 Well, while we're waiting for Reid to get on, why don't I just start and tell you what the evening is going to be like. We are very excited that we, he said he'll be on in one minute. So, second. Okay, I think Reid will be with us in a minute. We'll start now. Hi, good evening. My name is Medea Benjamin. I'm with Code Pink. And I want to thank my colleagues in Code Pink for being on with us tonight and setting this up. We have Michelle Elner and Leonardo Flores and Shea's with us to talk about the congressional work at the end. And we're going to have Reid Lindsay joining us in a minute to tell us how Belly and the Beast started. Then we're going to watch their latest episode, episode six. And then we will have a talk from Cuba by the star of the show, Liz Oliva, and then we will go into a discussion. And you'll have a chance to have your questions answered or make your comments or give your ideas. And then we will close out by nine o'clock. So, does anybody see Reid yet with us? Let me start introducing him as he says he'll be right on. Reid Lindsay is a documentary filmmaker and journalist with 20 years of experience reporting investigating writing producing and directing films around the world. He's reported from Libya, India, Venezuela, Honduras lived and reported from Haiti. I know him from his reporting in Egypt where he was at the Arab Spring from the beginning to the end, and worked on award-winning documentaries about Tahrir Square. And then he ended up in Cuba where we reconnected with him again as the founder and currently the director of this very innovative news media organization that covers Cuba and US Cuba relations called Belly of the Beast. They've done six episodes now of their films that range from short, about 10 minutes to some that are longer. I think the one we're seeing tonight has been over 20 minutes, but they're quite extraordinary. And I'm really glad we're having a chance to watch them together so we can, or the last one together so we can talk about it. I see Reid is with us now and we're so glad you could join us Reid if you could unmute yourself and tell us about a little about yourself and how you started Belly of the Beast and what we're about to see and maybe you could even before you leave us say something about Olivia before she joins us. Oh, right. Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here. And thank you so much for your support and for believing in the project and Belly of the Beast from the very beginning, even when it was just an idea. I'm a journalist and documentary filmmaker I've been doing it for about 20 years in different parts of the world and mainly Latin America and have been in Cuba for the last few years. And being in Cuba, especially during the the barrage of sanctions imposed by or intensification of the embargo during Trump was just, it was just relentless and seeing it happen and being there and then seeing so little media coverage of it really was the inspiration for starting Belly of the Beast and specifically the main the series, which is the biggest thing we've done, which is the war on Cuba, because even though it, you know, specific sanctions would get some news coverage, there were there was no sustained and no consistent and in depth coverage of these sanctions and impact they were having in even though there was so much media coverage, I felt especially mainstream outlets, a more quote liberal outlets that were critical of Trump policies, it was there was almost no scrutiny of his policies towards Cuba, and of course, Venezuela as well. And, but it was as if this this unbelievable this the economic war against Cuba was intensifying and it was getting worse and worse, and nobody was really saying anything so we felt like there was this enormous void to and that that some this this needed to be people needed to know about and that's really what inspired Belly of the Beast. One of the other things that we wanted to do and I and I'm one of the ways in which I think we're, we're different and this has been a new experience for me and I've been doing journalism for a long time, and I myself have been a parachute journalist, going into different parts of the world. And, and we're trying to do the opposite with Belly of the Beast, so that we're trying to counter that parachute model where you know someone like myself from the US or Canada or Europe goes into a another, you know, country in the global south and reports back to about the about that country to their, the place where they're from, and often hires fixers, you know, local journalists and often not well paid and and reports back, you know, to the US or to Europe or Canada from their own perspective. We're trying to do something that's very collaborative, where we have journalists from the US and collaborating with journalists and filmmakers from Cuba. And so that's been the that's been the idea from the very beginning, and I'm very of all the, you know, it's, I've been doing journalism and documentary filmmaking for a long time and this project is definitely the one I'm most proud of for a lot of reasons I'm really proud of, of the final product the series that we've done and a lot of other things videos we've done, but more than anything I'm proud of the team that that that we've been able to, to put together and so excited about that. But what we've accomplished and also the potential for it. Because, especially because of Cuba in some ways I thought Cuba would be a really difficult place to do this, because it's a tricky place to do reporting for different reasons. But in other ways, it's been a really special place because because of that and because there aren't so many spaces for Cuban journalists to really tackle these incredibly important issues. And I feel like those we've sort of been able to create a space for where that's been able to happen. And so, and hopefully they can they can have an impact and be useful for for those of you. And I'm sure there are many of you here who are very active and in fighting to change us policy towards Cuba and other parts of Latin America in the world. Hopefully these videos can be of use to help change people's minds and influence and inspire people. This episode that that is going to be shown right now is the, the six episodes we did three last year and three this year and, and this one actually was one that I was particularly excited about I feel it's because it takes on this this. It looks at what Biden has done if last year was very much focused on Trump policy and this year focuses on Biden and specifically his reaction to July 11. And how it's, and I think it's just it's so telling because you'll see how outrageous that the thing his response has been. And then what's even more outrageous the fact that the media hasn't really called him out on these ridiculous policy responses to July 11 they don't even not some of them are not even sensical in terms of the things he is proposing. And so, and you'll hear from Liz I guess later, and Liz is a really special member of the team. And she's the star for sure, although there are others that you don't see who are, who are also just as involved but she's she's really the been the glue of the team and as a really special person and won a Gracie award. This, this year which, which is a pretty, pretty big award really proud of her. I, the trophy is here I'm in Idaho right now visiting my mom. Got to somehow find a way to get her to get her trophy because it's quite heavy. And was, we weren't able to get it to Cuba yet. But yeah, that's, I may be as I don't know I feel like I probably run through my time there. I don't know. I just wanted to ask you a couple of things and well one is to comment and say I had a chance recently to be in Cuba and spend time with your team. And it is really amazing that you have been able to put together this fabulous team that that that that works together like a family. And you can see a lot of love with each other and the professionalism, I think comes out of that. And you, as they told me, have been an incredible mentor to this team. And, and place yourself as one of the group and it's a really wonderful thing to watch and I think after people see this they're going to want to go back and watch the other five. And they should know that you've done all of this on a shoestring budget, and that if anybody wants to contribute to the future works that you're making I don't know if you want to put a link in the chat about where they could donate or get in touch with someone. But it would also be nice if you tell us what your future plans of Billy the Beast are. Yeah, thanks so much this very kind words and yeah it really feels like a family I'm really that it's really exciting I feel like it's even last year when we finished the first season we weren't quite there yet we had accomplished a lot but but in this last year we really grown together and I feel that the important thing and we talk about this together is that we want this to continue even at some point if none of us are still involved. We feel like it's an important project and one that can grow and hopefully maybe inspire others. And so, yeah, it's been, it's been great so we're that this coming year we've we want to continue to do the work we're doing. We have a lot of ideas of what we can do and how we want to cover more outside of Havana we've been very limited Havana because of COVID and the inability to travel because of travel restrictions. We're also really interested in digging deeper into the causes of policy we've been very focused on the impact of policy and what's happening and looked at the cause it's sort of on a superficial level. To dig into the investigatively into the web of economic and political interests that are driving Cuba policy in the United States. So really look at the belly of the beast in a sense and and do some investigative work because media in the US and Florida, especially do nothing to cold hold all of these actors accountable for Cuba policy. We feel like that's another sort of huge void and covers something we can, we can do and so that's a that's another thing that we have planned for for next year. And then, yeah, as far as contributing that would be amazing where may have been mainly fueled by by donations, and, and I can, I can put that information in the chat. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much. We know that you have rare moments to be with your family, and we thank you for taking a time out to join us. And we thank you for the wonderful work you're doing, and we will be encouraging people to watch all of the episodes because each one of them is very, very special. And so thank you read and now we're going to go and watch episode six of belly of the beast. Hi, I'm Liz. On July 11 Cuba had its biggest anti government protests in decades. Other countries protests are normal. But for me, it was shocking. I'd seen plenty of pro-revolutionary demonstrations, but a big protest against the government. The protest didn't last long, but outside Cuba, the news story kept going. Continuous protests and demonstrations in South Florida. This is a scene at Versailles near Coyote. People in Miami went crazy. And in DC, Biden decided to increase sanctions against Cuba. As usual, what is said in Miami and DC, está lejos de nuestra realidad aquí en Cuba. Miguel Gonzalez is a Cuban journalist. He believes reporters must distance themselves from the stories they cover. But on July 11, he couldn't. That day, he filled me with optimism, putting me in the dust of the city. In the demonstration I was in, there was violence. The police, the anti-motives, they tried to reject the protesters. I saw stones, both sides, I stopped. They pulled me hard, my hair, they forced me to hang up. My glasses, my shoulder blades fell off. They didn't allow me to pick them up. They kicked me. In my case, it's minimal compared to others. What happened in your specific case? I was arrested for only 24 hours. Some of the guys who were in jail with me were in prison for 18 days. It wasn't the first time Michael was detained. Michael is the director of Tremendanota, the only online LGBTQ magazine in Cuba. I'll never say this can't be publicized. I think everyone has experienced it here, in all the media where it's been. The state media already knows how many limitations it has. Many media that say they're independent are on the same rope, but on the other side. Tremendanota was initially founded by a British NGO. Michael says he later discovered that the money came from the US government. At the end of the day, we've known that they receive US funds. For example, from the National Fund for Democracy. We were able to use those funds with freedom. The Cuban government didn't evaluate it like that. Do you still receive funds from any US related organization? At the moment, no. I prefer to give my journalists guarantees, give them guarantees to my public, to independence, to the maximum. And then we go back to other funds. We currently have European funds. Governmental ones. Michael says Tremendanota hasn't received US funding since 2019. Yet, he continues to face government harassment. How does the repression in Cuba work? It's very expensive. In my case, I have a long history. I've been arrested several times. Almost every time. The fact that they take me to a police unit, it scares me less that they take my private life, the information of a sexual individual, that they can send to a close person. All of that has terrified me much more. Because it's as if they invade your house. Have you ever been afraid of your life? In Cuba, until now, there are no dead journalists like they do in other countries, like they do in Mexico, like they can do in Colombia. So, it's really afraid of my life. At some point in the media narrative, on the 11th, the center stopped being the Cuban Havana and became Miami. And the event was told in a different way. We were watching a video of an opposition leader who is currently exiled to Miami and was talking about the dead who are being taken out by the back doors of the units. I told my friends here. This is a shot that is even lower. The little credibility they already had. Joe Biden says that they will be very attentive to what they say, to what the Cuban Americans think. I think they should be more attentive to what they say or what the people who are still living in Cuba think. Tonight, we are monitoring protests as they pop up all around Southwest Florida. They're killing, they're killing. They take your eyes out. They take your teeth out. They're like a butcher. They're killing young people. If you don't come with us, you die. You die. Enough is enough for the Cuban people to be killed and killed. None of these things were true. But in Miami, the facts didn't matter. Cuban American hardliners pushed for regime change and even military invasion. We are asking for the international community led by the United States to intervene. Are you suggesting airstrikes in Cuba? What I'm suggesting is that that option The option is one that has to be explored. Intervention! Keep asking for intervention. The demonstrations in Cuba lasted hours. In South Florida, they went on for weeks. Cuban-Americans used the Miami protests to pressure Biden. President Biden has to take this seriously. I want to see more sanctions. We are the 3% of the population of Florida, but we are the 6% of the vote. President Biden, the vast majority of Cuban-Americans, this great voting block will be grateful to you for helping to bring down this regime. Call out the abuses, the human rights abuses that are existing and start pressuring via sanctions. Does anyone really believe the U.S. government cares about human rights? Well, our Cuba policy is governed by two principles. First, support for democracy. Democracy and human rights guide U.S. foreign policy. The U.S. sends $1 billion a year to Egypt, whose president led a massacre of more than 900 protesters in a single day. The U.S. gives Israel almost $4 billion every year in military aid. Even though Israeli authorities are guilty of apartheid, a crime against humanity. Saudi Arabia is the biggest purchaser of U.S. arms in the world. It is also an absolute monarchy where torture is widespread and protests are illegal. Our relationship with Saudi Arabia is important. It's important to U.S. interests. The U.S. has given billions to Colombia's security forces which have carried out extrajudicial killings and opened fire on unarmed civilians. Colombian security forces killed at least 44 people during protests this year. In Cuba's protests, one person was killed. In Colombia, security forces shot out the eyes of protesters. In Cuba, there were not such cases. And twice as many people were detained in Colombia that in Cuba. How did the Biden administration respond? To Colombia, Biden reaffirmed the enduring partnership between the two governments. To Cuba, Biden blamed the government for the economic crisis that sparked the protests. Biden has overlooked one human rights issue in Cuba. He has made little progress in closing Guantanamo Bay prison, a symbol of torture and indefinite detention. If democracy and human rights don't drive Cuba policy, what does? Second is Americans, especially Cuban Americans. Why does Biden care what Cuban Americans think about Cuba policy? The State Department doesn't let Russian Americans determine Russian policy, or Chinese Americans decide China policy. That's because they can't swing an election in Florida. Cuban Americans can. Donald Trump pandered to Cuban American hairliners to win votes in Florida. So far, Biden has done the same. So I want the Cuban Americans to know that we all around this table and myself included see your pain, hear your voices. Instead of talking to the Cuban people, Biden based his response to July 11 on the demands of Cuban Americans. We're increasing direct support for the Cuban people by pursuing every option available to provide internet access. And we will form a remittance working group to identify the most effective way to get remittances directly into the hands of the Cuban people. They have a COVID problem in Cuba. I would be prepared to give significant amounts of vaccine. Cuba has a lot of needs, but those three things, we already have them. Hello, I'm here. Hello. Welcome. You're entering the development area. Wow, that's great. Thank you for welcoming me. Alain is the co-founder of a software company called Pixel Solutions. He helped launch the company eight years ago. Now Pixel employs more than 30 people. Alain and his team have developed dozens of apps and programs, including an online music store, a taxi service app, and business management software. The Cuban government caught internet access on July 11. Connectivity was irregular during the following few days and then returned to normal. But according to U.S. media reports, we've been in a permanent internet blackout. Governor DeSantis is calling on the White House to help restore internet access. Limited internet access on the island of Cuba. We should be looking at how we can expand access to the internet considering satellite feed of internet. Guantanamo Bay Cuba on the island to provide using these new balloons, these helium balloons. We've analyzed several proposals that have been named. They don't seem viable to us. We've seen many that even make illogical access. If they really wanted to support internet in Cuba, they would have let us connect the cables that pass only 35 km from one area here in the west. Here we are seeing the map of the underwater cables, the optical fiber. The cables are connected to Cuba, not to Cuba. Why is it? Obviously we know why. The government is in danger. Even without fiber-opted cables in the U.S. with Cuba, Pixel is thriving, but not without challenges specific to Cuba. Also, there are some places that are blocked today by the Cuban government. We use the concept that today is quite popular, which is the BPN, which is like saying, I'm going to enter this place, but I'm not from my house. I'm from another server from another place. For the part of what wants to block the Cuban government, it's very easy to see it, but fooling the blocker when he comes to access the repositories outside Cuba, sometimes it's not that easy. I'm going to put a BPN and I'm going to do it. Why not? The ones that direct the connection of the world are the United States. If they don't want to be accessed, even if the BPN doesn't access it. And what other effects does the blocker have on you as an entrepreneur in Cuba? Since October, we don't have money outside Cuba that we haven't been able to cover. What prevents you from covering your money to the Cuban government? No. What prevents me from covering my money is that there is a blocker and a bank makes transactions with Cuba. It can be penalized. And it makes us laugh. They say that sanctions don't affect you as an individual or as an entrepreneur, they only affect the government. Do you already do it as a government or not as a government? If you're inside Cuba, you're affected by the blocker. In Cuba these days there are lines for pretty much everything. As you know, there are more than 400 Western Union payment points across Cuba and they're all closed. Money transfers to friends and family called remittances are a huge part of the Cuban economy. 56% of Cubans fall in a recent survey said they received remittances. This is not unique to Cuba. People across the Global South receive remittances from friends and family who have migrated to the United States and other wealthy countries. Cubans used to receive an estimated $3 billion a year in remittances, mostly from the United States. In October 2020, Donald Trump blocked US remittance companies like Western Union from working with Fincimex, the state-owned Cuban company that processed the transfers. The Biden campaign accused Trump of waging a war on family remittances, but after becoming president, Biden flip flopped. I would not do that now because the fact is, it's highly likely that the regime would confiscate those remittances or big chunks of it. This is both inaccurate and misleading. Since July 11, Biden seems to be taking his cues from Cuban-American hardliners. I want to be able to send my aunt and Cuba money, but the regime takes 20% off the top of every dollar I send. This is false. In 2020, Western Union charged a $7 fee to send a $200 remittance to Cuba. Western Union kept $5.50 and gave the remaining $150 to Fincimex. These fees are normal for the vision and even lower than some countries. Well, of course, there's not an amount that is acceptable to us to go into the coffers of the Cuban government. You can still get money from family and friends in the U.S. but it takes longer and costs much more money. Hi, Natalie. Hey, Liz. I'm here at Cuba. I'm going to turn in the $100. I'm here in Little Havana, Miami. Bacuba is a company in Miami that offers money transfers to Cuba. So here is the receipt. You should be getting it in 24 to 72 hours. Bacuba delivers the money directly to your house by passing Fincimex. Before the ban on Fincimex, I would have gotten the equivalent of around $100 via Western Union. Here's what I got via Bacuba. $4,000 Cuban pesos. That's about $65. Biden is supposed to the Cuban government earn a 1% fee on money transfers but it doesn't seem to bother him that the companies in Miami cover 40%. He says he wants to send us vaccines because Cuba is the failed state. We have two main vaccines, Adala and Soberana. Soberana means sovereign. Cuba has one of the world's highest vaccination rates. Getting vaccinated in Cuba is voluntary but nearly everyone chooses to get their COVID shots both for themselves and for their children. Darío has even more reason to feel confident in the vaccine. Darío's mother, Dagmar, helped develop the Soberana vaccine as the head of research at Cuba's Finlay Institute. Now, the focus of our occupation in the United States with research and development of vaccines against COVID-19. What is Soberana's effectiveness? The Soberana's Schema E312 reaches more than 90% of clinical effectiveness as well as vaccines like Pfizer, Moderna. I'm vaccinated with Adala but in the first moment there was a rumor that we were going to do Soberana's E212. Why did this happen to us? From April to May we had a large productive batch that lasted approximately two months. We did not receive the necessary information on the production of the RBD, which is the essential of the vaccine and the fundamental reason is the blocking. We cannot buy directly from the US providers even from some providers from other countries. If a product that is sold to us has more than 10% the sanctions are not new. 10% is not new either. It has been recorded after the Trump government began to recruit measures against Cuba. The providers now take more care of themselves. The peak of death in Cuba came from June. If the vaccines were produced they could have some impact. If we had managed to achieve for that moment the vaccination coverage that was planned would have prevented some of the deaths in this period. The Biden government criticized the government of Cuba for not participating in COVAX the mechanism created by the United Nations for poor countries to receive vaccines because developing their own vaccines and developing a vaccine takes time. It is not true that COVAX mechanism gives free vaccines. We would have had to contribute financing. COVAX has not been able to submit the vaccines. Many countries have not yet received vaccines. If Cuba were to increase COVAX we would have been waiting for vaccines. The United States insists that it wants to help the people of Cuba. And it has said that it wants to send vaccines. It is purely political to see that there is a will to help. Biden cannot say that he will send vaccines and have a blockage that does not allow him to bring food, medicines, supplies, elementary things for the lives of the population. We have to give the people. But if it did, there are some things it could do. Stop making our lives more difficult. Let us deal with our own problems and our own terms. Leave us alone. A sere ya? Wonderful. So you can all do a virtual clap here for the filmmakers questions you can put or comments, please feel free to put them in the chat. And we're going to, do we have Liz with us? Yes, I am. Wonderful. We're so glad to have you, Liz. We talked about you before you got on what an amazing journalist you are. And congratulations on the Gracie Award, which is given to women who excel in TV and radio and other media. And I think you got it for being the best online host, right? So congratulations on that and congratulations on these episodes, which are so marvelous. And we just love to hear a little from you about what it's been like to make these. What kind of reception do you feel you've received? What are some of the difficulties in doing this kind of work? Hi, everyone. My name is Lisa Julioas Fernandez, the host of the serie, The War in Cuba. Well, that war was really great, but at the same time was stressful because it is a huge responsibility for one person because it's the work of a group of people, it's a team. But at the end, the people saw my face, saw only my face on the screen and that's scary because I'm presenting the whole problem, the whole program. It's stressful also because I have to talk in English. This is my second language and my first one is Spanish because I'm Cuban. And my English is not so good, so I'm trying to do my best in each episode. And it's challenging too because I think that we talk this a little bit at the beginning of the presentation. Doing journalism in Cuba, being a journalist is really hard because maybe you have problems to access. When you talk about Cuba, there is no racism. It's also white or black and it's really difficult that most of people be agree what you're saying because Cuba is a topic that is really polarized. For me, I had been working for Cuban television for a while. I used to talk Cubans about the war. In this case, I have to talk the war about Cuba. The role is really challenging because also people have to say, oh, I love the city. Oh, I love the documentary. But when they say that, you have to hold your breath and wait because that came as a bomb of some similar because people also want to expect more. I think that our work to be objective, accurate, and the more objective possible because we are trying to expose facts that is really important here. We don't talk about our impressions or our perspective. We are talking about our reality here in Cuba. It's a reality that you can touch and you can feel when you spend some time here. But at the end, nothing matters because, well, for some people, it's not all the people. They want to expect that we have a more critical point of view against the Cuban government. I think that, of course, that Cuba has a lot of problems to resolve right now and in the future. But I think that this kind of problems is also a problem that Cubans inside Cuba, outside Cuba, has to resolve for ourselves. It's not a problem that the United States have to do about anything. In the documentary series, we are talking about the problems in Cuba that have to do with the government in the United States. We try to expose no point of view. We are exposing facts that at the end of the day, these politics that the U.S. government has applied against Cuba since the system hurt the Cuban people. And that kind of sanctions made that our life in Cuba are more difficult. Yes, thank you. It's interesting when you say you hold your breath because you know there's going to be criticisms from all sides. I'm sure there were people who didn't like that you started out this episode talking about crackdown on journalists. You're trying to tell the truth of what things are like in Cuba. And I'm glad you are doing that. I know you were out on the streets. In fact, I met you out on the streets in November when there was supposed to be the big protests following the July 11th protests. And you were out with your team. You were scouring all over the city looking for protests. Can you tell us what you found? And for anybody who doesn't know what I'm talking about, this was supposed to be an even bigger sequence after the July 11th protests. And people in Cuba were holding their breath wondering what was going to happen. And was this really going to be a new phase of people fighting each other internally inside the island? So what did you find? Well, that's the funniest story at the end because everybody was really worried about November 15th because a group, a Facebook group called a name archipelago, we call it in Spanish archipelago, was trying to make a parade against the Cuban government. People were suspecting because I'm worried because people were suspecting another July 11th. Nothing happened at all. People don't talk the streets because this is a Facebook group that has like a very, two of, well, the young man that was in charge of this group, his name is Junior Garcia. He's a Cuban drummer that was also in November 27th. The protest that was in front of a Cuban culture minister in Cuba, he became some leadership or something similar in this Facebook group. And this man was in charge of this protest against the government that calls for a change in Cuba. At the end, nothing happened. I was in front of your home on that day because the protest was for November 15th, but at the end, he decided March alone, November 14th. Everyone was, why? Why did you decide to march alone a day before that, the day you already arranged with the rest of the group? Oh, the group, the most of them, the members was living in the US, was really fine. At the end, he never left her home, his home. He had something, I don't know if you have been listened to about actos de repudio, media, I don't know how to translate that. They have Cuban people yelling in front of your home, trying to make an statement in favor of the Cuban government or something similar. There was also people playing a guitar, young people singing Cubans, pro-revolutionary songs. It's a kind of Cuba thing, so actos de repudio. Yes, so you were saying you were outside of Junior's home waiting for something to happen, but there were neighbors that were coming out who were yelling in the street. They were pro-revolutionary. It was kind of a circus-like atmosphere outside. At the end, he never left his home. A few days later, we can see a lot of posting Facebook asking for the people who were asking, where is Junior Garcia? Please, the regime needs to liberate or something like that, because they were thinking and speculating about the life that Junior Garcia, and at the end, we discovered that he fled the same day that he was arranged the protest to Spain. He left the country and went to Spain. I think that was tremendously disappointing for a lot of his followers who really did look to him as a leader. When he left, I think the movement has really been in tremendous disarray, but the point really lives is to say that a lot of this opposition, that I spent the time while I was there talking to young people like you, and got a feeling that certainly there are lots of things that people find fault with in the revolution and would want to see changed. Yet, people understand that this regime change movement coming from the United States, which is financed with U.S. tax dollar money and pays for a lot of the opposition, creates such an enormous sense of uncertainty. Certainly in the United States and Miami, it's blown up to be something huge. With all of the problems in Cuba and a very difficult time with the scarcities, with the lack of tourism that was a major source of income, as you say in the film, the lack of remittances. Cuba is the only country in the world, I think, where people cannot send remittances to their family members. With the prices going up and you showed how people are in line for everything, there's a lot of discontent. The U.S. has been playing on this discontent as it has done over the years, like when the Soviet Union fell apart and there was tremendous economic scarcity in Cuba as well. As you say in the end of the film, what you were calling for is for the United States to leave Cuba alone. That's what we are calling for. I want to give time to talk about some of the things we're doing in the U.S. I don't know if there's any words you want to leave us with, Liz, about what you think we should be doing or anything you'd like to tell folks before we move on to the portion of our program that deals with what's our responsibility here. Well, it's easier. You have to press your politicians to leave Cuba alone because the province in Cuba belongs to Cuban people. The most great thing that the United States or the U.S. government can do for us is leave us because we don't need money from the U.S. We don't need anything from them. We need only that Cuban people have to write to live peacefully and to write to leave or have the country that we need and we have and we desire and we help us because we deserve it. At the end of the day, the U.S. government say that they want to help us but they end to hurt us. For example, when someone in U.S. asked me the question that you already asked, I already said, well, you need to pressure and you need to do whatever is in your hand to end the blockade and end the sanctions against Cuba and the lobby, Cuban American lobby, that is not a Democrat or a Republican, is both and this is a thing that are killing us. Well, thank you so much for joining us tonight. I want everybody to stay on because we have a big responsibility and a lot of work to do but let's give another virtual applause to Liz. Thank you so much for your marvelous work. We look forward to seeing all the episodes for those who haven't seen them yet and we look forward to the future work that you're going to come out with. It's professional, it's beautifully done and it's very profound and very important for people in this country to see. Thank you. So now we want to go to the portion of what we can do and there's a lot that is going on and a number of people on this call that are working hard and doing things and if you want to put in the chat some of the things that you are working on that you would like people to know about that would be great. In the meantime, I'd like to bring up Shea Alibo to talk about the congressional liaisons that we have just by way of introduction. We are part of a larger group called Asere and I think we have Natasha on tonight. We'd love a chance to get to you if you would like to say a word about that but we just came off of a really wonderful campaign that we did with quite a number of groups like Just Foreign Policy, the National Network on Cuba, groups like the Center for Democracy in the Americas and we all worked hard to get 114 members of Congress to sign a letter going to Biden to tell him to lift the restrictions on remittances, on travel, on humanitarian aid and to go back to the Obama years where Biden was a part of that to normalize relations with Cuba. We thought that post July 11th after those protests it was going to be very hard to get Congress people to sign on to that and a similar letter we had before the July 11th protests got 80 members of Congress we thought okay we'll work really hard and see if we can get 80 again. Well we passed 80 we said let's go for 100 then we said let's go for over 111 because then we could say it's the majority of Democrats in Congress and we ended up getting 114 so it was the majority of members in the Democratic representatives in Congress telling a Democratic president that they don't agree with his policies so we have momentum now and we have to use that momentum and so Shay can you tell us how people can join us in this very critical I know it's hard to do work of pressuring Congress and one more thing just before I ask you to come on is that what we ask people to do this time is not only pressure they're a member of Congress because some of you live in places where there is already a progressive member like I see some of you from Barbara Lee's district you don't have to put pressure on her she was a cosponsor some of you have horrible Republicans who are never going to sign on but what we did is deputize you as members of Code Pink to call any member of Congress as part of a national group and we gave people targets here are five people and so it really is not just for your member of Congress but for helping us to reach all the members of Congress as we divide them up so Shay can you explain a little absolutely thank you so much Medea and thank you everyone who has spoken and shared their work today I'm so grateful to be on and learning from everybody so my name is Shay I'm an organizer with Code Pink Congress and we have our Code Pink Congress District Liaison Program which Medea was just talking about that program is a way for folks to build relationships with their congressional representatives and more effectively advocate for demilitarization and progressive foreign policy and in this case better policy towards Cuba are yeah so sorry our theory of change is that constituents building relationships with their representatives and lawmakers is one of the most effective ways to create legislative change a lot more effective than writing emails or letters and calling even though that's really important as well so by signing up to be a district liaison that means that you enter this network of folks who are more committed to building those relationships setting up meetings talking to the representatives and trying to push them on progressive progressive and justice-based policy so that may look like me reaching out to you when there is a piece of legislation or a campaign that we need the representatives support on we provide support in setting up meetings with representatives getting folks from your district to join as well providing resources trainings and then also other forms of engagement even if what Medea was talking about your rep might not be movable or might already be on board there are new ways to engage so i'm going to put the link in the chat where you all can register if you're interested in being part of this program if you have more questions and aren't sure if you want to join but would like to talk it through i would love you to email me i just put my email in the chat as well i'm shayatcodepink.org yeah and this is just one way to engage but i do think it's a really important mechanism especially for those of us who are based here in the united states the belly of the beast yeah thank you wonderful thank you so much we feel like this momentum we had is quite extraordinary and we have to keep it up and as you know there is an election coming on there we want to we want to commission some polls in florida to look at what people in the state of florida including the cuban americans think about this because they are not all of one voice and i know we have some cuban americans on the call if any of you want to say anything hosue tomas just raise your hand and we'll call on you in the meantime i think we also want to mention that we have trips to cuba coming up i was just thinking today where can people go away where they can feel safe from covet and there's really actually probably the the best place in the world right now to go is cuba because i think they are about number one or number two in terms of vaccines 91 of their population is vaccinated i think as of today and the ones who aren't vaccinated they left left to the end people who had already gotten covet so and they're doing incredible screening as soon as people come in it is quite amazing the the care that they're taking to stop the spread and and vaccinate all their people with home grown vaccines and just imagine a small very very poor island being able to come up with its own vaccines and vaccinate the entire population and they they do it from age two on and i had a chance to visit the places where the vaccines are produced when i was there and meet these just lovely lovely incredible scientists who are working day and night uh and now to make sure that they are safe from omicron which it seems that this their vaccine uh is um so we have two trips coming up one in february 12 to the 19th and one in march and sharon if you're on and want to say word about the upcoming trips and how people can learn about them do are you on and can you unmute yourself media um as media mentioned um code pink and proximity cuba have two trips coming up one is february 12 through the 19th and that's going to focus on the cuban vaccine program the the economy and it will coincide with the international book fair so that'll be the first trip and then the second trip is going to be march 5th through 12th and that's going to focus on cuban arts and culture and i am going ahead of putting those dates and our emails in the chat so if you have interest in joining either those groups or have any questions about that please contact either um myself or uh rodrigo who is our man and havana and uh we can give you all the information you need thank you so much uh we're excited that the trips are starting to go again uh and i do think it's probably the safest place in the world uh to go under covid right now um uh we uh we have natasha with us and natasha is one of the key members of asere do you want to unmute yourself and just say a word about the work that we're doing in asere sure it's great to see everyone's face and hear from you on to see um just this lovely group gathered here tonight for this for for this purpose um asere stands for the alliance for cuba engagement and respect it's only about a year and a half old and it's a coalition of groups and individuals across the us who have decided that it's really time to push for progressive policy changes in washington so um we know that there has been um a lot of effort and a lot of organizations that have been around for a long time that have focused on policy changes and yet we haven't seen much happen and in fact we've seen as you all heard really a reverse of the of the advances that took place under the obama administration um which was the anniversary which was just a week ago our son oh it's been seven years since the reestablishment of diplomatic relations and engagement with cuba and yet that feels like you know 61 years ago unfortunately and so and i said it we really think that uh it's important that we channel the voices of grassroots leaders and activists and constituents and individuals all of us on this call tonight to the halls of power to dc to really demand the change that the majority of its residents and citizens of cuban americans and the cubans want and to hold those accountable um who have made those promises and yet have not fulfilled them and so you heard one of the latest um you know victories people's victories on that we had just last week with the congressional letter by 114 members of congress that was sent to biden their own president demanding changes in cuba policy and positions but in addition there's a lot of other ways that we can really reach back to seven years ago and try to build upon the momentum that started then including with um you know sectors that have just been really quiet now the business sector agricultural sector transportation sector there's so many that uh you know academic cultural components artists that were active and vocal and really supportive uh re-engagement that need have been silent and that really need to be re-engaged now and so to the extent that any of you are interested or have contacts or have thoughts about how we can reach out to us businesses to um those in and farming and agriculture and poultry settings dairy settings those who have an interest and want to engage with their cuban counterparts please reach out to us i'm going to drop that set of email in the chat um all of our work is really focused on how we can push um you know the narrative change and policy change in the white house and in congress and so we really look forward to being in partnership with all of you and to hearing your ideas on how we can better do that in the meantime when you're reaching out to your members if you're going to be a part of you're going to be a congressional liaison with code pink or you're going to be in touch with those congressional liaisons we have talking points on the asset our website if you'd like us to help set up a meeting with your member of congress if you'd like to reach out to the district office or take advantage while they're going to be home in the district for the holidays to request a meeting we'd be happy to support you however we can um and i'm going to drop the website again in the chat for anyone who's interested in learning more about us today wonderful thank you so much natasso so if anybody is really interested we are all volunteers at a city but it's a fun group it's an amazing wonderful high powered group if any of you want to really get involved in the nitty gritty of pressuring the administration congress doing the sectoral outreach um we are anxious to have more people working with us so you can just write to us at info at ascere.org uh and tell us you want to be part of the group and i see we have a couple of hands raised of people who are uh i know two wonderful cuban americans i also wanted to say that we work very closely with a cuban american group called puentes de amor and we have some of their members on the call tonight we love you all from puentes de amor carlos lasso who's in italy right now but is on his way back here and we are going together to cuba to take milk we just went to take a 18 000 pounds of food and now we've got another plain load of powdered milk that we will be taking together so tomas moran i know um you are a cuban american who's been involved in this work for a long time we'd love to hear what you have to say hi medea thank you and just very quickly uh just a background i left you well when i was seven years old in 1961 with my parents i returned for the first time as an adult with medea benjamin in 1991 on a global exchange trip where i reunited with my uncle and my cousins and i have kept in touch with them since then thanks really to the internet i have as you can imagine the spectrum of beliefs on cuba in in my family i grew up in porto rico there are people in miami that are members of my family that are could be out in those protests out there but i want you all to know that there are cubans all over the united state particularly outside of the range of blackout that the media in miami really is who really don't feel that we should be treating cuba in this way i've tried to send money to my family for over 50 years as an adult and it is pathetic that of all the countries in the world we're the one that are punished in this way distinctly from what we do with every other other country and i just want to tell you that this argument to your united states friends to let them know that this unbalance is just not right and it hasn't been right for all of it over a half a century and we need to figure out a way to stop it and when some of my friends hear the way that we're treating cuba differently and they hear personal expressions they become supporters and i think that that can make a difference in convincing our folks so thank you media for doing this and uh we have uh a date so i talked to you on the radio the other day let's connect to see how i can help you wonderful we would love you to join us set it to us we need more cuba to do that i just i just hit the wet terrific great uh post way a wonderful wonderful filmmaker we are so delighted to have you on here and we'd love for you to tell people about your work and what you think we should be doing yeah you have to unmute yourself you're a great filmmaker but i don't know that you have mastered the zoom you couldn't find out to put your hand up but you figured that out now we have you because i did it before to recommend how to move the screen and how to change the view to remove the bar from the bottom if you could speak a little a little slower and a little clearer it's hard to understand you i have a very bad connection here i'm of all places i mean we see with a very bad connection in the middle of the city so thank you for for having me and uh it's a pleasure for me to see uh all the work read is doing in cuba because i was very lucky to read when uh when he was starting his work in cuba we did a lot of work together and i enjoyed his company very much and i learned a lot with read so uh it's uh it's been a few years since that uh work we've written uh i've been lucky to work with a lot of media outlets from the us and uh tried to change the narrative a little bit uh because for me one of the most important things we have to do and we have to focus is on media uh i'm going to go back to the obama era where the polls were all in favor of engagement with cuba and when we look at it it's the same the absolute same population in miami that was poisoned by all the media and all the hate that the trump administration brought to this dialogue and just imprinted this negative narrative in uh in young people even that were 100 engaged even people that today speak publicly so much against engagement with cuba and it's trying out trying to punish cuba and it's because the environment does not allow them to act in any other way because they would be punished by by the whole uh economic system that it's mounted on top of this narrative so so i think we have to focus a lot on uh having a strong impact uh on the media and on in my on my side i'm trying to launch a website called the cuba club that was born from a club uh on clubhouse that we used to run rooms on with cuban culture mainly uh trying to stay a bit away from politics but in the end we can change politics through culture through arts engagement and and even tried to engage the people that do not want to get involved with politics but would notice that that cuba is a country full of wonderful people that there's a lot of talent that it's a country that could move forward if this massive food would be just removed from the top of the heads of everyone they're trying to make a normal life without having so many limitations imposed by such a big country as this one and that's what i'm trying to do with the film uh that uh that that we're uh looking forward to finish soon but again trump heard us in many ways all funding and sponsorships fell apart when trump came in and now biden looked like a just a piece of hope for us and it he tried every promise he made in his campaign so so we we're now we have the first i must film film in cuba uh it's a love letter to the country and in a no match to cuban culture and and it's people so so if anybody wants to know more and how to support us uh i'm willing to also offer my help to any effort that is out there from all the people that are uh here there are many organizations involved in this call present here so i'm here also to offer my help not just to ask for help but to offer uh my hands and and whatever bit of head i have left after all these years of struggle so thank you wonderful thank you so much i'm sorry for your difficult connection in washington these days uh i i wonder if margaret if you're still here if you might unmute yourself and tell us about the work you're doing and the obstacles you've come across in the cultural field are you still on somebody wrote hosway cuba i max is stunning and it certainly is stunning um you can watch the trailer and it just makes you want to get on a plane and go to cuba um does it uh can we get margaret so she might be busy but i do want to acknowledge her and the work of hot house which has been doing wonderful concerts uh online um with um just fabulous cuban artists uh and as we were talking about culture being one of the key ways to reach yeah yeah now we can hear you welcome um oh you're with a bad connection as well yeah yeah now we can hear you welcome okay thank you oh you're with a bad connection as well i'm in a room with no mic so i could pass um sorry i just went to a different room but i'm still listening we can hear you can you tell us about your work tell us about your work okay thank you um i uh we just finished a great weekend series called a function at the junction which really showcased a composer michelle rose woman's work as sort of the cornerstone and the whole theme was looking at um folkloric and african spiritual music connections between cuba africa how they've been maintained in new york and california and um we think it really has legs to turn into kind of a bigger uh realized kind of exhibition and multidisciplinary uh piece that could happen at the smithsonian or maybe at the schaumburg or you know have some kind of uh sponsor that could really take this uh intersection of afro-descendant religious and music practice as a way to bring a lot of cuban artists into the us and also to bring some of the um really phenomenal artists in the u.s uh arturo federal aruan artist you know there's so many amazing musicians here now and i think that this could be a way of creating a bridge uh event without having it be so overtly you know housed and in sort of what other people have seen is sort of polarizing conversation so um we continue to try to create these hybrid online performances that are in part videos that we've received from cuba and then also trying to pay and commission people in the u.s to create performances that we send to cuba that are on cuban television and sponsored by the department of of culture and the you know the whole point is to you know say people are not isolated and we you know we still continue to want to share our uh love for each other in ways that are now virtual in this moment wonderful well we love your work and i think i echo because maybe if you put yourself on mute yeah thank you um yes and we put your hot house website in the chat uh and just one thing for those who are not uh all that versed in what's going on in cuba right now there is a tremendous effort in the cultural world world uh to malign the cuban government and to create these put a lot of money into creating songs and other and artistic manifestations of the regime change community and they have been very successful in this if you haven't heard the song patria vida you might want to look it up because it's become the anthem of uh those who would like to see a change uh in the cuban government and so um we have to work on the cultural side the other area is around race uh where cuba certainly has uh problems on uh issues of race but nowhere near the level of here in the united states and yet uh those who are opponents of uh the cuban government have latched on to these problems and portrayed it as if it is the poor black community in cuba that is leading these regime change efforts um and uh so we have to do a lot of work in the united states to reach out to leaders in the black lives matter movement and other leaders in the black community to be working with them to understand how important the cuban revolution has been for uplifting the voices of black cubans and especially uh through cultural manifestations so there's a lot of work to be done i'm very excited we had so many wonderful people on tonight who are doing such great work i'm sure there are many more of you who we would love to hear from and we'll have to repeat this in a a different fashion just to be able to uh tell people about all the different ways that they could get involved um so just to recap we have the trips going to cuba in february and march there's also trips that other groups like pastors for peace are doing the national network on cuba doing mayday trips there's a lot of ways to go to cuba it's the best way to see for yourself and come back and talk about it they just came back from a 74 people from a pastors for peace delegation that was very diverse both racially and generationally and those people are out and about now giving wonderful talks so we need more of you to go to cuba even if you've been before things have changed important to go down now we have this work with both uh code pink or more intensely through sade to be pushing on our members of congress on the house and the senate side uh we want to go directly to the white house so whenever you have a moment you now the hotline at the white house which wasn't available for about seven months into this administration is now back up i think it's 202 224 4131 uh and just call the white house and leave your message uh and then um there are uh constant fundraisers we're doing to raise money for um food and medicines and um that is just one uh some of the things that we're doing so there's lots and lots going on thank you natasha for for putting that number in the chat um let's keep this momentum going let's not let this administration hold the entire island of cuba hostage because it wants to regain two congressional seats in south florida so we've got a lot of work to do uh thank you everyone for joining us tonight thank you to the code pink team for putting this on uh and um let's move forward and make sure that 2022 we bring some relief to the cuban people thank you you chow if everybody wants to unmute we can say goodbye to each other bye bye everyone adios hola leslie i love you medea i love you thank you so much bye everybody thank you i love you hello happy new year yes hello aloha aloha aloha aloha adios oh the dog's barking don't freak out