Humanitarian Assistance for Cuba volunteers detained by Homeland Security

July 21, 2005

Attention!!!!! Attention!!!!!!!

Texas----Kathryn Hall, the executive director of the Sacramento Center for Community Health and Well Being (home of the Birthing Project), youth and others in support of the Pastors or Peace (POP) 16th Annual Friendship Caravan to Cuba are being held in McAllen Texas at the borders between Mexico and Texas by US Homeland Security Officers, and the Commerce Department. They have been stopped and surrounded and by United States’ Homeland Security Officers, who are preventing them from traveling through Mexico to Cuba. U.S. Homeland Security officers are demanding to search their personal belongs, the bus, and all their medical supplies for money. Homeland Security believes the Caravan has access to $50,000 in cash from a local Sacramento family.



We need your immediate support now! Please call, e-mail, or fax policy makers--ask them to “To immediate release the caravan members immediate allow them to continue on their journey”:



Senator Dianne Feinstein:

Phone: (202) 224-3841
Fax: (202) 228-3954
call (415) 393-0707
Fax (415) 393-0710 TY/TDD: (202) 224-2501

Senator Barbara

Washington D.C.
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-3553

Sacramento
501 I Street, Suite 7-600
Sacramento, CA 95814
(916) 448-2787
(916) 448-2563 fax



Congresswoman Barbara Lee

Phone: (510) 763-0370

Fax: (510) 763-6538 Phone: (202) 225-2661

Fax: (202) 225-9817

Scheduling Fax: (202) 226-1104



Congresswoman Maxine Waters
323-757-8900 phone
323-757-9506 fax

202-225-2201 phone
202-225-7854 fax



EMERGENCY ACTION ALERT
Pastors Cuba Caravan Barred at US-Mexico Border

URGENT- PLEASE CONTACT THE COMMERCE DEPARTMENT AND YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES, EMERGENCY NETWORKS AND PRESS CONTACTS:
SPREAD THE WORD FAR AND WIDE!

http://www.commerce.gov/ 202-482-2000
Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez cgutierrez [at] commerce.gov

As of 1:30 pm EDT, July 21, 2005, The Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba is being held up at the US-Mexico border by US Commerce Department officials. They are threatening to search every vehicle and every item of humanitarian aid. They are telling us that "only licensable goods will be allowed to cross into Mexico."

Pastors for Peace does not accept or apply for a license to deliver humanitarian aid to Cuba.

There are 130 US citizens traveling with the caravan. They and the humanitarian aid are traveling in eight busses, a box truck and two small cars. It will take days to inspect the 140 tons of aid. We are prepared to do whatever we need to do to deliver our humanitarian aid to Cuba. Stay posted...
PLEASE TAKE ACTION NOW!

1) Call Scott Kamen, Congressional Aide of Affairs at the Department of Commerce, at 202-482-0097 and demand that the Caravan be allowed to cross the border with all of its humanitarian cargo.

2) Call your Congressperson and ask them to call Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez at 202-482-2000, or Scott Kamen at 202-482-0097. If you don’t know how to reach your Congressperson, go to http://www.house.gov/ and enter your zip code. That will take you to the Congresspersons home web page where you can find phone and email information.

For info. contact persons: Carl Pinkston, (916) 736-9843

Faye Kennedy, (916) 484-5025 ;fayek [at] springmail.com