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Jain Digest Winter 2007
Celebrating Unity
One Caravan at a Time:
Pastors for Peace's Efforts to End the U.S. Embargo against Cuba By: Shreyans Parekh
As the longest and most comprehensive trade embargo in American history, the U.S.-led economic and political blockade against Cuba has taken its toll on the more than eleven million inhabitants of the island nation. The embargo, which was overwhelmingly denounced by the United Nations for the 16th straight year this October, has been a persistent sign of disunity between the United States and Cuba, as it severely impacts the health and economic wellbeing of Cuban children and families.
Since 1967, New-York based Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) has tried to unify individuals of varying religious ideologies and ethnicities to advance the rights of oppressed people who lack access to adequate nourishment, health care and educational opportunities. One of its projects, Pastors for Peace, sends "Friendship Caravans" to Cuba each year to provide humanitarian aid, and to revive severed relations and the lack of unity between the two countries.
In June 2007, Pastors for Peace sent its 18th Friendship Caravan to Cuba with more than 90 tons of humanitarian aid and volunteers from the U.S., Canada, Mexico and several European countries. Before embarking on its nearly two-week journey overseas, the group traveled to more than 127 U.S. and Canadian cities to gather supplies and recruit volunteers to aid in the efforts. This year's caravan was headquartered at Our Savior Lutheran Church in McAllen, Texas.
Pastor Estela Hernandez Marquez of the William Carey Baptist Church in Havana, which maintains ties with Pastors for Peace, states that her vision for the project is to build strong ties between "los dos pueblos" of the United States and Cuba, and to show the world that the two cultures "pueden convivir," or live together in harmony. Pastor Marquez has been with the church for the past 42 years and has been an important contact for the project ever since the first Friendship Caravan arrived in Havana in 1990.
Pastors for Peace has been sending caravans to Cuba ever since 1992, when the first caravan carried fifteen tons
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of humanitarian aid and supplies including medicine, powdered milk and Bibles to the country. The project encounters opposition from the U.S. government each year because it chooses not to petition for a license from the U.S. Treasury to deliver aid to Cuba.
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The U.S. government limits the access of its citizens for travel into Cuba, and IFCO believes that the U.S.
government's control of the church's right to give aid and charity to whomever they choose, violates the constitutional provision of the separation of church and state. Thus, they choose to reject the illicit and unjust regulations imposed by the U.S., and view the trips as a collective challenge to the economic blockade and the harsh travel ban for citizens of both countries.
Despite all the difficulties faced from the U.S. government, Friendship Caravans continue to arrive in Cuba each year, and IFCO has goals to continue expanding its reach with respect to recruiting and volunteering efforts. This year's caravan traveled to Havana and bordering locales, spreading their message of unity and liberty in and around the Cuban capital. Eventually, the caravans hope to expand their presence to Santiago de Cuba, which is the country's second largest city and is located in the eastern region of the island.
The Cuban delegation at this year's UN General Assembly in October stated that since its inception in 1962, the embargo has starved the Cuban economy of nearly $89 billion, or $222 billion if adjusted for inflation, according to Canada-based CanWest News Service. Nevertheless, the U.S. delegation continuously emphasizes that the U.S. has remained the largest provider of humanitarian aid to Cuba, with deliveries of food and medicine of $270 million last year. Ironically,
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