Church groups lead annual protest mission to Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

Church groups lead annual protest mission to Cuba
Wednesday July 07, 2004
By LYNN BREZOSKY
Associated Press Writer
SAN JUAN, Texas (AP) Abelardo Ateaga took a bus all the way from Florida to get here, but he's got miles more to go and a major international law to test before he's done.

Ateaga, 82, hopes to be part of a caravan of old school buses that will cross the U.S.-Mexico border Wednesday on its way to Cuba for the 14th annual delivery of goods to the communist island in violation of the U.S. embargo.

Leaders of Pastors for Peace, an American humanitarian aid group, this year filled nine buses with donations including medical, sports, and office equipment gathered by church and other groups in 127 cities.

More than 100 volunteers from across the nation and several foreign countries planned to ride in the caravan from the U.S. border to Tampico, Mexico.

There they will load the goods, including the buses, on to boats bound for Cuba. The volunteers planned to fly to Cuba to help church groups there distribute the aid.
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http://cbsnewyork.com/national/CubaCaravan-aa/resources_news_html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Squeezing Cuba by former head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana

Squeezing Cuba

By Wayne S. Smith
Originally published July 7, 2004

WHEN IT COMES to encouraging more open societies in other countries, one can usually accomplish more by setting an example of adherence to democratic principles and of respect for human rights than by dictating rules for others to follow.
(snip)

The Bush administration often has spoken of its commitment to family values, but in the new measures it is taking against Cuba that went into effect June 30, those are put aside.

For years, Cuban-Americans have been able to visit their families on the island once a year, and more often in case of severe illness or a death in the family. Further, there was no need to request permission to do so; they simply traveled under a general license.

But now their visits will be limited to once every three years, and they must apply each time for a license.

And no more emergency visits. If you visited your mother last year, but she is now deathly ill, too bad. There is no provision for a special license so that you can be at her bedside.

Most Cuban-Americans are outraged. As Alfredo Duran, leader of the moderate Cuban Committee for Democracy, put it: "This is a cheap shot from the administration. They've done this to assure the votes of a few hard-liners in the community, but at the cost of great pain and suffering to the rest of us. And what kind of example is this of respect for family values?"
(snip/...)

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.cuba07jul07,0,1269516.story?coll=bal-oped-headlines

[Judi Lynn]

2. Americans Still Traveling to Cuba

Americans Still Traveling to Cuba

Wed Jul 7, 2:02 AM ET

By VANESSA ARRINGTON, Associated Press Writer

HAVANA - Many tourists in Havana pay tribute to Ernest Hemingway by drinking a frozen daiquiri alongside the life-size bronze statue of the late author at El Floridita restaurant, his onetime watering hole.

But few of them used to drink with the man himself at the restaurant's bar, like Lee Minor, a 90-year-old resident of Fort Myers, Fla.

"We had drinks together at the bar," said Minor, who spent much of the 1940s and 1950s traveling to Cuba as president of an American electrical company operating here. "He enjoyed friends, enjoyed knowing people."

Decades later, Minor returned to the island with his 60-year-old son for a tour of "Hemingway's Cuba" with a group of American Hemingway fans.

The travelers are among just a sprinkling of American groups still coming to Cuba after tough new U.S. restrictions against travel to the island took effect June 30.
(snip/...)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&ncid=734&e=3&u=/ap/20040707/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cuba_hemingway