office. I could hear them talking to students. And when the student that I was working with left, they entered and identified themselves as L.A. County sheriffs working with the Joint Terrorism Task Force. And they began, very interestingly, talking about my credentials and about my work and about my publications.

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