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ACERE alliance members and supporters, 

As you know, ACERE organized an urgent congressional briefing last week with a panel of experts, including Cuban-Americans, who spoke directly to congressional staffers about the economic crisis in Cuba and what Congress can do now to address it.  We had a great response in a short amount of time, with nearly 80 congressional offices participating! The focus of the briefing was to speak about how members of Congress can support existing legislative measures that would lift sanctions and directly help dismantle the embargo.  You can watch the briefing here. 

Please share the video of the congressional briefing, along with a personal note, as a constituent with your congressional representative and senators. (Remember: you can email the foreign policy staffer in the Washington office directly!). Again, that information can be found on congress.gov or by calling their Washington D.C. office and asking the receptionist for the staff member who handles foreign policy and/or the legislative director’s email address.  

We now come to you with another timely ask.  Congress is currently in the middle of budget negotiations, and there is an opportunity to push for appropriations amendments that could help defund sanctions measures that are economically choking the Cuban people.  ACERE is working to help pass amendments that could address reinstating remittances, as well as asking House leadership to pass a 1-year suspension of the embargo during the pandemic that continues to rage on, and has brought about a drastic spike of cases of COVID-19 in Cuba in the past several months.  We are looking for organizations to sign on to this letter ASAP.  Please sign-on to the letter here by Friday, July 23 (organizational sign-ons only at this time).

Lastly, a friendly reminder that our colleague Carlos Lazo (also a panelist during the congressional briefing) will be arriving in Washington D.C. this weekend after completing a 1,300-mile walk from Miami, calling attention to the embargo and demanding it be lifted.  Please join him for a rally on July 25 in D.C. and help some out in force to show this administration that what the Cuban people want and need is an end to draconian U.S. policies that promote hunger, poverty and put their lives at stake. More information on the rally can be found here. 

In solidarity,

ACERE Steering Committee