WASHINGTON — The Upper West Side schoolteacher who took students on an unauthorized trip to Cuba is getting an offer of help, of sorts, from the city’s only Republican congressman.

Rep. Vito Fossella, who represents Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, yesterday sent a letter to the principal of the Beacon School offering to bring to the classroom a Cuban refugee who spent 26 years as a political prisoner of the communist regime.

The offer comes in response to news that a history teacher at the school, Nathan Turner, took a group of students on a nine-day trip to Havana earlier this month without authorization from the school or the city, and in apparent violation of a federal law restricting travel to the island nation.

In the letter, addressed to the principal, Ruth Lacey, Mr. Fossella wrote that he was “concerned that these young people are being offered a subjective and wholly inaccurate portrayal of Fidel Castro and his government.”

“I support the idea of a thorough and objective debate on policy matters,” he wrote, “but it does not appear that the students of Mr. Turner’s class are being exposed to both sides of the story when it comes to the communist island and its leader.”

Mr. Fossella’s office contacted Eleno Oviedo, a Cuban-born Florida resident who says he was abducted by the Cuban government while fishing in the Bahamas in 1963 and spent 26 years in prison. He was released in 1989 and soon returned to America. Mr. Oviedo agreed to tell his story to Mr. Turner’s class, should Ms. Lacey consent.

Ms. Lacey did not return repeated calls for comment yesterday. She has said she did not approve the trip, which occurred April 1–10, and that Mr. Turner arranged it on his own. City officials are investigating how the trip went forward without approval and will decide whether to refer the case to prosecutors. Federal law prohibits high school trips to Cuba. Only college- and graduate-level excursions are permitted, for a minimum of 10 weeks. Violations are subject to a fine of up $65,000, although it is unclear whether the Department of Treasury, which enforces American sanctions, is actively pursuing the case.

“I think it would be helpful for them to get another perspective, perhaps a more realistic perspective, of what life is truly like in a dictatorship in Cuba,” Mr. Fossella said yesterday, explaining that he thought the students were “getting a one-sided propaganda program.”

Mr. Fossella declined to say whether he thought Mr. Turner should be fired or fined, saying the decision should be left up to city officials.
At least two elected officials, Rep. Jerrold Nadler and Lieutenant Governor David Paterson, signed off on the trip, which followed similar tours in 2004 and 2005 that drew little public notice. It has drawn criticism from Mayor Bloomberg, along with lawmakers representing large Cuban-American communities in Florida.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Oviedo said he would be “glad” to speak to the class. He said the students’ trip was likely one of “indoctrination” rather than reality. “They would not know what really happened there,” he said.

Mr. Oviedo, 70, said he was born in Cuba but left shortly after Mr. Castro took power in 1959, having seen changes under communist rule. He joined the U.S. Army and served for two years before becoming active in the Cuban opposition movement in Miami during the early 1960s. He said he was kidnapped by Cuban officials in February 1963 while he was fishing at Elbow Key in the Bahamas. The government kept him in isolation for eight years, he said, including 126 days in solitary confinement. “They took everything from me except the floor,” he said.

Mr. Oviedo said Cuban officials even told his family that he had been executed. To protest the mistreatment in prison, he recalled, he and other captives went on a hunger strike for 36 days, consuming nothing but water. He was finally released in 1989, among the last in a group of prisoners that Mr. Castro let go in the hope of improving international relations.

Now a computer engineer, Mr. Oviedo lives with his wife, Mirta, in Sunrise, Fla. He remains active in Cuban exile community, and in May 2005 he met President Bush at the White House, along with other Cuban-Americans from South Florida, to discuss pro-democracy efforts in the country.