End the Travel Ban on Cuba

Thank you, Mr. President. After this summer’s buzzing rumors regarding some kind of White House action, the Obama Administration has today announced new regulations governing U.S. citizen travel to Cuba. It is a large step forward, and comes in the wake of a disappointing missed opportunity by the Congress to change the law. We congratulate the White House on their forward-looking decision. And we congratulate all of you for the hard and dedicated work you contributed to this achievement. Thank you, Cuba Advocates!

For many months—almost two years actually—we’ve focused on congressional action that would definitively end the ban on travel to Cuba; we felt that we had a real opportunity in the 111th Congress to radically alter the stale debate that had developed in Washington DC during the Bush Administration. We succeeded in changing the debate, but so far the policy has not changed. 

Send Obama a message

The LAWG and our supporters have always advocated for exchange between U.S. citizens and the Cuban people through the arts and culture, academic and student travel, religious/humanitarian groups, sports, and other people-to-people exchanges. At this critical moment, we are calling on everyone across the United States who supports increasing people-to-people contact between Cuba and the United States to join this advocacy campaign directed at the White House!

We expect you have been pondering the impact of the recent elections on the work we have been doing together to end the travel ban on Cuba and move our two countries toward a respectful, humane relationship. We have been doing the same, and we want to share some thoughts with you.

The electoral outcome has left us, as they say, “Close, but no cigar.”  (We could skip the cigar  . . .  although a mojito, maybe two, could help after working so hard these past couple of years.)