Americans Take Aid to Cuba in Defiance of Embargo
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HAVANA (Reuters) - A group of Americans openly challenged the Bush administration's tough new restrictions on Cuba on Saturday by traveling to the Communist-run island to donate 126 tons of aid gathered in the United States.
Wearing T-shirts that said "Regime change in the US, not in Cuba," the 120 members of the Pastors for Peace humanitarian organization arrived in Havana from Mexico before a shipment that includes school buses, medicines, medical equipment, computers and books.
"We have one purpose: to challenge our government's blockade of Cuba," said the group's leader, Baptist Rev. Lucius Walker.
Walker said U.S. authorities threatened to fine members for traveling to Cuba without a license upon their return to the United States for traveling to Cuba without a license. "That only strengthened our resolve," he said.
It is the 15th year the Pastors for Peace has delivered aid to Cuba, but this year's trip comes as the United States turned the screws on a 4-decade-old embargo aimed at ousting Cuban President Fidel Castro (news - web sites).
President Bush (news - web sites) tightened restrictions on family remittances and travel to Cuba last month to put pressure on Castro, while his administration has stepped up enforcement of a travel ban with fines of up to $7,500 for unauthorized visits to Cuba by Americans.
Pastors for Peace is an arm of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, an ecumenical organization based in Harlem. Since 1992, the group has delivered 2,350 tons of aid to Cuba without requesting a U.S. government license, Cuban officials said.
"The blockade against Cuba is immoral, unjust and illogical," Walker said.
He said a growing number of Americans wanted to reverse hostile U.S. policies toward Cuba that date from Castro's 1959 revolution in the midst of the Cold War.
He pointed to Republican congressman who voted on Wednesday to overturn a White House decision to bar people in the United States from sending parcels with food, soap and other personal hygiene products to Cuba. |
