2026 Cuba Delegation Information

12:00 - 2:00 pm | Arrive at José MartÍ International Airport (HAV)

Delegates will deplane, clear customs and gather their luggage.

2:30 - 3:30 pm | Travel from airport to Hotel Boutique La Distancia

Check into hotel

4:00 - 5:00 pm | Welcome and orientation

Delegates will review (1) the final agenda, (2) security expectations and protocol, (3) leadership roles for the trip, and (4) US policy initiatives toward Cuba. Delegates will have an opportunity to introduce themselves and hear from delegation leaders and interpreters.

Facilitators: Elise Roberts, P-PIP | Natasha Bannan, ACERE Co-Chair

5:30 - 6:30 pm | Official visit with Cuban Government

Delegates will meet with top Cuban authorities to discuss pressing issues pertaining to the U.S.-Cuba bilateral relationship, including, but not limited to, the impacts of U.S. trade, travel and financial restrictions on the Cuban people; respect for human rights and prisoners in both countries; support for Cuba’s private sector and independent entrepreneurs; and the potential for cooperation in fields such as migration, national security, public health, agriculture, climate change and regional diplomacy.

Presenters: Miguel Díaz-Canel, President of Cuba | Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs

7:30 - 8:30 pm | Dinner at hotel

Overnight at hotel

8:00 - 10:00 am | Working breakfast with Cuban women entrepreneurs in education, business and consumer sectors

The meeting will continue a thread from last night concerning the current challenges for Cuban women entrepreneurs and business owners in light of the economic and energy crisis, as well as limitations on their ability to access and/or receive financial transactions, business goods, and other economic activity related to their business initiatives as a result of U.S. policy.

Facilitators: Ana Mahe Inda Gonzalez, El Mundo de Amalia | Dalieny Ortega, Cubela | Lisset Ametler, Zame

10:00 - 10:30 am | Walk to Hotel Boutique Claxson

10:30 am - 12:30 pm | Panel on current state of U.S.-Cuba relations

During this special panel discussion, delegates will have a unique opportunity to learn from leading policy experts, academics and analysts from Cuban civil society about the current state of U.S.-Cuba relations under the new administration, Cuba’s socioeconomic and foreign policy priorities, and prospects for the improvement of bilateral ties. Delegates will learn about the historical factors and political negotiations that led to the normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba; the policy changes and bilateral advances that resulted from this announcement; and the impacts on the Cuban people of the decision by subsequent administrations to reverse many of these changes over the past seven years.

Facilitators: Dr. Raul Rodriguez, Director of the University of Havana’s Center for Hemispheric and United States Studies (CEHSEU) | Norma Goicochea Estenoz, Executive Director of the Cuban Association of the United Nations (ACNU) | Dr. Jourdy James Heredia, Deputy Director of the Global Economy Research Center (CIEM) | Rafael Hernandez, editor-in-chief of Temas magazine 

12:30 - 1:00 pm | Travel to Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center

1:00 - 4:30 pm | Working lunch and meeting with Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center

The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center (CMMLK), located in Marianao, a working-class neighborhood in Havana,  is a premier Cuban civil society and ecumenical institution that works with communities and churches across the island to promote participation in civic life. The CMMLK has deep ties to Protestant churches and humanitarian organizations in the United States, and many of its leaders have visited U.S. cities on educational exchanges in recent years. This meeting will provide delegates with information about religious expression and social participation in Cuba today, as well as the efforts of women, Afro-descendant and LGBTQ+ leaders to promote positive social change in Cuba. 

Facilitators: Rev. Izett Samá Hernández, Director | Dayanis Garcia, International   Delegations Coordinator

4:00 - 5:00 pm | Travel to Old Havana

5:00  - 6:00 pm | Executive time at hotel

6:00  - 8:00 pm | Working dinner with officials from the U.S. Embassy in Havana

The delegates will meet with officials from the U.S. Embassy in Havana, with whom they will discuss issues pertinent to the bilateral relationship between Cuba and the United States, including agricultural trade, environmental and security cooperation, respect for human rights, and support for Cuba’s independent private sector.

Facilitator: Mike Hammer, Chief of Mission

8:00 - 9:00 am | Breakfast and briefing

Delegates will be briefed on the day’s meetings

Facilitators: Elise Roberts, P-PIP | Natasha Bannan, ACERE Co-Chair | Camila Pineiro Harnecker, ACERE Co-Chair

9:00 - 9:30 am | Travel to Hospital Hermanos Ameijeiras

9:30 - 11:00 am | Visit to Hospital Hermanos Ameijeiras

The Hermanos Ameijeiras hospital is a leading clinical, surgical and teaching hospital in Cuba’s Centro Habana neighborhood, housed in a 24-story building perched over the Malecón. During this visit, delegates will exchange with health officials, doctors, nurses, technicians and patients about the structure, mission and impacts of Cuba’s public health care system, as well as the labor, material and technological shortages it currently faces. Delegates will witness firsthand scarcities of medications, medical inputs, machinery and personnel at the hospital, as well as learn about the preventative and community-based model that undergirds its operations.

Presenters: Hospital directors and staff

11:00 - 11:30 pm | Travel to Paladar La Guarida

11:30 am - 1:30 pm | Working lunch with foreign press corps and business sector

Delegates will meet with foreign and independent Cuban journalists, as well as representatives of international firms doing business on the island, at a historic privately-owned restaurant to discuss the challenges and opportunities of carrying out their work in Cuba. Delegates will learn about key economic, political and social issues in Cuba from the media and business professionals who report on and navigate them every day.

Presenters: Representatives of the accredited foreign press and Western firms based in Cuba

1:30 - 2:00 pm | Travel to el Callejón de Hamel

2:00 - 3:00 pm | Visit Afro-Cuban community arts project Callejón de Hamel

The Callejón de Hamel community arts project is an independent, self-sustaining hub of artists, entrepreneurs and cultural promoters working to preserve the island’s diverse African-derived spiritualities through the built environment in one of Havana’s most marginalized neighborhoods. The project redistributes income earned from foreign visitors to benefit community programming, including social work and artistic training for school children.

Presenter: Elias Aseff, Historian at Callejón de Hamel

3:00 - 3:45 pm | Travel to Latin American School of Medicine

3:45 - 5:30 pm | Visit U.S. students at Latin American School of Medicine

The Latin American School of Medicine is among the largest medical schools in the world, with thousands of students enrolled from Africa, Latin America and Asia, as well as dozens of low-income students from the U.S. Hundreds of mostly African-American and Hispanic students from the U.S. have trained at the school tuition-free thanks to backing from the Congressional Black Caucus and support from a U.S. foundation, with the understanding that upon graduation they would practice medicine in underserved rural and urban communities throughout the U.S. The visit will provide delegates with an opportunity to meet some of these students and learn about Cuba’s health care and higher education system.  Delegates will learn about how U.S. sanctions contribute to difficulties in the provision of medical and educational services in Cuba and be exposed to the history of public health and educational cooperation between U.S. and Cuban institutions.

Presenters: Students from the US currently attending the Latin American School of Medicine 

5:30 - 6:30 pm | Travel to El Jardin de los Milagros paladar

6:30 - 7:30 pm | Dinner

Dinner at El Jardin de los Milagros paladar, Havana

7:30 - 9:00 pm | Executive time

OPTIONAL ADDITIONAL TOUR

9:00 - 11:00 pm | Visit Fabrica del Arte Cubano

Fábrica del Arte Cubano is Havana’s premier, privately-operated community arts hub, which has hosted award-winning U.S., Cuban and international musicians and currently employs, directly or indirectly, hundreds of Cuban artists and entrepreneurs. In this visit, delegates will exchange with young Cuban filmmakers, actors, musicians and curators about the unique success and global recognition Fábrica achieved under past administrations, and the challenges it has faced amid Cuba’s economic and humanitarian decline over the past five years. Delegates will learn about innovative U.S.-Cuba exchanges in the artistic, cultural and educational fields Fábrica has sponsored in the past decade; explore current exhibits and converse with their creators; and exchange with Cuban youth about cultural and employment opportunities on the island today.

Presenter: X Alfonso, Director of Fábrica del Arte Cubano

8:00 - 9:00 am | Breakfast and briefing

Delegates will be briefed on the day’s meetings

Facilitators: Elise Roberts, P-PIP | Natasha Bannan, ACERE Co-Chair | Camila Pineiro Harnecker, ACERE Co-Chair

9:00 - 9:30 am | Travel to Proyecto Sociocultural Cabildo Quisicuaba

9:30 - 11:00 am | Visit Proyecto Sociocultural Cabildo Quisicuaba

This independent community organization based in Centro Habana defends the identity, culture and history of the historically Afro-Cuban neighborhood while attending to the material, sociocultural and spiritual needs of the most vulnerable, including single mothers, the elderly, those suffering from substance abuse and individuals recently released from prison. The organization sustains a robust humanitarian aid distribution program, receiving necessary medical and food supplies from international aid agencies and civic organizations, including from the United States. The meeting will provide insight into the extent of Cuba’s economic and humanitarian crisis and shine light on the efforts of Cuban civil society organizations to provide basic goods and services where the government is unable.
Presenters: Enrique Alemán, Platform for Interreligious Dialogue in Cuba

11:00 - 11:30 pm | Travel to hotel

11:30 am - 3:00 pm | Executive time

3:30 - 5:30 pm | Meeting with Casa de Africa

Casa de Africa is a historical and cultural museum in Old Havana dedicated to preserving and exhibiting the African influence on Cuban identity, culture and politics as well as documenting the historic relations between Cuba and the countries on the African continent.delegates will meet with ambassadors and other officials from African and Latin American nations accredited in Cuba to discuss issues of geopolitical, commercial and sociocultural importance. The meeting will provide delegates with a more in-depth understanding of Cuba’s bilateral and multilateral relations with countries and regional blocs in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as offer a platform to debate solutions to pressing global challenges. Delegates will learn from the dignitaries about their countries’ political and economic relations with Cuba and explore regional strategies to improve bilateral affairs with the U.S., thus contributing to delegates’ work on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Presenters: Various African/Latin American ambassadors to Cuba 

6:00 - 8:00 pm | Working dinner with Afro-Cuban entrepreneurs, artists and activists

Paladares are family-owned, privately-operated restaurants that boomed with the legalization of self-employed work in Cuba in the 1990s. Since then, thousands of these independent businesses have begun operating throughout the island, employing a significant portion of the young Cuban workforce and importing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of inputs from the United States. At this dinner at paladar Yarini with Afro-Cuban entrepreneurs, artists and independent activists, delegates will learn about Cuba’s thriving private sector, recent U.S. regulations designed to support this sector and further measures delegates can help advocate for to encourage its growth and prevent some of Cuba’s best and brightest from abandoning their life projects in Cuba through migration.

Presenters: Adriana Heredia, Beyond Roots | Annia Liz De Armas, Lo llevamos rizo | Yurena Manfugás, BarbarA’s Power | Diarenis Calderón, Nosotrxs

8:00 - 9:00 am | Breakfast at hotel

9:00 - 9:30 am | Travel to José Martí International Airport (HAV)

9:30 am - 12:30 pm | Check in to flight, clear customs, find gate and board plane