Center for International Policy

Freedom to Travel to Cuba Forum participants

Francisco G. Aruca is the founder and current Chairman of the Board of Marazul Charters, Inc., and represents Marazul as part of ATRIP (the Association of Travel-Related Industry Professionals). Mr. Aruca is also President of Radio Progreso, Inc., which produces daily radio programs in English and Spanish in Miami.

Nancy Chang is the Senior Litigation Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York City and has played an instrumental role in its Cuba Travel Project, established in 1998 to educate the public about travel restrictions to Cuba and to provide legal representation to those subject to OFAC enforcement actions. In 2002, she twice testified before Congress in support of legislation to end restrictions on travel to Cuba.
Ms. Chang is a graduate of the New York University School of Law and currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Bar Association of the City of New York.

David Cibrian practices international and business law with the Texas-based law firm of Jenkens & Gilchrist, where he is the Managing Shareholder of the San Antonio office and a member of the Electoral/Management Committee. In addition to his law practice, Mr. Cibrian has participated in business and investment development missions to Asia and Latin America and has also testified before U.S. Congressional committees regarding U.S./Cuba foreign policy matters. Mr. Cibrian was selected by the San Antonio Business Journal as one of the business community's "Rising Stars" under the age of 40. His grandfather, a business owner in Camaguey, Cuba, was held in prison for several months after Castro took power and was released after they determined he had no formal ties to the Batista regime. Two of his uncles were involved in the Bay of Pigs invasion on the planning side in Washington. Mr. Cibrian is currently a board member of Puentes Cubanos, a pro-reconciliation and engagement organization that was recently denied its license to travel to Cuba by OFAC.

Thomas L. Cooper is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Gulfstream International Airlines. He was employed by Eastern Airlines as a pilot in 1962 and was promoted to Captain in 1973. From 1968 forward, Mr. Cooper paralleled his career at Eastern Airlines with a deep involvement in the commuter airline industry, both as an investor and a manager. He was associated with several commuter carriers, most notably Air Florida Commuter. Upon the failure of Eastern Airlines, he established Gulfstream, which in the 12 years of its operation has developed into a major regional carrier in the South Florida and Caribbean areas. In early 1996, Mr. Cooper was appointed to and served as an officer and member of the Board of Directors of the Regional Airline Association representing U.S. regional airlines and the suppliers of products and services that support the industry.

Brent Gibadlo is the Executive Director of ATRIP, the Association of Travel-Industry Professionals. By unifying the travel industry behind a common goal, the newly-created ATRIP hopes to strengthen the movement to ease and eventually eliminate travel restrictions that adversely affect the travel industry. Prior to ATRIP, Gibadlo served as the Legislative Director for Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and as an aide to former Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC). In these capacities, he focused on foreign affairs, international trade, and economic policy. During his tenure with Rep. Flake, he assisted in the creation of the U.S. House of Representatives Cuba Working Group - a bipartisan initiative to reexamine U.S. - Cuba policy. Mr. Gibadlo was also instrumental in drafting and securing passage of legislation to remove the restrictions on travel to Cuba.

Philip W. Lovejoy is Director of External Affairs of the Harvard Museum of Natural History. In addition to overseeing the museum's development efforts, he is also responsible for its leading edge affinity travel programs, escorted by Harvard scientists, that provide cultural exchanges between participants and the residents of the countries visited. Mr. Lovejoy serves on the Sustainable Tourism Committee and as a regular speaker for the Educational Travel Conference, held annually in Washington, D.C. After the museum was granted a two-year travel license for Cuba in 1999, Mr. Lovejoy escorted the first of the three educational programs to Cuba during that time frame. Upon application for renewal of its license in 2001, the museum's request was denied.

Robert L. Muse is an attorney whose practice is devoted exclusively to public and private international law with a particular emphasis on U.S. laws relating to Cuba. He has testified on international law issues before various committees of the U.S. Congress, the Canadian House of Commons and the European Parliament. He is a member of the American Society of International Law and the American Branch of the International Law Association, and has published widely in legal and academic journals. A native of Southern Arizona, Mr. Muse is a graduate of Georgetown University's Law School. Before beginning legal studies and practice in Washington, D.C., he qualified as a barrister (Middle Temple) in England.

Philip Peters joined the Lexington Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan public policy research organization based in Arlington, Virginia as Vice President in April 1999. He has responsibility for international economic programs with a focus on Latin America. A Cuba expert, Mr. Peters has traveled throughout the island to monitor the market-based changes in Cuba's economy. He is also an analyst of U.S. policy toward Cuba. Mr. Peters is an advisor to the Cuba Working Group that formed in January 2002 in the House of Representatives. He has testified before Congress and the U.S. International Trade Commission and served as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations Task Force on U.S.-Cuba Relations. Prior to joining Lexington, Mr. Peters served as a State Department appointee of Presidents Reagan and Bush (six years), as a senior aide in the House of Representatives, and as a senior fellow at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution.

Bill Reinsch currently serves as President of the National Foreign Trade Council. The NFTC, founded in 1914, is the oldest and largest business association dedicated solely to trade policy, export finance, international tax, and human resource issues. As president, Reinsch oversees NFTC's efforts in favor of open markets, in support of Eximbank and OPIC, against unilateral sanctions and in support of sound international tax policy, among many other international trade and tax issues of concern to U.S. business. In his role as NFTC president, Reinsch also serves as co-chairman of USA*Engage, a business and agriculture coalition formed by NFTC in 1997 to seek alternatives to the proliferation of unilateral U.S. foreign policy sanctions, and to promote the benefits of U.S. engagement abroad. Concurrently, Mr. Reinsch serves as a member of the U.S.-China Security Review Commission. Prior to joining the NFTC, Reinsch served as the Under Secretary for Export Administration in the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Dorothy Robyn, a Senior Advisor with the Brattle Group, a prestigious economic consulting firm in Washington D.C., brings 20 years of experience analyzing, implementing and working to reform government regulatory and economic policy. As a senior economic adviser to President Clinton, she was responsible for coordinating Administration policy on transportation and infrastructure, aerospace, defense and competition. She oversaw the Administration's strategy to promote domestic airline competition and open foreign markets to U.S. air carriers; led its effort to reform air traffic control; and coordinated interagency initiatives to expand competition in international telecommunications, defense procurement, intrastate trucking and postal delivery. She is the author of a book on transportation deregulation, numerous reports and articles on federal technology policy and procurement reform, and several recent articles advocating market-based reform of aviation infrastructure.

Wynn H. Segall is a partner in the International Section of the law firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, L.L.P., resident in the firm's Washington, D.C. office. His work focuses on U.S. international trade policy and regulation as it affects a wide range of industries, including the agricultural, medical, biotechnology, energy, telecommunications, semiconductor, electronics and financial services sectors. He is particularly well known for his work on U.S. export control and economic sanctions issues and other market access trade policy concerns. As an attorney in private practice, Mr. Segall has helped U.S. and foreign clients resolve concerns in these areas, issues arising in bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations and agreements, including the WTO/GATT and NAFTA, and trade disputes arising under the U.S. fair trade laws. In addition, he is a well-known author and speaker on these issues.

Joan Slote trained as a radiology technician at Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia and Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester New York. Slote later worked for Xerox Medical Systems, which developed mammography. There she educated X-ray technicians about xeroradiography. Twenty years ago, she took her first bike tour from San Francisco to San Luis Obispo. Slote is a gold medal-winning cyclist in the Senior Olympics, and has biked in 20 countries and 36 states. After going on a biking tour to Cuba arranged by a Canadian tour agency that told her the trip was legal for Americans, the 75-year old
grandmother from San Diego unknowingly ran afoul of the U.S. government. Now
the U.S. Treasury Department is threatening to withhold her Social Security checks. In addition to biking 100 to 150 miles a week, Slote tutors elementary school children in reading, volunteers for Voices for Children and is a volunteer usher at the opera, symphony and various theatres in San Diego.

José Miguel Vivanco is the Director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch. Vivanco holds a Master's degree in Law (LLM) from Harvard Law School. He previously studied law at the University of Chile, and then at Salamanca Law School in Spain. During 1986 and 1987 he worked as an attorney at Human Rights Watch, then known as Americas Watch. From 1987 to 1989, Mr. Vivanco was an attorney for the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS). In 1990 he founded the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) and functioned as its executive director until August 1994. (CEJIL is an NGO that files complaints before international human rights bodies (UN and the OAS) for human rights violations.) In September 1994, José Miguel Vivanco became executive director of the Americas Division of Human Rights Watch. Mr. Vivanco has also been an Adjunct Professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center and the School of Advanced International Studies of the John Hopkins University.