CODEPINK to Host Free Salsa Lessons at White House to Say “Salsa, SI! Embargo, No!; Celebrates Normalization of Relations Between the US and Cuba

June 10, 2015

Contact: Alli McCracken, CODEPINK National Coordinator, 860-575-5692, [email protected]

Jamila Brown, CODEPINK Cuba Campaign Coordinator,

Where: In front of the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, NW Washington DC

When: Thursday, June 11, 2015 at 5:30 pm-6:30pm

Washington, DC –– The activist group CODEPINK will be hosting free salsa lessons dubbed Salsa Si! Embargo No! in front of the White House to celebrate and promote the normalization of relations between the US and Cuba. While activists are heartened by the thawing of hostile relations, with Cuba recently being taken off the US State Terrorist list and embassies about to open, they want to end the travel ban to Cuba and lift the embargo.

“For more than 30 years, Cuba was unjustly given a terrorism designation despite posing no threat to U.S. national security. While we celebrate the announcement of Cuba’s removal from the US state terrorist list as a victory for diplomacy, the unconscionable Cuban embargo remains intact and must be lifted,” said CODEPINK’s Cuba campaign coordinator Jamila Brown.

In 2015 CODEPINK has taken over 250 people in two delegations to Cuba to meet with government officials, visit members of the Cuban 5 who were recently released from US prison, talk to doctors who combat Ebola in Africa, meet with entrepreneurs about the new business possibilities, and interact with local people about cultural, economic, environmental, educational, agricultural and health care issues. Some delegates, including CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin, have had their passports taken away and their bank accounts frozen for traveling to Cuba in the past. “It’s so exciting that after 50 years, the US government is finally beginning to lift the ridiculous restrictions on our right to visit our Cuban neighbors,” said Benjamin. “We look forward to the day when all restrictions are lifted. In the meantime, let’s dance!”

More information about CODEPINK’s recent delegation to Cuba can be found at www.codepink.org/cuba.

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