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News :: Civil & Human Rights : International Relations : Latin America |
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Venceremos Brigade Launches Cuba Travel Challenge July 4: Group Travels to Cuba "Unlicensed" to Oppose Bush Travel Restrictions |
Current rating: 0 |
by Venceremos Brigade
(No verified email address) |
07 Jul 2004
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The Venceremos Brigade is an educational work project that has sent over 8,000 U.S. citizens to Cuba since 1969. It is the oldest friendship organization with Cuba in the country. This year's contingent is comprised of 81 participants from all over the United States. |
NEW YORK - July 6 - The 35th Anniversary Contingent of the Venceremos Brigade will visit Cuba from July 4 - 19 without a U.S. Treasury Department license in order to challenge and oppose U.S. government restrictions on travel to Cuba. At 8:30 AM on July 19, the Brigade will walk together across the International Peace Bridge in Buffalo, New York, to announce its return to U.S. Immigrations and Customs.
The Venceremos Brigade is an educational work project that has sent over 8,000 U.S. citizens to Cuba since 1969. It is the oldest friendship organization with Cuba in the country. This year's contingent is comprised of 81 participants from all over the United States including San Francisco, New York City, Northern New Jersey, Washington DC, Boston, Denver, Albuquerque, Seattle, Los Angeles, Kentucky, Minnesota, and Atlanta. According to a statement signed by Brigade members, "we are young and older; African-American, Latino, Asian and white; gay and straight; students from high schools and colleges; and workers and professionals."
The Brigade's statement further proclaims, "Cuba is not our enemy and we hope to develop friendships with as many Cuban people as we can during our stay. we are united in opposing the travel ban and the U.S. economic blockade of Cuba. We do not ask for a U.S. Treasury Department license to travel to Cuba to view the country, its people, its successes and its challenges with our own eyes. We believe that current U.S. policy towards Cuba is deceitful, in violation of international law, and harmful to the interests of our people and the Cuban people. And we believe, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught us, that we have a moral obligation to break unjust laws." Brigadistas risk fines for breaking the travel ban.
Brigadistas will stay at a school in Santiago de Cuba where they will work side by side with the Cuban people to assist in the renovation of a local health clinics. Brigadistas will also bus across the island to Havana, where they will also work and meet with Cuban workers and students. The "Travel Challenge" is a joint effort with Pastors for Peace, whose caravan will cross the border into Texas on July 19, and a delegation from the African Awareness Association, who will join in the Challenge with us at the Canadian border on July 19. Altogether more than 200 Cuba travelers will be openly defying the Cuba travel ban on July 19.
Copies of the Venceremos Brigade Cuba Travel Challenge statement are available to the press. Members of the press are also invited to meet the Brigade as we announce our return from Cuba on July 19th at the International Peace Bridge in Buffalo, New York. Interviews with local participants can be arranged prior to our departure or upon return. |
See also:
http://www.venceremosbrigade.org/
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Pastors Leave Texas for Embargo - Busting Cuba Trip |
by Reuters
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
07 Jul 2004
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HOUSTON (Reuters) - A caravan of vehicles carrying 100 tons of goods crossed into Mexico from Texas on Wednesday bound for Cuba in a show of civil disobedience toward the U.S. embargo of the communist-run island.
It is the 15th year the Pastors for Peace humanitarian organization has delivered food, medicine and equipment to Cuba, but this year's trip comes as the Bush administration has toughened travel restrictions to put pressure on Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Pastors for Peace is an arm of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, ``whose mission is to help forward the struggles of oppressed people for justice and self-determination,'' according to a statement on its web site.
``We feel this is a very crucial time to go because of the issues and hostilities being created between our country and other people of the world,'' director Lucius Walker said in a telephone interview from the Mexican border city of Reynosa.
``We're doing civil disobedience and we're prepared to suffer the consequences.''
The caravan of 15 vehicles with 120 people on board received an escort to the border by helpful U.S. agents and local police at Hidalgo, Texas, Walker said.
He said the group had expected problems because of the new Bush policies imposed last week, but there were none.
``There was a lot of planned attention to us, but there was no effort to stop us, no effort to harass us,'' Walker said.
The group was set to arrive in Havana on Friday, then return to the U.S. 10 days later.
Government officials would not say whether the ``caravanistas,'' as they call themselves, would be prosecuted upon return, but Walker said they had been told to expect something would be done.
``They wouldn't stop us (today), but they'll get us when we come back,'' he said.
Copyright 2004 Reuters Ltd.
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