Cuba, Nicaragua Spring Break 2005 Tours Available
Contact: George Manlove at (207) 581-3756
ORONO — The University of Maine’s Peace Studies Program is organizing trips in February and March to Cuba and Nicaragua, offering a first-hand look at the social, political and economic effects of global trade policies on the two developing nations.
The trips over spring break are open to anyone who would like to visit farms, families, schools, health and social work facilities, cultural institutions and government organizations, according to organizers Barbara Blazej and Dallas Anderson of the UMaine Peace Studies Office.
While the UMaine delegation to Cuba in February 2004 was limited to students, Blazej has now expanded participation to the general public.
The trips are sponsored by Witness for Peace, a Washington-based non-profit organization that supports peace, justice and sustainable economies in the Americas by changing U.S. policies and practices that contribute to poverty and oppression. The travel ban and trade embargo against Cuba prohibits United States citizens from going there, unless through an organization licensed through the U.S. Department of Treasury. Witness for Peace is licensed to sponsor trips to Cuba.
Blazej, a UMaine Peace Studies Program lecturer and director of the Youth Violence Prevention Project, says the U.S. trade embargo has been devastating to the civilian population of Cuba.
“Current North American perceptions of Cuba and negative propaganda have given an outdated and distorted image of Cuban society,” Blazej says. “On this trip, we will observe first hand the results of an obsolete U.S. economic and political policy. We will see how the Cubans creatively endure the effects of the US ‘bloqueo.'”
While both trips will have social and political themes, the Cuba trip, in particular, will expose delegation participants to the effects of the trade embargo the United States imposed on Cuba after revolutionaries overthrew the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959, Blazej says.
Travelers depart Feb. 27 and return March 7. Contact Blazej for details about “Lessons from Cuba: Myths, Realities, and Visions for the Future” at Barbara.Blazej@umit.maine.edu or call 207-581-2625. The price of the nine-day Cuba trip is $975, which covers all expenses except air fare.
The Nicaragua delegation will examine how United States economic free trade policies affect the people, workers and culture, according to Dallas Anderson, an international affairs and Spanish major helping to organize travel arrangements.
Delegates from Maine going to Nicaragua Feb. 28 — March 9 will have an opportunity to speak with the Nicaraguan people most affected by free trade and an unjust global economic system, says Anderson, who is coordinating the “Nicaragua From the Inside: The Impacts of Globalization” trip.
Delegates also meet with those who make and promote the policies to share what they have learned and to advocate change. Participants will spend a few days in the home of a Nicaraguan family in a farm community, learn about Nicaragua’s struggle for debt relief and meet the maquila workers behind the “Made in Nicaragua” label.
The price of the 10-day trip is $825, which does not include air fare. Anderson can be contacted for details at Dallas.Anderson@umit.maine.edu or by calling 207-581-2625.
A deposit of $150 must be paid by Nov. 1 for those interested. Call or email for an application. Up to 25 people may participate in each trip.