Cuba policy victory: travel approved in the House , 7/26

Emailing Congress

Freedom for US residents to Travel to Cuba

While the CANF rants on about the difficulties Cuban citizens may face on internal travel in Cuba, they have done their best to stop the rest of us from going to Cuba, buying votes in Congress with money from questionable sources. Here is where we can fight back as the House has passed a bill allowing Cuba travel and it will now go to the Senate. Contact your representative!

And yes, it is all residents of the US who cannot go (see Cuba Travel section).

Dear Citizens of the United States,

Please take a few minutes out of your life to take an active step in asserting your right to freedom under the Constitution, and to ultimately end the inhumane U. S. Embargo against Cuba.

On Wednesday, July 25, 2001, the U. S. House of Representatives voted to lift travel restrictions to Cuba for all U. S. citizens, the Senate will be next to decide on your freedom to travel. In the past travel to Cuba has been limited to a handfull of journalists, educators, performing artists and humanitarian groups and only under a strict license granted to them by the Treasury Department's, Office of Foreign Assets Control. For those with family in Cuba, the restrictions are unbearable, only under severe conditions is a family member allowed to visit loved ones in Cuba.

This travel restriction is part of the ongoing forty-year embargo against Cuba which was designed to weaken and ultimately destroy the communist form of leadership established in 1959 during the famous Cuban Revolution lead by Fidel Castro. The ultimate result of the U. S. Embargo is debatable but it has in fact limited our freedom as individuals to choose Cuba as a travel destination; it has limited families from freely traveling to visit loved ones; it has added to economic isolation to an already impoverished nation.

STATEMENT: In signing this, we agree that the current restrictions on travel to Cuba by U. S. Citizens are unacceptable, and hereby request that you sign the bill granting all U. S. Citizens freedom to travel to Cuba unrestricted.

1) Jane Bowling Suarez, St. Louis, MO. Owner of Planet Cuba Inc., former owner of Caribbean Music and Dance Programs, Inc., and wife of a Cuban Citizen.

2) Carol Steele, Brooklyn, New York - musician

Instructions:

1) COPY this email to a New Message (instead of a Forward). 2) Sign your full legal name, with city, state and occupation. 3) Send it to everyone on your distribution lists. 4) If you are number 200 on this list, please e-mail a copy of it to me, Jane Bowling Suarez at: wildhorsegirls@aol.com

If you decide not to sign, copy and return to me with the subject title Decline. No matter what your decision is, please pass this petition on to any one you think may be interested in this human issue of freedom. The goal is to submit this petition with no less than 25,000 names on it before the vote of the Senate.