Art of Diplomacy Tour of Cuba with Ambassador Charles Shapiro

Curious about Cuba? Ambassador (ret.) Charles Shapiro and Amanda Mattingly are leading a trip to Havana June 12-16, 2025 to meet with a wide range of Cuban academics, artists, small business owners and others to figure out what is going on and how the United States should respond. We will meet with the Acting U.S. Ambassador to Cuba as well as the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs (requested). The Cuban economy has been crushed by Covid, U.S. sanctions and bad governance. In 2021 and 2024, protests broke out and were repressed by the Cuban government. One thing is sure: the sound bites from the U.S. right and left miss the complexity of Cuba. We will meet in the Havana airport the late morning of Thursday, June 12 and depart on flights the late afternoon on Monday, June 16. We will stay in privately owned, comfortable boutique hotels.