Center for International Policy

TOP POLITICAL, BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS LEADERS TO DISCUSS CUBA TRAVEL POLICY

Hosting 'Freedom to Travel: Forum and Day of Action'

In a few weeks, the Congress will vote on legislation to restore legal travel by Americans to Cuba. Particularly in light of the recent political crackdown, we are pleased to report that this legislation now has broader bi-partisan support in both the House and Senate than before.

Four leading organizations fighting for the repeal of the travel ban are hosting a conference on the implications of our current policy toward Cuba and the increasingly strong prospects for enacting changes in the travel ban this year.

The conference will take place July 15, 2003, from 9:30am until 12:30 pm in room 215 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Along with The Center for International Policy, the organizations hosting the conference are: the Lexington Institute, USA Engage, and the Association of Travel-Related Industry Professionals.

Among the Congressional leaders confirmed as participants, the conference will hear from: Senators Larry Craig (R-ID), Max Baucus (D-MT), Michael Enzi (R-WY) and Byron Dorgan (D-ND), along with Cuba policy leaders from the House of Representatives such as Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Jim McGover (D-MA), JoAnn Emerson (R-MO), and Bill Delahunt (D-MA). The conference will conclude with a Capitol Hill lobbying day led by Cuban-Americans devoted to changing the travel policy.

Also participating are: Jose Miguel Vivanco, Human Rights Watch; Thomas Cooper, Gulfstream International Airlines; Philip Peters, Lexington Institute; Bill Reinsch, USA Engage; Philip Lovejoy, Harvard Museum of Natural History; and Joan Slote, a former gold medal cyclist in the Senior Olympics.

The conference comes at a significant time in U.S.-Cuba relations, and will bring together in one place the foreign policy and commercial experts, the human rights advocates, the legal authorities on the latest travel restrictions and, notably, the bi-partisan House and Senate leaders most actively engaged in changing the policy.

This conference comes at a critical time for the debate on the travel ban, and should be a powerful prelude to the votes upcoming in the House and Senate.