Cuba

The State Department on Friday, May 22, took an incremental, yet important step toward reestablishing a limited diplomatic relationship with Cuba similar to what existed under the Clinton Administration -- high-level migration meetings between Havana and Washington.  See AP article here.

The nation’s policymakers woke up to this on the front page of the Washington Post:

Momentum Grows for Relaxing Cuba Policy, by Shailagh Murray and Karen DeYoung

Here is a snippet of the article:

At a Capitol Hill news conference scheduled for tomorrow, a wide array of senators and interest groups -- including Senate Democratic Policy Committee Chairman  Byron L. Dorgan (N.D.); Banking Committee Chairman  Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.);  Richard G. Lugar (Ind.), the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; and Human Rights Watch -- will rally around a potentially historic bill to lift the travel ban.

From Ethelbert Miller's E-Notes blog on Tuesday February 25, 2009 

At Ethelbert’s suggestion, I would like to invite readers to consider joining an initiative I am coordinating to help pass legislation to assure the legal right of all U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba. With Obama in the White House, the chances of success in this endeavor are better than they have been in years. But energy and passion are needed to get us there.

Last week the U.S.-Cuba Cultural Exchange released a letter from over 900 U.S. artists, arts presenters, arts educators and cultural scholars in support of cultural relations with Cuba and “travel for all.”