From: emcelroy@igc.apc.org (Eugene McElroy)
Newsgroups: alt.activism
Subject: Delegation to Cuba on 1/29-IFCO
Date: 26 Jan 93 21:04:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1296500489:000:3336
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!emcelroy    Jan 26 13:04:00 1993


From: Eugene McElroy <emcelroy>
Subject: Delegation to Cuba on 1/29-IFCO

                         NEWS RELEASE FROM IFCO
                       (INTERRELIGIOUS FOUNDATION)

              NEW YORKERS TO TAKE 10,000 DOLLARS WORTH OF 
        MEDICINES TO CUBA IN A DIRECT CHALLENGE TO THE US EMBARGO


      Two New York area residents will join a national effort January 29th to
take medicines to Cuba, challenging the US government's 30 year embargo of
Cuba.
      Rev. Lucius Walker, Jr. Director of the Interreligious Foundation for
Community Organization (IFCO) and Ms. Leslie Cagan, Director of the Cuba
Information Project, will participate in a delegation of 18 US citizens taking over
10,000 dollars in medical aid to the people of Cuba.
      "We feel compelled to challenge the US embargo of Cuba because we view
it as illegal and immoral," says Rev. Walker. "The embargo attempts to starve
the Cuban people into submission by withholding food and medicines."
      According to the Havana-based UNICEF official Luis Zuniga, "The Cuban
government and people are doing their best...but they are under pressure. We
are now seeing the first results: a rise in low birth rates, a scarcity of iron,
nutritional levels at risk. The country needs additional resources."
      Pastors for Peace believes it is the right of US citizens and churches to
deliver humanitarian aid tom the people of Cuba without government
interference. For this reason Pastors form Peace will not apply nor accept a
license to ship the aid.
      "This interference offers a direct challenge to the US trade ban which is
causing food and medicine shortages throughout Cuba and to assist our Cuban
sisters and brothers in their hour of need," says Ms. Cagan.
      Convicted violators of the embargo are liable for fines of 250,000 dollars
and jail terms of ten years. However, Rev. Walker sees government attempts to
stop the shipment as interference in matters of mission.
      "The US government has assigned to itself the power to determine
whether or not the church may give aid to Cuba, raising a serious question of
separation of church and state", says Rev. Walker. "By accepting a license we
are in effect accepting a policy that is causing undue suffering for the Cuban
people."
      This project, sponsored by IFCO's Pastors for Peace project, comes on
the heels of the US-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan that broke the blockade of
Cuba by delivering 12 1/2 tons of humanitarian aid to Cuban churches last
November, without a government license.
      Initially, US government officials attempted to stop the caravan from
leaving the US and arrested four of the participants. After an eight hour
confrontation at the US-Mexico border, Treasury Department officials backed
down and allowed the caravan to proceed to Cuba with a license.
                               **********

PRIOR TO DEPARTING, WALKER AND CAGAN HAVE SCHEDULED A PRESS
CONFERENCE FOR:
                      FRIDAY, JANUARY 29 AT 1:30PM
                       CONVENT AVE. BAPTIST CHURCH
              CORNER OF WEST 145TH ST AND CONVENT AVE, NYC

FOR FURTHER INFO, CONTACT,
                                  IFCO
                 402 WEST 145TH ST, NEW YORK, NY  10031
            TEL: 212-926-5757 (Ellyn Burstein of Gail Walker)
                            FAX: 212-926-5842