Support vigil for Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba

Fresno Center for Nonviolence

MEDIA ALERT

The Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba passed through Fresno on July 10th, and was hosted by the Center. The Caravan, carrying medicines, medical supplies, school supplies and computers for special-needs children and adults, was predictably stopped at the Mexican border by U. S. Border Patrol agents, and the supplies were confiscated by customs agents..

Members of the Caravan who traveled to Cuba have been allowed back into the U. S. without having been arrested. However, the humanitarian aid materials remain in government custody. Some of the Caravan team have pledged to remain in Hidalgo, on the Texas-Mexico border, “for as long as it takes,” until the humanitarian aid materials are released and shipped.

Following the vigil, the Center will show the film “Witness,” as part of its Every Second Wednesday video series. The documentary tells the story of one man’s remarkable change in consciousness, sharing realities of the meat and fur industries and related maltreatment of animals, in this award winning film. Eddie Lamas explains how he feared and avoided animals for most of his life, until the love of a kitten opened his heart, inspiring him to rescue abandoned animals, and ultimately bring his message of compassion to the streets of New York.

Both the Vigil and the film presentation are FREE and the public is invited.
For information, call Angela at 559-435-6383.

By Rev. Lucius Walker, founder Pastors for Peace

Cuban Blockade A Failed Policy

Time to return the aid – end the blockade

When President Kennedy instituted the blockade on Cuba, 43 years ago, I doubt he ever imagined that it would still be in place four decades later. By any reasonable standard, it would have ended four decades ago. Tragically, it has been repeated tightened, straining relations between the US and Cuba, and creating tremendous hardships for the Cuban people.

Numerous opportunities to improve relations have been spurned by US administrations:

I. In the late 90’s, Cuba invited US intelligence officials to review information it had uncovered regarding the plans of Cuban-American terror cells working in the United States. This information included intelligence reports on self-professed terrorist, Luis Posada Carrilles, a Venezuelan citizen of Cuban decent, whose plans to bomb commercial airlines flying from other countries to Cuba, were outlined in the report. Rather than arrest or investigate the charges against Posada, the Cuban officers who presented the information were arrested and accused of conspiring to spy on the United States. The 5 Cubans are still imprisoned in the US, and Posada has yet to be investigated. Posada, who has been tried and convicted for Terrorist Acts in Venezuela, has blatantly applied for asylum in this country, on the basis that he committed these acts of terror while on the payroll of the CIA.

II. Cuba’s offers to cooperate with the US in the interdiction of drug trafficking from South America, has been consistently ignored by the U.S. Government.

III. The U.S. recently reduced permission for Cubans to visit their families in Cuba, from once a year to once every 3 years. The definition of family was also redefined to exclude grandparents and cousins, so important in the extended family concept of Latin American culture.

All of these illustrations highlight the fact that the US blockade is nothing more than a cruel form of wholesale indiscriminant punishment on the entire Cuban population. Indeed, the blockade is a failed policy that begs to be eradicated, and replaced by normalized relations. Shamefully, however, this administration is committed to using dirty tricks and punitive measure in order to force the sovereign Nation of Cuba to adopt a US-style market economy.

Another illustration of misguided U.S. policy towards Cuba is the July 21 confiscation of humanitarian aid being carried to Cuba by Pastors for Peace, an organization that I am pleased to serve as executive director. Forty-three boxes of computer equipment destined for Cuban children with special needs were seized. At a time when Homeland Security personnel are already overextended, the fact that they would use over 50 agents to stop Pastors For Peace from donating toner, cables and calculators, keyboards, 2 printers and a dozen computers to Cuban children with special needs, is a wasteful misuse of public resources.

What kind of a blockade would take away toner from Cuban children? Last time I checked, tonor cartridges and used computer parts are not a threat to National Security.

The blockade neither helps the citizens of the US nor the citizens of Cuba. It restricts our ability to travel as granted under the Constitution. It forbids our ability to give aid to help the people of the island in need after the destruction of Hurricane Dennis. Not to mention the fact that it puts a strangle hold on the island of Cuba, making it nearly impossible to acquire important medical supplies and products, necessary to survive. This Administration has continually blocked attempts to normalize relations with Cuba, and now it is moving even farther in the opposite direction. Let us stand together in solidarity with Cuba, working to change the course of U.S. policy from one of hostility to one of friendship and normalized relations.

Reverand Lucius Walker is executive director of Pastors for Peace, a special project of The Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), which delivers humanitarian aid to Mexico, Cuba and Central America. For more information visit

Reverand Lucius Walker celebrates his 75th birthday today, Aug. 3. Today also marks the 17th birthday of Pastors for Peace.