Campaign to free seized Cuba aid hits the road

In another sign of a “perfect storm” of support brewing for Cuba, the group Pastors for Peace announced that it is taking its struggle to win the release of humanitarian aid for Cuba on the road.

Last month, on July 21, the humanitarian aid headed for Cuba was seized at the U.S./Mexican border by the U.S. government—U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers.

They reportedly received their instructions from U.S. Customs, and are refusing to return the 43 boxes of computer equipment and 12 computers that were earmarked for Cuban children with special needs.

In spite of this repressive government action, the 16th Pastors for Peace caravan was able to cross the U.S.-Mexico border at the Hildago/Reynosa International Bridge, with 140 tons of aid and most of the 11 vehicles and 150 members and travel on to Cuba.

Seven members of the caravan stayed with the seized materials to continue the campaign to win the release of the seized equipment and ensure that it gets to the Cubans as intended.

A recent statement from IFCO/Pastors for Peace explained that in the last few weeks those who stayed at the border established a very strong presence in the McAllen, Texas/Hildago, Mexico area. They have won support from area churches and community groups.

“We have received extensive local press coverage,” they report. “Just about everyone here knows who we are and why we are in town.”

But it’s become clear, they added, that the decision to free the equipment is not a low-level one that will be made in Hildago. “We were told,” they write, “that the order to seize the computers was given from a very high level of government, as high as the White House.”

Understanding where the pressure needs to be applied, IFCO-Pastors for Peace has announced that the next phase of the struggle will be to take the campaign to free the seized aid on the road.

One of the first stops was Aug. 15 at “Camp Casey,” set up outside President George W. Bush’s “Summer White House,” his ranch in Crawford, Texas. There, the Revs. Lucius Walker, Luis Barrios and Diane Baker met to show solidarity with anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan, who set up the encampment to demand that Bush be held accountable for her son’s death as a soldier in Iraq.

Ellen Bernstein of Pastors for Peace, who is also on the caravan in Texas, told Workers World that the caravan has been extremely helpful in talking not only about the computers and the travel ban but also the Cuban 5. The bus they are on, she said, has pictures of the five on it, and Texans around the state are asking about the case.

The Pastors for Peace campaign will continue on to Alice, San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, and Austin, Texas, and to other cities that hosted the caravan as it made stops along its trip to Cuba.

While they’re on the road, the activist presence in Hildago will be maintained. Supporters from Mexico and the United States plan to hold weekly vigils on the bridge every Wednesday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

To see photos and video clips about this important campaign, and for more information on how you can be a part of it, visit: www.pastorsforpeace.org.