2008

A House subcommittee (Financial Services) on June 17th added language to the appropriations bill that would ease travel restrictions for Cuban Americans wishing to visit family and would facilitate agricultural sales to Cuba. The result of the subcommittee meeting is an appropriations bill that allows for Cuban Americans to travel to Cuba once per year and expands the definition of family to include cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews.

Last year the Congress made many positive changes in U.S. policy towards Colombia—changes that couldn't have been made without committed activists like you picking up the phone, demanding your voice be heard. With the foreign aid subcommittees in the House and Senate set to "markup" their respective bills in mid-July, it's time to call your representative and senators and urge them to stand by Colombia's victims of violence.

We want to begin by thanking you for your generous contributions to our Cuba policy work; we are within a few hundred dollars of reaching our goal! With these kind donations, we are hard at work setting up book parties and travel trainings around the country. If you’d like to be part of this cross-country training effort, be sure to contact us so we can work with you to add your group and location to the schedule.

This past Sunday, thousands rallied in Ciudad Juarez to call for peace in the wake of a recent surge of drug cartel-related violence. The U.S. needs to do its part as well, but the United States should not increase human rights violations by backing the army's role in domestic law enforcement.

Last week, the full House of Representatives approved a resolution to remove “fast track” language from the U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement by a vote of 224 to 195. See how your representative voted. Thank your member of Congress if they voted to “stop the clock” on the trade pact. If they voted no, let them know your concerns about the Colombia FTA.

Call your member of Congress today! Representatives Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) are circulating a “dear colleague” letter to President Uribe over the recent wave of threats against, and targeted killings of, human rights defenders, trade unionists, and others in Colombia.

At the end of last month, Senators Dodd (D-CT) and Feingold (D-WI) sent a “dear colleague” letter to Secretary of State Rice expressing concern over the increase in civilian killings by the Colombian Army in recent years. Click here to read the letter and here to see if your senators signed it. Many thanks to everyone who called in and wrote emails to their senators—sending a strong human rights message to Secretary Rice would not have been possible without our collective efforts!

We hope that you have been keeping up with the news on Cuba (one great source is through signing up for weekly news reviews from CubaCentral.com ), as Cuba has been getting a lot of ink in the past couple of weeks. We last sent you an update on February 19 with the news about Fidel's resignation. Since then, as you certainly know, Cuba has a new President, the Bush Administration has reacted predictably, and Congress is making noise about re-visiting U.S.-Cuba policy-with an eye to revising it. House Letter, Senate Letter

By now you have seen the news - Fidel Castro announced early this morning that he will not seek or accept the position of President or Commander and Chief of Cuba. His announcement comes less then a week before Cuba's National Assembly is scheduled to meet to vote for the next President of the island.