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Cuban American Professor Fired for Anti-Communist Views Judicial Watch Files Suit to Protect Job, Freedom of Speech It is a widely known fact that colleges and universities are bastions of liberalism and political correctness. So perhaps it should come as no surprise that University of Illinois – Chicago (UIC) professor Juan Lopez was fired recently not for neglecting his duties, or for committing any crime, but rather for simply speaking out against Communist dictator Fidel Castro and his terrorist regime. Judicial Watch filed suit on his behalf in an attempt to restore the professor to his rightful position. “Academia is supposedly where ideas flow freely, yet Professor Lopez is being punished for speaking out against a terrorist dictator because the governor’s friends stand to make millions,” said JW Chairman Larry Klayman. “We stand proudly with Professor Lopez in affirming his right to free speech.” According to the UIC’s campus publication, UIC Today, Lopez had been “a prime candidate for tenure at UIC ever since his arrival in 1995.” He twice received top-notch reviews from a committee of tenured faculty that referred to him as an “excellent scholar.” As a last stepping-stone to tenure, Mr. Lopez was encouraged to write a book, a feat he accomplished to some critical acclaim in 2002 with the publication of Democracy Delayed: The Case of Castro’s Cuba, published by the prestigious Johns Hopkins University Press. The problem, however, for Professor Lopez is that his authorship of the pro-democracy work earned him a powerful enemy on the University’s Board of Trustees – Republican Governor and Castro sympathizer George Ryan. In 1999 it was Ryan who was the first sitting governor to visit with Castro in nearly 40 years, enabling the Illinois-based Archer Daniel Midland to become the first company to sell food to Cuba since 1963. In fact, Ryan has consistently supported lifting the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, something that Professor Lopez has publicly denounced. Solely on the basis of this conflict in opinion, Professor Lopez was denied tenure, which effectively led to his dismissal. According to UIC Today, Professor Lopez recently wrote in an open letter posted on Sigloxxi.org, a website devoted to human rights in Cuba, “I feel that I have been victimized because of my strong pro-democracy, pro-embargo position.” Judicial Watch’s suit accuses UIC of discriminating against Professor Lopez because of his nationality and his political views, a violation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
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