Bolivian professor coming to UNL

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BY MELISSA LEE / Lincoln Journal Star

Waskar Ari’s long wait in Bolivia is finally coming to an end. Hired two years ago by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to teach in the Department of History, Ari said he has been cleared at last to enter the United States. He said he received a passport and work visa from the U.S. Consulate in La Paz late Thursday afternoon.

And he’ll be here soon: Ari wrote in an e-mail to the Journal Star he expects to arrive in Lincoln before Aug. 20 and is planning to teach two classes this fall.

“I think I am committed for life with UNL,” he wrote. “They were extraordinarily helpful.”

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Waskar Ari

Waskar Ari

Thursday’s news came more than four months after UNL sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, demanding the department either act on Ari’s work visa petition or explain why Ari had been kept waiting.

Homeland Security offered no official response to UNL’s lawsuit, but in May, it approved Ari’s work visa petition without explanation, giving hope the final step in his journey to Nebraska — a work visa from the U.S. Consulate — was near.

It was.

If all goes as planned, Ari will be on campus a week before fall classes begin Aug. 27. He says he’s prepared to teach courses on Latin American colonial history and colonial Mexico.

The history department has begun clearing out an office for him, UNL spokeswoman Kelly Bartling said.

“We’re all just really pleased that the situation has been resolved,” she said.

UNL hired Ari in early 2005, just before he earned a doctoral degree from Georgetown University. He was touted as a top draw because of his expertise on Latin American indigenous communities.

But in June, when Ari stopped home in Bolivia for a quick family visit, he found his student visa had been canceled and he could not get a replacement work visa to return to the United States because the U.S. government had discovered “derogatory information” in his file.

Ari’s Washington.-based lawyer, Michael Maggio, believes Ari may have been linked to Bolivian President Evo Morales, a frequent and harsh critic of the Bush administration.

Maggio, who represented UNL in its lawsuit pro bono, said such links were “totally baseless.”

The case attracted substantial media coverage and public support for Ari, Maggio said, which may have helped compel the government to approve the visa petition.

Still, Maggio said, his office has received no word from Homeland Security on why it had been concerned about Ari or why it ultimately gave him the green light.

But he said it was the right decision.

“Finally, justice prevails,” he said. “The vetting that Dr. Ari has endured is just short of what someone goes through to become a saint.”

During the delay, Ari said, he spent time lecturing throughout Bolivia and taught and did research at Universidad Mayor de San Andres.

Now he says he’s ready to begin a new chapter.

“I cannot wait to arrive to Lincoln,” he wrote. “It cost me two years of my life.”

Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com.