Sacramento Welcomes Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba on June 21, 7 p.m.

News Advisory: For Immediate Release June 16, 2008
Contact: Central America Action Committee, Sacramento, 916-457-5018

Sacramento Welcomes Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba on June 21, 7 p.m.


Please join the Central America Action Committee in welcoming the Pastors for Peace 19th Cuba Caravan on June 21 at 7 p.m. at the Southside Park Co-Housing Common House on 434 T Street in Sacramento.

The event will feature an informative and inspiring speaker, Sophie Zoner, a 23-year-old social justice activist from Vancouver who has been on the last 3 caravans. Please bring a dish to share for a potluck dinner with the caravanistas.

The 19th Friendshipment Caravan will traverse 14 separate routes across the country, stopping in 46 US states and 6 Canadian provinces. Along the way the caravan will be hosted in 125 cities who support a new US Cuba policy based on respect and non-aggression. This year communities have particularly collected aid for Cuban elders.

Over 130 Pastors for Peace volunteers from the US, Canada and Europe will challenge the immoral and illegal US blockade and travel restrictions against Cuba at the US-Mexico border on July 3rd. They expect to collect 100 tons of humanitarian aid during a two-week caravan that will converge in McAllen, Texas before traveling on to Cuba without US treasury department licenses. They intend to deliver the school buses, educational supplies, medicines, and medical supplies gathered in communities throughout the US and Canada.

“As people of faith and conscience, it is our duty to resist and condemn this cruel US policy,” declared Rev. Lucius Walker, Jr., Executive Director and founder of IFCO, a 40-year old ecumenical agency. “IFCO/Pastors for Peace rejects this licensing system as both immoral and illegal. It is immoral because it endangers the lives of millions of Cubans and inflicts suffering on innocent children, as well as adults. It is illegal under international law because it uses medicine and food as weapons of war to force another nation to change its government."

"Licensing is also unconstitutional because it requires people of faith to submit their acts of conscience and friendship to government licensing, in violation of our right to freedom of religious expression, political thought, association and travel,” continued Walker.

Despite calls for an end to the blockade and travel ban from the UN and the overwhelming majority of nations around the world, and despite growing opposition in Congress to the policies, the Bush Administration has continued to tighten restrictions against Cuba, and is using “homeland security” funds to harass those suspected of travel to the island including the US citizens who participated in several recent caravans.

“Our non-violent caravan of peace-loving individuals is a challenge to this violation of our rights to express our faith and to travel to Cuba.” said Rev.Thomas Smith, President of the Board of Directors of IFCO/Pastors for Peace.

Since 1992 Pastors for Peace has used hunger strikes and mass mobilizations to successfully challenge US government attempts to confiscate vehicles and humanitarian aid bound for Cuba. The ecumenical initiative is a project of IFCO, the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, and has delivered more than 2,500 tons of urgently needed assistance to the Cuban people without seeking a US Treasury license.

Goods are not being collected in Sacramento, but money is. Checks made out to Pastors for Peace can be sent to Central America Action Committee (CAAC) PO Box 162998, Sacramento, CA 95816, or brought to the potluck. For more information about the potluck event, call 916-457-5018. For more information about the caravan, go to http://www.pastorsforpeace.org or call 212-926-5757.