This is a personal project of John McAuliff, not on behalf of any organization or political campaign. McAuliff was active in the civil rights and anti- war movements and served in the Peace Corps in Peru and as President of the Committee of Returned Volunteers. He founded and directs the Fund for Reconciliation and Development: http://www.ffrd.org He worked with the American Friends Service Committee and FfRD for 30 years to achieve normalization of US post-war relations with Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. His involvement with Cuba began in the 1960s and was renewed a decade ago. [Please forward this petition as widely as possible.]

Notes [Paragraph 3] Although a diminishing minority in their own community, old guard Cuban American exiles exert disproportionate influence, undermining US values as well as strategic and economic interests, through nationally distributed campaign contributions and political influence in a swing state. Polls during the past five years show 55% of Cuban Americans support unrestricted travel and 67% of all Americans favor normalization of relations and the end of constraints on travel. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/us/01florida.html_r=1&fta=y&oref=slogin http://uscubanormalization.blogspot.com/2007/02/gallup-poll-on-normalization-with-cuba.html [Para 4] The General Accounting Office reports an estimate that already at least 120,000 Americans travel annually to Cuba through third countries without US government licenses, and says that groups committing public civil disobedience pose difficult enforcement problems. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/ordtab.plItem0=GAO-08-80. pp 31, 54, 56 The US is seen as at best short sighted regarding how to actually influence change in Cuba or at worst arrogant and misguided by its past role of regional dominance. The UN General Assembly votes every year against the unilateral US embargo, most recently 184-4. [Para 5] The Constitutional right to travel is denied to Americans only in the case of Cuba. Many Cubans object to being required to obtain exit permits to leave their country. Cuba provides entry visas to virtually all Americans. The US almost never grants visitor visas to Cubans but encourages trafficking of illegal immigrants through the Cuban Adjustment Act and a wet foot / dry foot policy. [Please forward this petition as widely as possible.]