Pastors for Peace arrives in Cuba

[roody]

AP
A U.S. humanitarian group delivered about 90 tons of aid to Cuba on Thursday, defying Washington’s 45-year-old trade embargo.
Some 140 Pastors for Peace volunteers drove across the Texas border to Mexico, and then flew to Havana with computers and medical supplies, including X-ray machines, walkers and surgical gowns.
The group, making its 18th annual pilgrimage to Cuba, said it was held up at two U.S. border crossings while returning from Canada with donations, but completed the journey with “99.5 percent” of the aid it hoped to bring, said the Rev. Luis Barrios, pastor of San Romero de Las Americas, a non-denominational church in New York City.
Barrios said U.S. authorities seized 12 computers, but did not take the monitors for those machines.
“We’ve arrived at the conclusion that that was symbolic,” Barrios said. “The United States, although it doesn’t recognize it publicly, in terms of the blockade, has morally lost.”
Barrios said U.S. officials were friendly, and even made a point of confiscating the oldest computers while allowing new laptops through.
---snip---

http://havanajournal.com/politics/entry/2007-pastors-for-peace-delivers-90-tons-of-supplies-from-us-to-cuba-3821/

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. First Moore, then the ministers,

and I think the 911 heroes said that they'd gone back. Could it be that the PEOPLE will end the blockade?

[Mika]

12. First Moore? Huh? Pastors for Peace has been doing this for 14 years!

I mean.. seriously.. google is a good tool only if you use it.


IFCO/Pastors for Peace
http://www.ifconews.org/Cuba/caravan17/main.htm

For fourteen years, IFCO/Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravans to Cuba have called international attention to the cruel and immoral US Blockade of Cuba by delivering humanitarian aid to the Cuban people without a Treasury Department license.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

16. Thanks for the information

I didn't make myself clear. I was talking about this year. There appears to be a momentum finally building that will cause the people to start breaking the embargo on their own--more and more, dozens, then hundreds, then thousands....

[roody]

2. more info and good photos here

http://18thcubacaravan.blogspot.com/

www.ifconews.org

[roody]

3. k

[roody]

4. k

[ben_meyers]

5. Why does Cuba need aid?

Isn't the US the only country with an embargo? While I think the whole embargo thing is stupid why can't Cuba get medical supplies from elsewhere?

[roody]

6. The embargo penalizes anyone who trades with Cuba. eom

[ben_meyers]

7. So you're saying that Cuba is totally self sufficient

No trade with anyone?

[roody]

8. No, not at all. I'll get you some links.

[roody]

9. link

http://www.historyofcuba.com/history/funfacts/embargo.htm

[ben_meyers]

10. The embargo is US firms and their foreign subsidiaries

How does it affect Britain for example? Britain has full diplomatic relations with Cuba and an embassy. The question was why does Cuba need aid from the US?

[roody]

11. Any ship that docks in Cuba may not dock in the

US for 6 months. Cuba needs aid because it is poor.

[Mika]

13. Cuba seeks trade, not aid.

The US sanctions are extra territorial, in that it penalizes corporations/businesses that do biz in/with Cuba.

If they sell a product to Cuba, then they cannot sell said product in the USA. (Of course, corporations being what they are go for the much larger marketplace.)

US corporations need a special permit from OFAC to trade w/Cuba. These permits are nearly impossible to obtain.

[roody]

14. Transactions have to go through a third party, and

the cost doubles.

[spoony]

15. k and r

When will the US policy-makers figure out that these blockades, embargoes, and sanctions (Cuba, Iraq, wherever) only ever hurt common people! Then they wonder why those people don't trust them!