From: nyt@nyxfer.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.culture.caribbean
Subject: Fidel Greets Friendshipment Caravan
Date: 11 Dec 92 23:37:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:gg1mVB3w165w@nyxfer.uucp:116541275:000:7569
Nf-From: nyxfer.uucp!nyt    Dec 11 15:37:00 1992


Subject: Fidel Greets Friendshipment Caravan
From: nyxfer!nyt (NY Transfer News)

Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit


Fidel Castro greets U.S.-Cuba Friendshipment

By Gloria La Riva
Havana, Cuba

Havana residents came Dec. 2 by the thousands to greet the 103
caravan members from the U.S. at the docks in Havana harbor
tonight. We were all there to welcome the arrival of Pinar del Rio
Cuban freighter, which was carrying 15 tons of humanitarian aid
brought by the U.S.-Cuba Friendship Caravan.

The evening dock-side rally was a special send-off for us. We were
scheduled to leave Cuba in just a few hours, after 10 days of
enlightening encounters with the Cuban people.

Delayed a week by a severe storm en route from Tampico, Mexico, the
ship finally landed Dec. 2, a special date in Cuban history. For 36
years ago the Granma yacht, carrying 82 young and determined Cuban
revolutionaries, landed on the southern shore of Cuba. They
continued the revolutionary war that would end in victory two years
later.

As the crowd gathered for the rally, pre-university students danced
in large circles to the music, and elementary-age Pioneros sang and
chanted. It was a night to celebrate.

Ignacio Arocha-Abeye, a Cuban worker who was waiting with his
children told us, "I'm here because as a Cuban, a Black man and a
revolutionary, I'm very happy for what you done for our people and
our Revolution in breaking the blockade. I was born in 1950 and
I've seen many things in my life, but this has been one of the most
fundamental things to help the Cuban people."

Ignacio continued, "Before the triumph in 1959, I shined shoes as
a child on this dock. Now I earn a good wage as a merchant marine,
and I did volunteer work to build the Pan American Games village.
I'm very proud of you all, and so are 11 million Cubans.

"If we struggle together, you in your country and I in my mine, we
will defeat the Torricelli law." The Torricelli law, signed on Oct.
23 by George Bush, severely tightens the already-existing U.S.
blockade of Cuba.

CARAVAN CROSSES BORDER WITH GOODS

On Nov. 20, the caravan to Cuba, sponsored by Pastors for Peace,
successfully crossed the U.S.-Mexico border at Laredo, Texas, and
transported hundreds of bicycles, wheelchairs, walkers, crutches,
powdered milk, and Spanish bibles, in a historic first-time
challenge of the U.S. blockade against Cuba.

On Dec. 2, direct recipients of the material solidarity came to the
docks to celebrate our shared victory. Among the institutions to
receive the goods were the Jan. 28 Senior Home, the Cuban
Association for the Deaf, the Cuban Association for the Blind, and
the Cuban Association for People with Physical and Motor
Limitations (ACLIFIM).

Ida Hilda Escalona, national president of ACLIFIM, told us, "We are
more 39,000 members who experience some form of physical or motor
disability. In spite of the current economic difficulties, we
haven't stopped our cultural, social and educational work. But
because of the problems in production, the wheelchairs and walkers
you have delivered are greatly appreciated.

"And most of all, our people are very, very happy, we are vibrating
with joy for the very courageous action that you all have carried
out to break the blockade."

Soon, the Pinar del Rio, a huge ship that we had helped load in
Tampico, slowly eased into the dock. Shipworkers whom we had met
days before were now about to join their families. Cuban President
Fidel Castro, showing concern for the crew, walked to the freighter
to shake hands with them as they stepped down the ladder.

`FIDEL, FIDEL!'

When it was clear to the Havana residents that Fidel had arrived,
they broke into cheers of "Fidel! Fidel!" A memorable rally for
caravanistas and Cubans alike was about to begin.

Among the first to speak was Rev. Raul Suarez, Baptist minister and
director of Cuba's Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Peace.

Speaking of the caravan, Suarez said, "We express our gratitude for
this injection of life, injection of faith, this injection that
stimulates our faith and our conviction that our people will win.

"As Rev. [Lucius] Walker has said, even more than the significance
of the material aid, is the fact that Pastors for Peace has made a
contribution to break the blockade and contributed to forcing the
issue of the blockade onto the front pages of the press."

In the course of the caravan struggle, Rev. Walker, leader of the
U.S.-Cuba Friendshipment, became known to millions of Cubans for
his tenacity in refusing to back down in the face of U.S.
government threats. He was enthusiastically received tonight.

The mayor of Havana, Pedro Chavez Gonzalez, and a woman crew member
of the Pinar del Rio, who read a poem she had written on the ship,
also addressed the crowd.

When President Fidel Castro walked up to the podium to speak,
everyone burst into cheers. The youth gave an especially rousing
response. Caravan members had the opportunity to hear the Cuban
president for a second time during their stay.

A NEW DEC. 2 ANNIVERSARY

Fidel revealed the extreme hardships that the crew of the Pinar del
Rio faced on their journey, at one point almost capsizing. He
eloquently related it to the Granma boat landing exactly thirty-six
years ago, and the heroic struggle that the Cuban people are now
engaged in to defend their Revolution and socialism.

"When I met you last week," Fidel said, "I said that much would
depend on the North American people.  what they do will depend a
lot on the examples they receive.  A lot will depend on the
consciousness that is awakened around the world, on what people
like you do, on your capacity to mobilize.

"You that are the pioneers, because as I said on Friday, the factor
of the solidarity on the part of the North American people is
decisive for the end of the blockade.  You have the great merit of
having shown the road to defeat the blockade, but we should not
think it will be easy.  It will be a long and hard struggle.

"The blockade is a tangled ball of thread of very complicated
legislation measures.  They created it in such a way so that it
would be extremely difficult to disentangle it.  That is why I
think you have a hard and difficult task in front of you.

"In the future," President Castro continued, "we will have to
commemorate the landing of Granma--and the landing of the
donations."

Afterwards, the caravanistas went to the various homes and centers
for seniors and disabled, to personally deliver the humanitarian
material aid.

At the Jan. 23 Senior Home, the director told us, "By your actions,
you are encouraging our daily work in spite of the difficulties
imposed by an unjust blockade." The center cares for almost 400
seniors, most of whom are disabled by Alzheimer's disease.

Gail Walker, organizer with Pastors for Peace, spoke on behalf of
the caravanistas, when she said, "We are deeply touched by your
reception. It is obvious to us from our visit that the seniors here
are well cared for and loved. Sadly, we are reminded that many
seniors in the U.S. are cruelly neglected, because our government
cuts back on essential funding. Please be assured that we will work
harder than ever to see that the blockade is lifted."

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if
source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21 St.,
New York, NY 10010; "workers" on PeaceNet; on Internet:
"workers@mcimail.com".)
 

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