9-16-05,9:40am

THE U.S. Treasury Department has refused a permit to the Rainbow Theatre group to travel to Cuba, where they were to perform during the 12th International Theater Festival in Havana, which begins today, September 15. In a message to the event’s organizers, Carlos Barón, the group’s artistic director, expressed with deep regret and anger that 'the U.S. Treasury Department has denied us a permit to travel to Cuba and thus share with all of you during the upcoming International Theater Festival in Havana.'

The members of that U.S. theater group, which includes students, professors, technicians and professionals, many of them former students of San Francisco State University, acknowledged 'the value of your invitation,' and explained that that institution of higher learning in California was 'willing to help us 100% with the expenses of traveling to Cuba; both the university’s administration, beginning with the president, and the student council were pleased and proud that we were going to represent our university and the multicultural theater of San Francisco.'

'We would like to wish you the very best success during the upcoming Festival,' the message continued, 'and to tell you that we will persist in working toward relations of peace and mutual artistic collaboration with the entire world, beginning with Cuba. We also wish to tell you that we will use this opportunity to educate ourselves and then educate others about this hateful ban on travel to Cuba, which, of course, is manifested as another example of the harmful influence of the economic, intellectual and human embargo of Cuba.'

The Festival’s inaugural event was set to begin at 7:30 p.m. on September 15, under the slogan 'Theater in defense of humanity,' with a passacaglia parading from El Quijote Park at 23rd and J to the José Martí Anti-Imperialist Tribunal, where several Cuban theater companies and Les Grandes Personnes company from France plan to evoke the mythical Cervantes character.