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US consulate denies Panamanian basketball team visas, reverses decision

by Eric Jackson

On August 7 Panamanians opened their daily newspapers to learn that the US Consulate here had denied visas to six players and the coach of Panama's national basketball team, which had won a spot to play in a regional Olympic qualifying tournament that begins in Las Vegas on August 22. The reason given was that the team members could not show sufficient financial resources to convince the US government that they did not intend to stay in the United States to live and work as illegal immigrants there.

To Latin Americans and to the Spanish-language media in the United States, it looked horrible. That Panama had beaten the United States in a men's basketball game at the recent Pan-American Games in Rio de Janeiro was not cited as a reason. With very little commentary, however, story was played up as newsworthy across the Spanish-speaking world because it was a symbol of the US administration's "get tough on immigration" behavior that has spawned countless anecdotes throughout the Americas.

Panama's basketball federation protested that it had shown proof that its travel and lodging expenses were covered for the trip to Las Vegas and back, and appealed to the Ministry of Foreign Relations for assistance.

Meanwhile, a number of people, including many US citizens, contacted the American Embassy or their representatives in the US Congress to express concern. On the email groups there was a brief but heated debate, with some accusing those who were encouraging people to contact the embassy --- one of whom was this reporter --- of making too much of a minor clerical gaffe, and in some cases launching full-scale ideological diatribes defending the idea that Panamanian athletes who don't have much money should be denied the right to compete in Olympic qualifying events in the United States for that particular reason.

One such argument in favor of the visa denial, by a Zonian working for the US State Department, argued that "Panamanians should pay the athletes enough that they can prove solvency if Panama wants a team." (Of course, to do so would eliminate such players from eligibility to play NCAA basketball under the US universities' anti-professionalism policies.) A number of other people made the point that rules requiring financial solvency are long-established, with the counter-argument being that it was the application of the rules in this fashion that was novel.

Within two days Vice President and Foreign Minister Samuel Lewis Navarro had made representations to the American Embassy, new interviews with consular officers were scheduled for the players and coach. The rejected team members went to their new interviews along with Panamanian Ministry of Foreign Relations officials and all were granted the visas that they had previously been denied.

Once the problem was resolved, both the American Embassy and the Panamanian government diplomatically had nothing more to say, other than that the basketball team members had received their visas after all.

The whole affair remains as a symbol of a profound disconnection between the Anglo majority in the United States and the Spanish-speaking world. On Google News the only English-language story about the matter that came up was from China's Xinhua news service, which is on top of virtually all events that may affect the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Not a single English-language US news medium considered the story newsworthy. But not so in the Spanish-language media north and south of the Rio Grande. Editors from Miami to Buenos Aires ran the story while those who get all their news only from the US English-language media never heard about it. Thus a brief annoyance opened a window on a vast perceptual gap within the Americas that has manifested itself in many other ways in recent years.

SUNTRACS members killed in government move to smash union
With habeas corpus motion pending, Noriega's house being renovated

Toned down rhetoric, but Cornejo case moves ahead

US denies RP basketball team visas, reverses itself

Mayoral candidates and labor
Panama News Briefs