Engage Cuba, another U.S. coalition supporting U.S.-Cuba reconciliation, is to be officially launched on June 15th.[1]
This new nonprofit advocacy group will lobby Congress to repeal the ban against doing business in or traveling to the island nation. Its goal is to create an “umbrella organization”, bringing together people from different sectors, which have different approaches and perspectives, but agree upon this reconciliation. One of its financial backers is the National Foreign Trade Council, which represents major corporations and lobbies for expansion of U.S. international trade and which has its own broader coalition (USA*Engage) against U.S. unilateral trade sanctions, including those against Cuba.
The president of Engage Cuba, James Williams, has said, “There is a broad consensus emerging from business, agriculture, policy experts, and civil society generally that Congress must end antiquated trade and travel restrictions on Americans that stand in the way of more meaningful engagement with the Cuban people.” Moreover, he has said, the Republican Party now controlling both houses of Congress has no reason to oppose this change, not even out of principle: “Republicans believe in the power of the free market and in speaking out in support of America’s values anywhere and everywhere.”
An example of such Republican support was a January 2015 joint letter to President Obama from seven prominent Republican Senators (Jeff Flake (AZ), Rand Paul (KY), Jerry Moran (KS), Pat Roberts (KS), Mike Enzi (WY), John Boozman (AR) and Susan Collins (ME). They said, “With the significance of your recent announcements related to Cuba, we look forward to Congress turning its attention toward modernizing U.S.-Cuba policy to the benefit of U.S. citizens and the Cuban people alike. Congress must play an integral role in reforming our policy toward Cuba.”
Engage Cuba’s participants include several prominent Republicans. A top advisor is Steven Law, former Deputy Secretary of Labor in the George W. Bush Administration and current president of the American Crossroads super PAC, which backs Republican candidates and causes. Kristen Chadwick, former Special Assistant to President George W. Bush for Legislative Affairs, will manage much of the lobbying in the House of Representatives. Billy Piper, a former top aide to Sen. Mitch McConnell, will manage the Senate lobbying.
The group also has the involvement of Democratic supporters. Luke Albee worked as an aide to Senator Patrick Leahy (Dem., VT), a strong supporter of the policy change towards Cuba. Luis Miranda, the former White House director of Hispanic media and an aide to President Obama, helped conceive of the group.
An earlier coalition with a similar purpose is the United States Agricultural Coalition for Cuba that was launched in January of this year and that in early March organized a large delegation’s visit to Cuba.
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[1] This post is based upon the following: Tau, Top GOP, Democratic Consultants to Push Congress to End Cuba Embargo, W.S.J. (April 16, 2015); Ortiz, Engage Cuba Advocates Normal U.S.-Cuba Relations, OnCuba (April 27, 2015); Gomez, A coalition against the blockade in the corner of the white house, Granma (May 20, 2015) (Google translation). The group’s website does not yet have any substantive content.