Havana, April 17 (RHC) -- Engage Cuba, a new non-profit group, will lobby the U.S. Congress next month for the end of prohibitions against doing business or travel to the Caribbean nation.

This movement is a joint effort by political officials from the Democratic and the Republican Parties, big business groups and non-governmental organizations to demand the end of the economic blockade, that has been imposed by Washington on Havana for over half a century.

The US National Council for Foreign Trade, an entity that represents big companies and lobbies for the expansion of international commerce, has announced that it will join this initiative.

In recent statements the president of Engage Cuba, James Williams said that the blockade represents a failed policy, and that many businesspeople in the United States see the Caribbean island as a potential partner.