In 1991 Holly invited a group of reporters from the U.S. and UK to cover a remarkable Orbis mission to Castro’s Cuba. But first Orbis had to respond to the Cuban government’s concern that their visit would not reflect badly on the quality of the Cuban eye care system.
They would also need to appeal to the U.S. government to make an exception to its 30-year travel ban to Cuba by allowing the plane and its many American personnel to land there.
After some diplomatic wrangling, which included Oliver appealing to Castro’s friend, Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau for assistance, Castro provided Orbis with a formal invitation to visit. But the U.S. State Department initially refused Orbis’s request to accept the invite, citing Treasury Department regulations.
In response, Holly assisted Oliver in writing a persuasive letter to the State Department, assuring them that Orbis was non-political and had medical goals only for the visit. The letter also promised that any money spent on site in Cuba was raised in offices outside the U.S. Within days, the State Department accepted those terms and the mission was on!
Once the team was on the ground in Cuba, Holly and Geoff Holland, Director of the Flying Eye Hospital, wrote a letter to Castro, inviting him to visit the plane. Working out of a hotel room in Havana, they crafted what they considered to be a sincere, non-political invitation to observe Orbis’s work firsthand.