Milwaukee teacher Omar Barberena will present a multimedia report on his recent Witness for Peace trip to Cuba on Tuesday, January 24, at 7:30pm, at Central United Methodist Church (639 N. 25th St., Milwaukee). A native of Nicaragua, he has traveled widely in Latin America and Europe, and plans to lead a trip to Cuba later this year.

Mr. Barberena met with economists, authors, grassroots citizens, the President of the Cuban Supreme Court, and the founder of the faith-based Martin Luther King Center in Havana. He will share his pictures of Cuba today, what he learned about its recent economic reforms, and his impressions on how the US embargo affects Cuban lives.

The US is the only country that restricts its citizens from traveling to Cuba, but exceptions are made for religious and some other groups, and charters for US cruise ships to Cuba are being projected to coincide with Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Cuba in March, 2012.

This talk is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations With Cuba (414-273-1040, www.wicuba.org), Peace Action-WI, and the Latin America Solidarity Committee.

See our Upcoming Events page for more info and event flyer!

Pope Approves Cuba Visit Agenda

Fox News:  January 2, 2012

Pope  Benedict XVI approved the itinerary for the trip he will make on March 26-28  to Cuba, where he will  be received by President Raul  Castro, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Cuba, or COCC, said Sunday.

The pontiff will travel from Mexico to the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba,  944 kilometers (585 miles) from Havana, on March 26, arriving in the early  afternoon and “will be officially received by President Raul Castro Ruz, by the  Catholic Bishops Conference of Cuba and by the archbishop of this city,”  Dionisio Garcia, the COCC said in a statement.

The 84-year-old Benedict XVI will travel to Mexico and then to Cuba on his  second visit to Latin  America – he was in Brazil  in 2007 – and his first to Spanish-speaking countries in the region.

The pope’s trip will coincide with the celebration on the island of the 400th  anniversary of the discovery of the image of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre,  Cuba’s patron saint.

The pontiff will be transported in an open vehicle from the airport to the  archbishopric in Santiago de Cuba and on the afternoon of his arrival he will  celebrate an open-air Mass on the Plaza de la Revolucion Antonio Maceo for the  Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, the COCC said.

Later, he will travel to the nearby provincial town of El Cobre, where he  will be housed in the priests’ residence and the next day he will make a private  visit to the sanctuary of the Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre there to “pray for  several minutes” before the saint’s venerated image.

In August 2010, the image of the Virgin of Charity, accompanied by church  authorities, began an unprecedented tour of the island, traveling some 30,000  kilometers (18,600 miles) to churches, schools, hospitals, prisons and public  squares all over the country, a pilgrimage that concluded last Dec. 30 with a  farewell Mass in Havana.

The pope’s visit to Cuba will conclude in Havana, where upon his arrival in  the capital at midday on March 27, he will be welcomed at Jose Marti airport by  Cardinal Jaime Ortega, auxiliary bishops, religious and civil officials.

On that day, Benedict XVI will officially meet with Castro and also with  Cuban Catholic authorities at the Apostolic Nunciature, where he will be  staying.

Rounding out his agenda, the pope is scheduled on March 28 to celebrate a  Mass on Havana’s emblematic Plaza de la Revolution Jose Marti.

The pontiff’s visit will be the second by a pope to Cuba, after John Paul  II’s “historic” 1998 trip to the island.

Find this story on the web here.

FREE and open to the public!

Info on Mr. Barrios:

Dr. Barrios recently spent a year researching the development of political community around the immigration/emigration issues and injustices at the Dominican–Haitian border. He contributed to help confront problems of crime, law enforcement and security, public policy and human rights violations, and to better appreciate the significance of the cross-border dimension for promoting peace and reconciliation. (Also, see below for a description of his prior work on the effects of US deportations of Dominican immigrants, Banished to the Homeland: Dominican Deportees and Their Stories of Exile.)

Banished to the Homeland: Dominican Deportees and Their Stories of Exile

The 1996 U.S. Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act has led to the forcible deportation of more than thirty thousand Dominicans from the United States, with little protest or even notice from the public. Since these deportees return to the country of their origin, many Americans assume repatriation will be easy and the emotional and financial hardships will be few, but in fact the opposite is true. Deportees suffer greatly when they are torn from their American families and social networks, and they are further demeaned as they resettle former homelands, blamed for crime waves, cultural and economic decline, and other troubles largely beyond their control.

Following thousands of Dominican deportees over a seven-year period, David C. Brotherton and Luis Barrios capture the experience of emigration, imprisonment, banishment, and repatriation on this vulnerable population. Through a unique combination of sociological and criminological reasoning, they isolate the forces that motivate immigrants to leave their homeland and then commit crimes that violate the very terms of their stay. Housed in urban landscapes rife with gangs, drugs, and tenuous working conditions, these individuals, the authors find, repeatedly play out a tragic scenario, influenced by long-standing historical injustices, punitive politics, and increasingly conservative attitudes undermining basic human rights and freedoms. Brotherton and Barrios conclude that a simultaneous process of cultural inclusion and socioeconomic exclusion best explains the trajectory of emigration, settlement, and rejection, and they mark in the behavior of deportees the contradictory effects of dependency and colonialism: the seductive draw of capitalism typified by the American dream versus the material needs of immigrant life; the interests of an elite security state versus the desires of immigrant workers and families to succeed; and the ambitions of the Latino community versus the political realities of those designing crime and immigration laws, which always disadvantage these poor and vulnerable populations. Filled with riveting life stories and uncommon ethnographic research, Banished to the Homeland relates the modern deportee’s journey to broader theoretical studies of transnationalism, assimilation, and social control, exposing the dangerous new reality created by today’s draconian immigration policies.

We hope you can join  us!

For two weeks in early July, the Pastors will travel through 130 cities in Canada and the US along thirteen routes meeting with community groups, church congregations and gathering construction supplies, medical equipment, educational, cultural equipment as donations to church groups in Cuba. “We are responding to a call for help from our brothers and sisters in a neighboring country. We don’t need a license” Rev. Barrios explained what he planned to tell the US officials at the border crossing in McAllen Texas.

He said that Cuba is a poor country but one with “dignity and integrity.” Barrios explained that since Cuba gained its “fake independence” from Spain in 1898 the US controlled all political and economic aspects of the island. It wasn’t until the Revolution that the Cubans retook control from the US. However “challenging US policy has its consequences.” Barrios detailed the US reaction in planning the Bay of Pigs, the CIA plots to kill Castro and the 78 special agents that are assigned to this day to the project to destabilize Cuba. He compared this to the three agents that were assigned to the attempts to find Bin Laden, questioning the priorities.  He intoned, “US foreign policy is the problem.”

Despite the blockade and other US attempts to undermine the economic and political system, Cuba has developed a world renowned medical system. Cuba seeks to share its medical system with the world by sending medical brigades to assist in crises such as Haiti’s earthquake last year. They also train medical students from many countries, including 125 students from the US in exchange for a pledge from the young doctors that they will use there medical skills in underserved communities. One of those students, Joya Mosley from Milwaukee explained that the 6 year program “goes pretty fast.” She said that she looked forward to coming home and getting a chance to use her training to serve her community here in Milwaukee but that “Cuba is like a second home.”

Many on the caravan share that sense of friendship with the Cuban people. Scot MacGregor, the driver of the school bus that is carrying the caravanistas and the aid, said that he was a veteran of past caravans that have been stopped at the US-Mexican border. Despite the hassles he says he is looking forward to doing it all again, “it’s a powerful experience.”

]]> http://wicuba.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/love-is-our-license/feed/ 0 wicuba 527 548 http://wicuba.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/pastors-for-peaceifcos-co-director-ellen-bernstein-speaking-on-uscuba-relations-and-our-right-to-travel/ http://wicuba.wordpress.com/2011/04/23/pastors-for-peaceifcos-co-director-ellen-bernstein-speaking-on-uscuba-relations-and-our-right-to-travel/#comments Sat, 23 Apr 2011 20:25:24 +0000 wicuba http://wicuba.wordpress.com/?p=400 ]]>

Tuesday, May 10, 7pm in UW-Milw. Union, Ballroom West, 2200 E. Kenwood Blvd.

Ellen has visited Cuba many times, led numerous Congressional delegations to Cuba, worked closely with PFP’s founder, the late Rev. Lou Walker, and was instrumental in establishing slots for over 100 US students to receive free medical education in Cuba, including Milwaukee’s Joya Mosely. PFP will again be organizing mass civil disobedience to challenge the travel ban and US economic blockade of Cuba, by a Caravan which will visit Milwaukee on Friday July 8th (& Madison the day before.). Bring your questions about Cuba, and US policies, and discuss what we can do to bring about changes here and in US polilcy. See www.pastorsforpeace.org

We recently screened Emmy award winner Saul Landau’s new feature film “Will the Real Terrorists Please Stand Up?” Please see below the moving review of this film by Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former chief of staff, below, or at http://www.thehavananote.com/2011/04/will_real_terrorist_please_stand_indeed. The film’s screening in San Francisco last weekend filled the theatre with activists, movie stars and California’s political leaders, see http://thecuban5.org/wordpress/2011/04/19/huge-turnout-in-sf-learns-about-the-reasons-for-the-cuban-5-2/ By special arrangment with the producer, we have a DVD available for screening locally (it is c.70 min.).  

This important Right to Travel special newsletter edition, issued April 2011, includes links to many sources and a good explanation of the current situation, leally and politically. This includes the full text of the April 19th regulations, with an analysis and critique.

“Our primary objective is to help as many Americans as possible to experience Cuba for themselves, to learn about the country and to get to know its people.” 

This very helpful survey includes links to current travel providers in the US, Cuba, and Canada, plus many other sources (including how to see online the new PBS/Henry Lous Gates program as part of ”Black in Latin America,” called Cuba: “The Next Revolution”, http://video.pbs.org/video/1898347038) and a report on the US failing to give permission for Irish American musicians to attend Cuba’s 2nd CelticFest, http://www.thehavananote.com/2011/04/whats_ofac_no_irish_americans_need_apply

Hours: open Thurs. - Sunday:

A billboard in Cuba which reads, "What barbarians. They have liberated a terrorist”. The billboard pre-dates Posada's April 2011 acquittal, and is more likely in reference to a 2004 pardon he received for the attempted assassination of Fidel Castro. The pardon was granted by former Panamanian president, Mireya Moscoso under pressure from the United States.

Several nights ago (6 April), I watched “Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up” at the West End Cinema in Washington. Six months ago, Saul Landau, the filmmaker, had given me an earlier rough-cut version on DVD that I had watched, but I was not prepared for the final version with all of the added footage gained by Saul’s recent sojourn in Cuba itself and the slap-in-the-face showing on the large screen.

But the added footage from the island and the bigger screen were not all that made the final version more electrifying. It was, all in all, the pro-Cuba aspect of the film that stunned me.

And it was clear that this pro-Cuba aspect was not conjured by the filmmaker but by history. Perhaps, I told myself, I knew much of this history, intellectually, academically. But I had never seen it so graphically put before me, in such a tight, cinematic package that seemed to leap off the screen almost in synch with the beating of my pulse.

The backdrop of the film was the U.S.-Cuba relationship from the 1959 revolution to the present. That relationship was portrayed quite accurately, leaving no doubt why Theodore Roosevelt referred to the island as “that infernal little Cuban Republic” even though TR pre-dated the revolution by a generation-plus. That is chiefly because the one-sided nature of U.S. policy has been the same from 1823 to the present. TR’s remark demonstrated well before the Cuban revolution, well before the dictator Fulgencio Batista, well before the U.S. mob took over Havana, well before Fidel Castro shouted “¡Bastante!” from the Sierra Maestra, well before Jesse Helms displayed his latent racism toward Cubans, just how badly the U.S. had treated its island neighbor since the beginning of our republic. So badly, in fact, that the portrayal of it, however evanescently, by a master filmmaker made one want to weep for his country and its policies. I doubt there was a single person in the audience that night who felt any differently, except perhaps the several Cubans who were present who, indeed, probably wept for el coloso del norte as well but for different reasons.

And then there was the main point, the point embodied in the film’s title.

Clearly shown and vividly documented was the fact that the United States sponsors terrorism. In Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch alone, there are overtones of Osama bin Laden and Aman al-Zawahiri, the nefarious leadership of al-Qa’ida. In the film, Carriles and Bosch as much as tell us this in their own words. Moreover, they seem to rejoice in it, as they live today undisturbed and unmolested in Miami; indeed, as heroes among the ignorant Batista-like refuse whose mother’s milk sustains them. Neither man has even the redeeming feature of religious asceticism that some would argue gives bin Laden and Zawahiri a grudging respect; instead these two terrorists seem precisely what the film depicts, criminal thugs.

Whether it is bringing down a Cuban airliner with more than 70 people on board—including the young people on the Cuban fencing team—or murdering a young Italian man in a Havana hotel, these terrorists appear to take joy in what they have done, declaring in so many words and facial expressions that such deaths are the collateral damage of war. War? Yes, a war waged from the territory of the United States—the state of Florida primarily—and against another sovereign country. A war that continues to this day with the United States doing almost nothing to stop it and, as the film depicts in subtle ways, from time to time even aiding and abetting the terrorists who are waging it.

Once, of course, the dictates and fears of the Cold War afforded a patina of credibility to this war waged from our own shores and against the laws of our own land. As a U.S. soldier for 31 years, I participated in that twilight struggle most of my professional life, so I understood its demands however imperfectly they were sometimes met. But the Cold War ended almost 20 years ago. Not the case, however, with the undeclared war against Cuba.

Perhaps the best cinematic summary of this reality was rendered in the film by none other than the current chairman of the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who declared for all to see and hear that she would welcome the assassination of Fidel Castro. No matter how cynical one may have become, that is an astonishing scene. A U.S. Congresswoman asking for the murder of another country’s leader—a most egregious, unbelievable demonstration of this undeclared war with Cuba.

Most vividly and disconcertingly, however, the film goes on to portray this continuing illegal war through the case of the Cuban Five. These are the five Cuban intelligence agents who, in the 1990s, were dispatched to Florida to help the government in Havana defend itself better in this undeclared war.

We know a little of their story. After infiltrating the Cuban-American terrorists ranks in Florida, they accumulated information about planned terrorist activities against Cuba. Alarmed at what they learned, they informed their government in Havana. That government, itself now alarmed, confided in the FBI, hoping that that law enforcement organization would act on the evidence thus accumulated and break up the terrorists ranks in Florida. Instead, the FBI—no doubt at the prompting of the White House—used the information to identify the five Cuban agents, then arrested them. Afterward they were tried in a Miami Court—like trying an Israeli spy apprehended in Iran in a Tehran court. Surprise, surprise, the Cuban Five were not only convicted, twelve years later they are still rotting in U.S. federal prison with the “worst” of them having been awarded two life sentences-plus.

At the very worst, these five Cubans were “foreign agents operating on U.S. soil”, an offense warranting 18 months in jail under U.S. law. As the film makes quite clear, however, usual U.S. practice—for Russians like Anna Chapman, e.g.—is deportation. Instead, these men still languish in jail. Perhaps had they been sexy, provocative women…?

When the film ended and the short, crisp vignettes came on, interspersed among the film’s credits, the main points were hammered home adroitly by some of the film’s principal characters.

As these characters summed up from the screen, I don’t believe there was any doubt in anyone’s mind in that audience—Cuban or American—who the “real terrorist” in the U.S.-Cuba relationship actually is.

The question that had to be buzzing around in everyone’s mind, however, as they walked out of the theater—again, Cuban and American—was what to do about it?

Just like the failure to close the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay, the extension of the draconian provisions of “the national security cover-up” methodology in courtroom after courtroom across America, the civil liberties-usurping parts of the Patriot Act, the military tribunals for the likes of Khaled sheik-Mohammad, and on and on in the litany of dangerous and illegal acts by the U.S. Government in the name of perfect security and corrupt, special interest politics, the affair of the Cuban Five, and all it represents about the U.S.-Cuba relationship, stains the very fabric of our democratic republic.

Recently, a long-serving veteran of the CIA wrote a heavily-redacted yet still extremely eloquent and convincing memoir of his days in that agency, days that included the most intense period of our so-called Global War on Terror during the George W. Bush administrations. Here is one of his final conclusions in that memoir:

“I saw that a few of our leaders, in their insularity and sanctimonious certainty, corrupted the laws and started to corrode our social compact. We can take actions, however, to diminish such men, and that reaffirm our society’s commitment to our principles, our institutions, and the rule of law.”

That is the answer to our question and Saul Landau has taken a powerful action.

- Lawrence Wilkerson

Today the Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba releases the results of a survey and review of the positions of the Wisconsin candidates for federal office on issues including the federal government’s continued restriction on the rights of U.S. people to travel to Cuba.

In sum, the Democratic and Constitution Party Candidates for US Senate (Russ Feingold and Rob Taylor, respectively) both support the right of people from the U.S. to travel to Cuba, as do all three candidates in the first Congressional District (John Heckinlively -D, Joseph Kexel – Libertarian, and the incumbent Republican Congressman Paul Ryan. In Milwaukee’s 4th District, both Rep. Gwen Moore (D) and challenger Dan Sebring (R) support the right to travel as well as opening up trade with Cuba. Incumbent Congressman James Sensenbrenner (R) in the 5th District takes the opposite view on both issues, although he did not return the questionaire. Cuba is the only country which the U.S. government restricts U.S. citizens and residents from visiting, as it has for most of the past 50 years.

Republican Senate candidate Ron Johnson did not return the questionnaire, nor is there other evidence that he has expressed any view on any of the issues surveyed. Other results, including the candidates’ views on continued US funding aimed at overthrowing Cuba’s social system and government, and on release of the Cuban Five (held in US prisons for over 12 years for attempting to monitor terrorist activities in Florida), are contained below.

The results are based on a survey supplied to all candidates of record with fax or email contact information, on October 15, 2010 on 4 issues related to US policy toward Cuba, supplemented by their reported record on these issues.

For futher information contact: Art Heitzer, artheitzer@gmail.com, 414-273-1040, ex. 12; fax 414-273-4859

U.S. – Cuba Relations Survey Results from Candidates throughout Wisconsin
The Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba is today releasing the responses to four questions related to U.S.-Cuba relations sent to all Wisconsin candidates for federal office in the upcoming November 2nd election.
This is questionnaire supplied to candidates on October 15, and their responses and positions follow:
Where do you stand on key issues in U.S. foreign policy towards Cuba?
The Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba asks you to respond to this brief questionnaire on major elements of U.S. government policy towards Cuba. Your responses will be distributed to thousands of our members, supporters and other interested citizens across the state of Wisconsin. Please circle the appropriate response, and feel free to add any additional comments, attaching a separate sheet if desired. Then kindly fax it back to us at (414) 273-4859, before Tuesday, October 26, 2010. We will share the responses to our members and supporters and to the media.

1. Do you support ending the restrictions on trade with Cuba, in place since October 1960, which prevent U.S. producers from selling any manufactured goods to Cuba?
YES NO UNSURE, BUT I WOULD LIKE MORE INFORMATION
OTHER:

2.Do you support restoring the right of people from the U.S. to travel to Cuba? [Cuba is the only country which the US government restricts our citizens from visiting, from which they could form their own impressions.]
YES NO UNSURE, BUT I WOULD LIKE MORE INFORMATION
OTHER:

3. Do you support continued use of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars each year to fund programs aimed at overthrowing Cuba’s social system and government?
YES NO UNSURE, BUT I WOULD LIKE MORE INFORMATION
OTHER:

4. Do you support the release of the “Cuban Five”
(five Cubans imprisoned by the U.S. since 1998, for attempting to monitor and prevent acts of terrorism against Cuba by exile groups in Miami)?
YES NO UNSURE, BUT I WOULD LIKE MORE INFORMATION
OTHER:

Additional comments (attach additional pages if desired):

THE CANDIDATES RESPONSES & POSITIONS

U.S. Senate Candidates

We did not receive a response from Senator Russ Feingold (Democrat). He has long been a supporter and sponsor of repealing U.S. restrictions on travel to Cuba. He has also been a leader in calling for an end to TV and Radio Martí, U.S.-funded broadcasts to Cuba. Feingold says the propaganda broadcasts are having little effect on Cuban citizens. He pointed out that a recent government report found that less than 2 percent of Cubans tune in to the programs and a 2006 GAO report shows operational problems like cronyism, patronage and biased coverage. His effort is part of a larger bill aimed at trimming federal spending. Cancelling the project would save tax payers about $300 million.

Senator Feingold has also written to the U.S.-Bureau of Prisons regarding the conditions affecting the Cuban Five, the first and probably the only U.S. Senator to do so.

We did not receive a response from Ron Johnson (Republican) and have found no information on any position he has formulated on U.S.-Cuba relations.

Rob Taylor (Constitution) answered “yes” to questions 1 and 2, favoring repeal of restrictions on trade with Cuba and supporting the right of people from the U.S. to travel to Cuba. For question 3, he responded “no” to the continued use of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars each year to fund programs aimed at overthrowing Cuba’s social system and government. For question 4, he indicated he was unsure about supporting the release of the Cuban Five, but is interested in receiving more information.

U.S. Congressional Candidates
(Wisconsin)

1st District

John Heckenlively (Democrat)
answered “yes” to questions 1, 2 and 4, and “no” to question 3. He supports ending restrictions on U.S. trade with Cuba and restoring the right of people from the U.S. to travel to Cuba. He is against supporting the continued use of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars each year to fund programs aimed at overthrowing Cuba’s social system and government, adding that “Cuba has several things we should be copying, especially their healthcare system.” He supports release of the Cuban Five adding “if we are serious about ‘fighting terrorism,’ why is the United States government holding people who were attempting to hunt down terrorists who blew up an airliner?”

Joseph Kexel (Libertarian)
answered “yes” to questions 1 and 2 and “no” to question 3. He supports the end to restrictions on trade with Cuba and restoring the right of people from the U.S. to travel to Cuba. He is against supporting the continued use of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars each year to fund programs aimed at overthrowing Cuba’s social system and government. He indicated that he would support the release of the Cuban Five, “if there is a certainty that they have no involvement in violent actions. It may require a case by case decision.”

Joseph Kexel also noted that “The US government has no authority to undermine foreign governments we are not at war with. I feel that full trade will open up Cuba faster than any other action we could do. Allowing Americans to visit Cuba would also increase the rehabilitation of Cuba. Freedom is [a] powerful thing. We are doing more damage by hiding freedom from Cuba than we can even imagine.”
The office of Congressman Paul Ryan (Republican) stated his policy is to not respond to questionnaires but may be willing to have a discussion on the matter. In the past he has supported repeal of the travel ban and working towards normalized relations, calling the past U.S. policy a failure. He has not co-sponsored repeal of the travel restrictions in the current congress.

2nd District

Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin (Democrat)
answered “yes” to questions 1 and 2, and “no” to question 3. She supports the end to restrictions on trade with Cuba and restoring the right of people from the U.S. to travel to Cuba. She is against continued use of millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars each year to fund programs aimed at overthrowing Cuba’s social system and government. She is unsure about releasing the Cuban Five, but is interested in receiving more information.

3rd District

We did not receive a response from Congressman Ron Kind (Democrat), but he repeatedly has supported ending the U.S. restriction on travel to Cuba, including as a co-sponsor of The Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act in 2009.

We did not receive responses from either Dan Kapanke (Republican) or Mike Krsiean (Independent) and do not have information on their stances on U.S.- Cuba relations.

4th District

Congresswoman Gwen Moore (Democrat)
answered “yes” to questions 1 and 2, thus supporting the end to restrictions on trade with Cuba, and for restoring the right of people from the U.S. to travel to Cuba. She indicated she is unsure about continued use of U.S. taxpayer dollars to fund programs aimed at overthrowing Cuba’s social system and government, but is interested in receiving more information on this and on releasing the Cuban Five.

Dan Sebring (Republican)
answered “yes” to questions 1 and 2 and “no” to question 3. He supports ending restrictions on trade with Cuba “provided lifting those restrictions does not include them in American job killing ‘free trade’ agreements such as NAFTA.” He supports restoring the right of people from the U.S. to travel to Cuba. He is against continued use of U.S. taxpayer dollars each year to fund programs aimed at overthrowing Cuba’s social system and government, adding “this is a perfect example of continuing wasteful government spending on a program that is not producing results. If Cuba’s social system and government are to be overthrown, it will be done from within by the Cuban people.” He is unsure about releasing the Cuban Five but would like to receive more information.

He also added that “I was stationed at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in the 1980′s. It was during that time that I formulated the opinion that relations with Cuba should be ‘normalized’. Having served in Guantanamo Bay, and having interacted with the few remaining Cuban nationals that still worked on the base at the time I believe I have an insight to the Cuban people that other legislators may not share.”

5th District

We did not receive a response from Todd Kolosso (Democrat) and do not have information on his stance on U.S.-Cuba relations.

We did not receive a response from Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (Republican), but he has been an outspoken opponent of allowing U.S. people to travel to, or trade with Cuba, until its government is replaced.

6th District

We did not receive a response from Joe Kallas (Democrat) and do not have information on his stance on U.S.-Cuban relations.

The office of Congressman Tom Petri (Republican)stated their his policy is not to respond to questionnaires. In 2001, he voted “no” on a bill to defund enforcement of the Cuba travel ban.

7th District

We did not receive a response from either Julie Lassa (Democrat) or Sean Duffy (Republican) and do not have information on their views on U.S.-Cuban relations.

8th District

We did not receive a response from Congressman Steve Kagen (Democrat) but he did co-sponsor the pending Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act which prohibits the President from regulating or prohibiting travel to or from Cuba by U.S. citizens or legal residents or any of the transactions ordinarily incident to such travel, except in time of war or armed hostilities between the United States and Cuba, or of imminent danger to the public health or the physical safety of U.S. travelers.

We did not receive a response from Reid Riddle (Republican) and do not have information on his stance on U.S.-Cuba relations

This program is in conjunction with events around the U.S. and the world marking the 12 years that the “Cuban Five” have been confined in the U.S. They were arrested on Sept. 12, 1998 for attempting to stop terrorism being planned in Florida, against Cuba and people in the US favoring normalized relations, and all remain in prison today. See www.freethefive.org and www.thecuban5.org.

Tues., Sept. 14, 2010, 7pm
Free & open to the public, at Central United Methodist Church, 639 N. 25th St., Milw.