by Emily Chow
on February 08, 2012
Taking advantage of President Obama’s liberalized regulations that have re-established people-to-people licensed travel to Cuba, members of LAWG staff partnered with Witness for Peace and led a delegation of 25 people to study and learn about the art and culture of Cuba. Our delegation met with artists such as Sandra Ramos, Kadir and Kelvin Lopez, saw performances by students in one of Havana’s many schools for the arts, visited Ernest Hemingway’s home, witnessed the magic of the Cuba National Ballet, participated in folkloric dance led by a community group “Okantomi,” dialogued with members of the Cuban National Assembly, Ministry of Foreign Relations, Ministry of Tourism, Union of Artists and Writers, and the United States Interests Section in Havana.
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by Emily Chow
on November 29, 2011
Last night on "Strategy Session with Antonio Gonzalez" on 90.7 KPFK, LAWG's Senior Associate, Mavis Anderson, discussed the current political reality of U.S. policy towards Cuba. While there are some who will criticize President Obama's slow movement in changing our outdated Cuba policy, "kudos should be given where kudos are due," says Anderson. Obama has made some of the changes available to him under executive authority in permitting Cuban Americans to travel freely back and forth to the island, liberalizing the travel licensing process, and also issuing a veto threat if any legislation is proposed in Congress that aims at repealing his positive changes.
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by Emily Chow
on December 15, 2011
Congressman José Serrano (NY-16) issued a statement today saying he was "shocked and apalled" at the "heartless approach" by House Republicans to shut down all family travel to Cuba during the holiday season (read full press release below). Rolled into a spending “Megabus” bill that is being pushed through Congress is language that would restrict family travel to Cuba for Cuban Americans to once every three years, no exceptions. However, not only does this amendment, led by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, separate families, it also redefines what constitutes a family circle, limiting the definition to immediate family only.
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by Collin Laverty, Cuba Consultant at Center for Democracy in the Americas
on November 15, 2011
Significant changes being implemented by the Cuban government to permanently alter the island's economy have so far fallen on deaf ears in Washington.
A new report by the Center for Democracy in the Americas, Cuba’s New Resolve: Economic Reform and its Implications for U.S. Policy, identifies a number of measures the Obama administration should take to support and facilitate the economic reform process in Cuba. According to the report, Cuba is undergoing the most significant changes to its socialist system since the 1959 Revolution. Despite moves to increase the private sector, decentralize decision-making, increase autonomy for farmers and "a fundamental shift in economic thinking," the Obama administration has downplayed the reforms as insufficient.
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by Katherine Trujillo
on December 09, 2011
Last week, the Latin America Working Group partnered with the Center for International Policy to host a conference examining Cuba’s placement on the State Department’s list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. Along with Mavis Anderson from LAWG, speakers included renowned Cuba experts Wayne Smith (Center for International Policy), Robert Muse (Muse and Associates), Carlos Alzugaray (University of Havana), Sarah Stephens (Center for Democracy in the Americas), and Arturo Lopez-Levy (University of Denver). Each panelist spoke critically of this designation, which has served to hurt Cubans rather than affect political changes in Cuba, or combat real terrorist threats.
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by Wayne Smith
on October 24, 2011
As a follow-up to our blog on "La Colmenita" (the Cuban children’s youth theater) last week, today we are happy to host a guest blog post from Wayne Smith of the Center for International Policy and former chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana from 1979-1982.
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