Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba Crosses the Border- A Near Total Victory

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULY 22, 2005
MEDIA ADVISORY

CONTACTS: IFCO/PASTORS FOR PEACE:
IN HIDALGO, TX: Ellen Bernstein: 646/319-5902 (cell)
IN NEW YORK: Lucia Bruno: 212/926-5757 (office)

PASTORS FOR PEACE CARAVAN TO CUBA CROSSES THE BORDER:
³A NEAR-TOTAL VICTORY²
the fight for computers for Cuban children continues at the
Hidalgo/Reynosa border

Pastors for Peace claimed a huge victory today as a tired but excited group of 130 US citizens crossed the US/Mexico border just before daybreak with almost all of the 140 tons of humanitarian aid en route to Cuba and collected by the Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Cuba Caravan. Their struggle to send on the computers, which have been blocked by US authorities, is building momentum.

The caravan is composed of seven brightly painted yellow schoolbuses, two box trucks, and several smaller vehicles, all of them loaded with humanitarian aid for Cuba. Yesterday, more than 40 US Customs officers,acting on the instructions of Commerce Department officials, detained the Caravan at the border and began to search their vehicle one item at a time. In an exhaustive 6-hour search of the first two yellow schoolbuses. Officials confiscated all of the computers and computer equipment available­ - 11 computers, three monitors, two printers, two scanners, and a
variety of computer parts and accessories. Officials then threatened to tow the remaining vehicles carrying the rest of the aid. Meanwhile,members of the Caravan walked aid across the border and demonstrated beside the marooned buses.

³Our caravans have delivered nearly 2500 tons of aid to Cuba since 1992, all of it without asking permission of the US government. But this year something changed: We have heard that government officials at the highest level¹ made a special determination that this year our Pastors for Peace caravan would not pass,² said Rev. Walker. ³We¹ve already proved them wrong: 95% of our caravan has already crossed into Mexico and is headed toward Cuba. Now we¹re determined to get our computers to Cuba as well.²

³When those first computers were seized, we decided not to give up any more of our precious cargo. We regrouped at a location two blocks away from the border crossing,² said Rev. Walker. ³There we decided that the best strategy was to send most of the caravan ahead with all the non-contested aid. So we unloaded and reloaded our vehicles, and everything but the computers passed through the Customs checkpoint between 3:00 and 6:00am. Just one bus stayed behind, with all our computers on board; and a few of us remain here in Texas to continue the fight for the computers.²

³Our extraordinary group of committed and hard-working volunteers worked through the night to make sure that our caravan of urgently needed medical supplies and hurricane relief makes it to Cuba on time,² said Rev. Lucius Walker, executive director of IFCO/Pastors for Peace. ³More than ever we are committed to making sure that all the supplies donated by generous US citizens will get to the Cuban people.

The campaign to free the computers has received tremendous support from Capitol Hill and from members of the Pastors for Peace grassroots network nationwide, who are
calling on the Commerce Department to demand the release of the Pastors for Peace computers for Cuba and an end to the inhumane blockade.

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