NACLA Condemns State Department’s Denial of a Visa to Colombian Journalist Hollman Morris

[Judi Lynn]

July 21, 2010
10:30 AM

NACLA Condemns State Department’s Denial of a Visa to Colombian Journalist Hollman Morris

NEW YORK - July 21 - The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) denounces the State Department's decision to deny a visa to Colombian TV journalist Hollman Morris. Morris was slated to receive the Samuel Chavkin Award for Integrity in Latin American Journalism, awarded by NACLA in recognition of his brave and uncompromising coverage of the armed conflict in Colombia. NACLA originally planned to hold the Chavkin Award ceremony on June 8 but had to postpone it when it became clear that the U.S. Embassy was taking much longer than usual to renew Morris's tourist visa. The government later denied Morris a student visa that would allow him to take up a prestigious Nieman Foundation fellowship to study at Harvard University.

The visa denial appears to be intended to punish Morris for his reporting on the Colombian peace and human rights movement. According to the "refusal worksheet" provided to Morris by the State Department, the visa was denied under section 212(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which, as amended by section 411 of the USA Patriot Act, bars visas from being granted to any foreigner who has used his or her "position of prominence" to "endorse or espouse terrorist activity, or to persuade others to support terrorist activity or a terrorist organization."

In denying Morris a visa on these grounds, the State Department joins the Colombian government in tarring Morris as a "publicist for terrorism," in the words of Colombian president Álvaro Uribe. Since coming to power in 2002, Uribe has often portrayed Colombia's human rights community, peace activists, and others who favor a negotiated peace settlement as in league with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's more than 40-year-old guerrilla insurgency and a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. Documents made public in April show that Colombia's Administrative Department of Security (DAS), a domestic intelligence agency under the command of the presidency, in 2005 launched what it called a "smear campaign at the international level" against Morris.

"Negotiate the suspension of (U.S.) visa" appears on the agency's list of tactics against Morris (which also included the dissemination of defamatory materials, wiretaps, and physical surveillance). Morris was targeted as a part of a broader dirty tricks program aimed at silencing and intimidating government critics; almost two dozen former DAS officials are awaiting trial on criminal conspiracy charges in connection with the scandal. Although no evidence has appeared to suggest that a request from Colombian intelligence directly led the State Department to deny the visa, the decision nonetheless exactly coincides with one of the smear campaign's goals.

More:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4473669

http://centerforinvestigativereporting.org.nyud.net:8090/files/project_images/morris_feature1.jpg http://www.javeriana.edu.co.nyud.net:8090/cyl/boletin/mayo/images/TiempoReal_History.jpg

http://i.ytimg.com.nyud.net:8090/vi/HO82tI-SSTQ/0.jpg

Holman Morris also works with his journalist brother, Juan Pablo Morris.