Cuban School Children

Since 1989, Global Exchange has played a leading role in the national campaign to normalize relations with Cuba our Caribbean neighbor. Our primary goals are:

-End the U.S. blockade of Cuba

-End travel restrictions between the U.S. and Cuba

-Get Cuba removed from the U.S. list of “potential terrorist countries”

-Support and learn from Cuba’s struggles and successes in achieving sustainable development.

To this end Global Exchange organizes Reality Tours to Cuba. Learn more about how to travel to Cuba here.

Take action and support The International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban 5’s call to solidarity organizations and friends in the United States to support ‘5 consecutive days of freedom for the Cuban 5′, April 17-21 in Washington DC. Action in DC will include a demonstration and lobbying efforts, and thousands of ‘Obama, Give Me Five’ posters will be placed throughout the city.

Obama... Give me five!

Background on the Cuban 5: They are Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, Ramón Labañino Salazar, Rene González Sehwerert, Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez and Fernando González Llort and in 1998, they were imprisoned in the United States. Danny Glover explains their case here in Danny Glover on the Five.

For a more detailed account of their case, read here. Also, check out the documentary called, ‘Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up?

Past Reality Tours participant Bill Patterson wrote this reflection on the changes that Fidel’s revolution brought to Cuba. For more information read here.

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruiz

By Bill Patterson

Cuba, after half a century of our country’s less than benevolent despotism was a small, plundered shell of a nation controlled by bloody handed President-dictator Fulgencio Batista, United States financial interests and the Mafia gambling structure. Over one-half of the 6,500,000 population lived in slums without electricity or sanitation. There were over 600,000 workers unemployed. Over 70% of the children had no teachers. Illiteracy was 37.5%. United States financial interests owned or controlled 80% of farm land, power generating companies, telephone services and banking interests, In the 1950-1960 decade the balance of payments favored U.S. interests by one billion dollars!

Cuban Doctor

When Fidel’s revolution triumphed in 1959 other militant rebel groups faded, including the Communist Party with which he later united. Victorious Fidel fit the classic description of a multi-talented Renaissance Man. Famed as a military conqueror, he was a skilled head of state, athlete, educator and humanitarian. While traditional Western governments might scoff at the unconventional Latin leader, none duplicated his generosity in nationalizing his family’s 25,000 acre ranch property!

Smarting financially from U.S. industries’ financial losses our government chose to militarily reverse Cuba’s political independence. Cubans defeated the counter-revolutionary army at the Bay of Pigs with surprising ease, capturing thousands of mercenaries.

Our CIA attempted eight highly imaginative attempts to assassinate Fidel. It’s efforts to destabilize fragile Cuba included 5,780 acts of sabotage, terrorism and subversion between January and August in 1962. The Cuban Olympic fencing team was destroyed when the CIA downed their aircraft in 1976.

That the world’s strongest nation would label tiny Cuba a terrorist state and impose decades of cruel sanctions is shameful. One wonders if freedom and independence of small Latin countries is tolerable only if financial bondage is demanded and granted.

Sources: First paragraph statistics are from Fidel’s address to the United Nations September 26,1960, reported by Julio Garcia Luis, Dean, U. of Havana, Cuban Revolution Reader. Third paragraph statistics are fromFabian Escalante Font: The Secret War: Covert Operations Against Cuba 1959-62.

Join us for a webinar on March 1st at Noon (PST) to learn about what the recent changes to US travel restrictions to Cuba mean for you. We’ll explore the opportunities ahead and what the ongoing constraints still are without normalized diplomatic relations between our countries.

Global Exchange Reality Tours Cuba experts will discuss these topics with a policy analyst and a Cuba-expert lawyer. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn.

There will be a Q&A session after the presentation and you can ask your question via chat-room or phone. Please, join us and help us out by forwarding this message to your friends.

To participate register today at: http://www.globalexchange.org/travelcuba

Suggested donation: $5-$20 sliding scale
If you cannot attend you will receive a recording of the webinar audio.

What people said about past Global Exchange webinars:
“A force multiplier”
“An excellent webinar filled with useful information”
“Nice job. Well worth the $10.”
“It was indeed informative.”
“Very well run.”
“Thanks so much. That was awesome.”
“Gracias to you all….very informative, very helpful!”

Just added (2/1/11) to this post: Scroll below to learn about a petition you can sign to take action.

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So can I travel to Cuba or not? That’s what many Americans are wondering since the Obama administration’s January 14th announcement that it is lifting some government-imposed restrictions on travel to Cuba for several categories of U.S. citizens. Once the regulations are public and finalized, certain types of travelers, with proper licenses,  in these categories will potentially be able to visit the country:

• College students
• People engaged in journalism
• Those sponsored by religious organizations

So if you fall into one of these categories, your chances of traveling to Cuba just improved!

Under the new policy, which is still being finalized, students from accredited colleges and universities may now travel to Cuba on what is known as a “general” license, meaning they don’t have to seek individual permission from the government as long as they meet certain criteria. This also applies to Americans traveling there for “journalistic activities” or under the auspices of religious groups.

In addition, non-profit organizations (including Global Exchange) will once again be able to apply to the Treasury Department for a license to arrange “people to people” travel to Cuba, which we did through our Reality Tours program from 2000 to 2004.

Beginning in 2004, however, the Bush administration restricted the number of Americans allowed to travel to Cuba to a handful of specific professions, such as full-time journalists and academics. Despite various government restrictions, more than 15,000 people have traveled to Cuba as part of a Reality Tour in the past 22 years.

Global Exchange Director of Reality Tours Malia Everette explains:

About half of the roughly 90 trips we arrange each year are to Cuba, including our most popular series called ‘Cuba at the Crossroads’, which allowed Americans who wouldn’t have qualified to travel there under a ‘professional’ license to see the country for themselves. Those trips enabled them to experience everyday life in Cuba under the effects of the U.S. embargo, and see how it is transitioning into a more dynamic and sustainable society.

Guess how many nations in the world deny its citizens the right to travel freely to Cuba? One. In fact, the U.S. remains the only nation in the world that denies its citizens the right to travel freely to Cuba. It has no similar restrictions on travel to any other countries — including Iran and North Korea, members of President Bush’s so-called “axis of evil” to which Reality Tours also organizes delegations.

Walter Turner, president of Global Exchange’s board of directors and host of the popular Pacifica Radio program “Africa Today “ warns that these recent changes in Cuba travel policy should not stop here:

The new regulations give our Reality Tours participants new options for much-needed exchange between the people of the U.S. and Cuba, but while we appreciate this opening, it still doesn’t fully recognize the right of ordinary U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba freely, as they can do to any other nation, to learn about the world. If we’re going to promote human rights abroad, we need to respect the rights of our own citizens here at home.”

For more information about traveling to Cuba, updates on the forthcoming regulations, including the resumption of the popular “Cuba at the Crossroads” series, or trips to more than 30 other countries around the world, visit www.realitytours.org.

Take Action!
And now, a few words from our friends The LAWG (Latin America Working Group) Cuba Team:

Clearly there  is more work to be done to change U.S. policy toward Cuba, but we think a “thank you” to the President and encouragement to do more is appropriate. By clicking here, you can send an email to the White House with a message of thanks and a request for more. You will be able to edit the letter to the President to add your own comments (it is best to be brief).

The House Committee on Foreign Affairs (HCFA) will vote on HR 4645 on Wednesday, September 29, at noon. This means that they will be considering whether to lift the travel ban on Cuba . . . or not.

Global Exchange has provided you with all the information you need to understand HR 4645 and what you can do to make it pass!

We can win this, just like we won in the House Committee on Agriculture, with your help! . . . but we do need YOU, again! TAKE ACTION TODAY.

We’ve asked, for months now, for you to contact your congressperson about HR 4645. Every time we’ve asked you’ve delivered, above our highest expectations.

At each step of this drawn-out process — to end this ridiculous travel ban — your persistence with Congress has proven fruitful. We’ve gotten hearings, we’ve broadened our spectrum of support, we’ve racked-up co-sponsors, and we passed HR 4645 through the Agriculture Committee. Now we come to you again, expressing the same sense of urgency, and asking you help us take the next BIG step on the path to end the travel ban.

If your member of Congress serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee, your voice is supremely important. Find out if your member is part of this committee.

Send another letter, make another phone call. Please.  Send another e-mail message. It works. It has gotten us this far.

We can’t make guarantees about this effort, but we can assure you that, day-in and day-out, dedicated progressive Cuba workers, who are part of our network, are on Capitol Hill doing everything they can to end the travel ban on Cuba. Partner with us, and we can win this.

So please click the link and send an email. It only takes a second, but that second can move mountains.

P.S.
We wish to thank our colleagues in Washington, DC at the Latin America Working Group (LAWG) who have done so much this year, and during the last decade, to keep us informed about upcoming legislation impacting U.S. Cuba Policy!

P.P.S. For those of you who live in four particular congressional districts, the “undecideds,” our sister organization Witness for Peace is arranging a group office visits with banners and press presence.  Here is the information for anyone who wants to join!  We strongly encourage your participation!

Brad Miller, Raleigh, North Carolina, District 13
Monday September 27 at 11 am
1300 St. Mary’s Street, Suite 504 Raleigh, NC 27605.
Contact: Gail Phares, gailphares@earthlink.net or phone 919-624-0646

Brad Sherman, Sherman Oaks California, District 27
Monday September  27 at 4 pm
5000 Van Nuys Blvd., Suite 420 Sherman Oaks, CA  91403
Contact: Tanya Cole, wfpsw@witnessforpeace.org or phone 805-421-9708

Gabby Giffords, Tucson, Arizona, District 8
Monday September  27 at 4 pm
1661 N. Swan, Suite 112 Tucson, AZ 85712
Contact: Tanya Cole, wfpsw@witnessforpeace.org or phone 805-421-9708

Elton Gallegly, Thousand Oaks, California, District 24
Tuesday September  28 at 4 pm
2829 Townsgate Road, Suite 315, Thousand Oaks, CA 91361-3018
Contact: Tanya Cole, wfpsw@witnessforpeace.org or phone 805-421-9708

It’s not every day that we get to write you about a historic legislative victory for a more humane, sensible, and just U.S. policy towards Cuba; but today isn’t just any old day. In a thrilling “mark-up” session Wednesday in the House Committee on Agriculture, H.R. 4645, the “Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act” was passed by 25 votes to 20, putting us one step closer to ending the travel ban this year, in this Congress.

Wednesday’s mark-up session was quite the roller-coaster ride. It lasted three gut-wrenching hours and it seemed like everything, including the kitchen sink, was thrown at this bill by freedom to travel’s opponents. Visit our blog to see a play-by-play of the action in the committee.

This news is cause to celebrate (the long weekend ahead is the perfect time, no?), but the celebration can’t last long. Wednesday’s victory demonstrates that our collective efforts are making an impact. The members of the Agriculture Committee were bombarded with messages encouraging them to show up to this mark-up and to support the Chairman in his effort to do away with an anachronistic and isolationist policy. Agriculture Committee Chairman Peterson should be applauded for moving this bill forward in the House, but doing so didn’t come without a cost. Since we can’t count on the members who voted to report the bill out of committee to vote with us on the House floor, we need to thank them for their support now (you can bet the opposition is contacting these members, too, but the message isn’t as friendly). In Washington, it often takes courage to do what is right and we should acknowledge it when it happens.

Agriculture Committee members who voted in favor of H.R. 4645 and U.S. citizens’ right to travel to Cuba:
(If your member is on this list, please call the office and thank her/him heartily. Capitol Switchboard – 202.224.3121):

Boccieri (D, OH-16) Kagen (D, WI-8) Boswell (D, IA-3) Kratovil (D, MD-1) Bright (D, AL-2) Lummis (R, WY-At large) Cardoza (D, CA-18) Markey (D, CO-4) Cassidy (R, LA-6) Minnick (D, ID-1) Childers (D, MS-1) Moran, Jerry (R, KS-1) Costa (D, CA-20) Murphy, Scott (D, NY-20) Cuellar (D, TX-28) Owens (D, NY-23) Ellsworth (D, IN-8) Peterson, Collin (D, MN-7) Halvorson (D, IL-11) Pomeroy (D, ND-At large) Herseth-Sandlin (D, SD-At large) Scott, David (D, GA-13) Holden (D, PA-17) Walz (D, MN-1) Johnson, Tim (R- IL-15)

We must also make clear to those members who voted against the majority of U.S. citizens, major human rights organizations, the religious community, the business community, U.S. farmers, Cuban Americans, academics, and countless others, that their decision will not go unnoticed. Please register your disappointment with your member’s office if she/he appears on the list below.

Agriculture Committee members who voted against H.R. 4645 and U.S. citizens’ right to travel to Cuba:

Baca (D, CA-43) Neugebauer (R, TX-19) Conaway (R, TX-11) Roe (R, TN-1) Dahlkemper (D, PA-3) Rogers, Michael (R, AL-3) Fortenberry (R, NE-1) Rooney (R, FL-16) Goodlatte (R, VA-6) Schauer (D, MI-7) Graves (R, MO-6) Schmidt (R, OH-2) King (R, IA-5) Schrader (D, OR-5) Lucas (R, OK-3) Smith, Adrian (R, NE-3) Luetkemeyer (R, MO-9) Thompson, Glenn (R, PA-5) Marshall (D, GA-8) McIntyre (D, NC-7)

Your efforts made this victory possible; but, although this vote was historic, the ban on travel to Cuba is not yet history. The next step is to get this bill to the House floor before election fever kicks into full gear–and to do that, we’ll need to redouble our efforts in the coming weeks.

Congress will be in recess all next week, many in their home districts.  Their first full day of work will begin around July 13.  There will be further updates, after the July 4th holiday weekend on which Congress people to focus our attention on.

Stay tuned!

The next step for this bill is a vote on the floor of the House, which is scheduled for the week after the July 4th holiday weekend.  We are told we still need around 13 votes, and that Speaker Pelosi will help us get them.

The debate on the bill began at 2:00 pm, EST, was interrupted once for a floor vote on another issue, and survived five attempts at amendments which would have eliminated or weakened the travel portion of the bill, four from Republicans and one from a Democrat.

Fortunately, for three hours, Chairman Peterson (D- MN) held tightly to procedural rules.  Both parties were allowed to express their reservations, but ultimately the Chairman and his Democratic majority prevailed.

Tomorrow we will get word from our sister organizations in Washington DC about next steps for us in this struggle.  We still have to survive a vote on the full floor of the House and the Senate!

We’ll keep you posted!

Additional Resources:
Press Release from the House Agricultural Committee, House Agriculture Committee Approves Historic Legislation to Expand Agriculture Trade with Cuba.

But first, if you’re wondering where things stand with the Cuba Travel Ban, check out Pamela Montanaro’s blog post ‘Help Re-Claim Freedom to Travel to Cuba.

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Dear Supporter,

Freedom to travel’s moment has arrived! Wednesday, June 30, the House Agriculture Committee will vote on H.R. 4645, the “Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act”, championed by Ag Committee Chairman Collin Peterson.

What happens Wednesday will determine if this landmark legislation–which restores U.S. citizens’ right to travel to Cuba, creates jobs here at home, and puts food on Cubans’ tables–sees the light of day on the House floor this summer or dies in committee.

Until the legislation makes it out of the Ag Committee (only a day longer), that’s where our focus must be; but we’ll be contacting you again shortly to ask for your help in getting this bill passed in the full House and on to the Senate. We anticipate that to happen after the July 4 recess.

The LAWG Cuba Team will be on the Hill (in 1300 Longworth) Wednesday at 2pm EST to see history happen in person. You can tune in through the Ag Committee’s website and follow our Twitter feed since we will be live-tweeting the event.

Wednesday is a big day for U.S. citizens, the Cuban people, and the future of relations between the United States and Cuba. We’ll be in touch soon.

Sincerely,
Mavis, Paulo, and Travis
The LAWG Cuba Team

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Here are 3 ways to stay informed and get involved in the efforts to end the Cuba travel ban:

1. Sign up to receive future letters like the one above. Join the LAWG Email List.
2. Visit Global Exchange’s Freedom to travel to Cuba page. There you’ll find updates, resources, and suggested action steps you can take.
3. Sign up for Global Exchange’s Cuba News Email List:  (check “Cuba News” on the list)

Wondering where things stand with the Cuba travel ban and how you can make your voice heard? Pam Montanaro, Coordinator of Global Exchange’s Eco Cuba Exchange, with the support of Leslie Balog and Drea Hightower of Global Exchange’s Cuba Reality Tours, have summed it up for you:

Freedom to Travel to Cuba!
Now is the time to get every possible YES vote for H.R. 4645, the “Freedom to Travel to Cuba” Bill, now known as the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act.

This bill restores our right to travel to Cuba and lifts restrictions on agricultural sales to Cuba. It will be voted on in the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture during the month of June. Then it will move to the Floor of the House and Speaker Pelosi will bring every possible Democrat on board. President Barack Obama will then sign this bill into law.

This is the best opportunity we’ve had in years to end the Cuba travel restrictions and maybe our last chance for the next several years.

This bill will pass in the Senate with 62 YES votes! We now have 205 YES votes in the House. We only need 13 more votes!
If you’re wondering who’s on the fence, check out the swing votes.

Are you in a power position? If you are a constituent of one of the swing vote representatives, or know someone who is, you are in a powerful position to help pass this Bill!

Here’s what to do:

1) Go to the Global Exchange Cuba bill info page for more information on this bill and what you can do to help get it passed. There you will find the complete text of the bill, talking points, and exactly what to say to your Congressperson.

2) Help us spread the word by forwarding this post on to your friends, family, and colleagues. Include a personal note letting them know why this issue is important to you. Ask that they, too, email and call their congressperson’s office.

3) Forward the information here to any businesspeople, farmers,  farmers associations, travel agents,  travel associations, municipal and church leaders, or other influential constituents who’d be willing to weigh in with your congressperson along with your personal note.

Lifting the travel ban is within our grasp. It hasn’t been easy to get here. Let’s make sure that all the emails, calls, letters-to-the-editor, delegations to Cuba, and rallies over the last fifty years pay off this year, in this Congress, by acting today!