In Spite of Embargo, an Organization Brings Relief to Cuba
- Submitted by: admin
- Society
- 07 / 06 / 2009
A bus full of medical and school supplies headed to Cuba will depart from Miami at noon Monday, continuing its decades-long battle against the U.S.-imposed embargo on the island nation.
Officials of Pastors for Peace, the ecumenical agency that delivers humanitarian aid to Latin America, say they hope President Barack Obama will lift the embargo and fulfill his promise to improve U.S.-Cuba relations.
The organization runs a caravan that includes dozens of buses and trucks that travel across the United States each year to pick up supplies. Each year since 1989, the convoy crosses the U.S.-Mexico border, and loads the goods onto a Cuban government freighter to be distributed in Cuba.
This violates federal law -- which could mean 10 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 for each person who takes part in the convoy -- but they do it anyway. So far, the U.S. government has not stood in their way.
This does not concern Dr. Alberto Jones, a Cuban who arrived in Miami during the Mariel boatlift and has been involved with the convoys each year since 1999.
''I'm not afraid to go to jail,'' he said Sunday night at Ham & Eggery restaurant in North Miami Beach, where the truck is parked.
Jones' activities mirror those of a growing number of Cuban Americans who question the embargo, which was imposed almost 50 years ago to apply economic pressure on the Cuban dictatorship in the hope of speeding its downfall.
As Jones walked around the truck, which is set to join others in Texas later this month, he said American treatment of Cuba disgusts him.
''If you don't see the suffering, you don't feel it,'' he said. ``I saw kids starving and I changed my point of view. I do this [work] in Haiti, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic -- and Cuba. What's the difference?''
The Miami truck's driver, Michael Canney, adopted the organization's philosophy more than a decade ago. He hopes this year's trip will be the last illegal one.
''Washington might finally realize that this has been a failed policy,'' he said.
Like others in the group, Canney has never been arrested for his actions -- and he does not expect those in the U.S. Treasury Department to take action this time, either.
''If they want to prosecute me for sending humanitarian aid, I would welcome it,'' he said.
Many have criticized the group for violating the law, claiming its members are Communists supporting Fidel Castro's regime. Jones disagrees.
''This is not a political issue,'' he said. ``It's a human drama.''
The truck was filled Sunday evening with donated computers, heart monitors and latex gloves. According to the group's members, all are headed for underfunded Cuban hospitals in Guantánamo province.
The group said it would continue to accept donations Monday at the truck at the Ham & Eggery, 530 NE 167th St., North Miami Beach.
Source: Miami Herald
Officials of Pastors for Peace, the ecumenical agency that delivers humanitarian aid to Latin America, say they hope President Barack Obama will lift the embargo and fulfill his promise to improve U.S.-Cuba relations.
The organization runs a caravan that includes dozens of buses and trucks that travel across the United States each year to pick up supplies. Each year since 1989, the convoy crosses the U.S.-Mexico border, and loads the goods onto a Cuban government freighter to be distributed in Cuba.
This violates federal law -- which could mean 10 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 for each person who takes part in the convoy -- but they do it anyway. So far, the U.S. government has not stood in their way.
This does not concern Dr. Alberto Jones, a Cuban who arrived in Miami during the Mariel boatlift and has been involved with the convoys each year since 1999.
''I'm not afraid to go to jail,'' he said Sunday night at Ham & Eggery restaurant in North Miami Beach, where the truck is parked.
Jones' activities mirror those of a growing number of Cuban Americans who question the embargo, which was imposed almost 50 years ago to apply economic pressure on the Cuban dictatorship in the hope of speeding its downfall.
As Jones walked around the truck, which is set to join others in Texas later this month, he said American treatment of Cuba disgusts him.
''If you don't see the suffering, you don't feel it,'' he said. ``I saw kids starving and I changed my point of view. I do this [work] in Haiti, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic -- and Cuba. What's the difference?''
The Miami truck's driver, Michael Canney, adopted the organization's philosophy more than a decade ago. He hopes this year's trip will be the last illegal one.
''Washington might finally realize that this has been a failed policy,'' he said.
Like others in the group, Canney has never been arrested for his actions -- and he does not expect those in the U.S. Treasury Department to take action this time, either.
''If they want to prosecute me for sending humanitarian aid, I would welcome it,'' he said.
Many have criticized the group for violating the law, claiming its members are Communists supporting Fidel Castro's regime. Jones disagrees.
''This is not a political issue,'' he said. ``It's a human drama.''
The truck was filled Sunday evening with donated computers, heart monitors and latex gloves. According to the group's members, all are headed for underfunded Cuban hospitals in Guantánamo province.
The group said it would continue to accept donations Monday at the truck at the Ham & Eggery, 530 NE 167th St., North Miami Beach.
Source: Miami Herald
Comments