Cuba Call-In Days a Success
May 23, 2007

Cuba Call-In Days, May 1 and 2
Cuba Call-In days were a great success! Many, many of you wrote letting us know you called your member of Congress and both of your senators. Literally hundreds and hundreds of calls were made to bring the message to Congress that the American people want to change our Cuba policy. Thanks to your calls, persistence, and hard work, 12 new co-sponsors were added to the two bills we are promoting in the House and Senate. Since Cuba Call-In Days, 9 additional House members signed on to co-sponsor: Representatives Sanford Bishop (D-GA), Timothy Bishop (D-NY), Mary Bono (R-CA), Jerry Costello (D-IL), Jerold Nadler (D-NY), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), John Tierney (D-MA), Tom Udall (D-NM), and Anthony Weiner (D-NY) signed onto HR 654. Senators Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Bernard Sanders (I-VT), and Jim Webb (D-VA) signed on as co-sponsors to S721. Congratulations to all of those in the districts and states where members signed on. We now have 109 co-sponsors in the House and 21 in the Senate. We have exceeded our goal of 100 House co-sponsors and have more co-sponsors this year than on similar bills in previous years. See the full list of House and Senate co-sponsors on our website at www.lawg.org.

Momentum and support are building, and your calls made the difference. We anticipate that even more impact was made from Cuba Call-In Days on members who will now consider voting in favor of ending the travel ban, even if they won't cosponsor the legislation.

If you didn't make your calls on May 1 or 2, you can still join the effort and pick up the phone today. Ask your congressional delegation to support an end to the ban on travel to Cuba and to co-sponsor HR 654 (House) and S 721 (Senate). You can reach your member of Congress and senators through the Capitol Switchboard at 202.224.3121. Log onto www.house.gov to learn about your member of Congress and www.senate.gov to learn about your senators.

New Blog on Cuba
Phil Peters, the author of the Cuba Policy E-Report Newsletter from the Lexington Institute in Washington, DC, has started a new blog, The Cuban Triangle. The Cuban Triangle will cover events and debates in Cuba, Miami, and Washington and how they affect Cuba's future and U.S. relations with Cuba. Phil writes about issues such as economic policy, politics on all sides, the Posada Carriles case, both governments' policies toward travel and migration, and any news that may impact policy. Be sure to check out this new blog.

Cuban-American Advocacy Days report, May 16-17
The LAWG and our partners at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) organized two successful advocacy days in Washington, DC, last week for Cuban Americans from Miami. A group of 45 Miami Cuban Americans brought the message to Congress that Cuban Americans increasingly support travel and exchange with the island. Over the course of two days, the delegation met with 77 congressional offices! Their voice was heard loud and clear. We would like to send a special thanks to all those who came to Washington in May and in previous trips in January and March. Thank you for all your hard work.

Love, Loss and Longing Photo Exhibit Becomes a Book
We are excited to announce our photo exhibit, which documents the impact the travel ban has on Cuban-American families, is being published as a book. After a year and a half of successful touring across the United States, we will be retiring the Love, Loss and Longing photo exhibit. Once the book is complete, a copy will be provided to every member of Congress; it will be available to the general public online and, if ordered, in hard copy. You can expect more details about this later.