Caravan at the US-Mexico Border!

MEDIA ADVISORY

July 15, 2006 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:
at the Mexico/Texas border: Ellen Bernstein: 646/319-5902, 646/319-5904
in New York: Lucia Bruno: 347/423-4330, 212/926-5757


PASTORS FOR PEACE CARAVAN RETURNS TO US,
AWAITS CONFRONTATION FROM US AUTHORITIES:
ARRESTS POSSIBLE


The 17th Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba will return to the United States, crossing the border from Reynosa, Mexico into Hidalgo, Texas on the morning of Monday, July 17, after an eight-day educational visit to Cuba.

"Our caravan travels to Cuba as a collective challenge to a brutal US policy. We are conscientious objectors to our government's immoral and illegal economic war against Cuba, which has caused so much suffering for the Cuban people," said Rev. Thomas Smith, president of IFCO/Pastors for Peace.

Upon recent returns to the U.S. border, the caravan has been confronted by Homeland Security officers who have harassed and attempted to interrogate caravan members, searching their personal luggage and confiscating items in violation of their First Amendment rights.

This year, the tension has escalated. A new report from the Presidential Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba was approved by President Bush earlier this week. The 93-page report criminalizes unlicensed travel to Cuba and threatens "criminal investigation, including possible prosecution."

Rev. Lucius Walker, Jr., executive director of IFCO/Pastors for Peace, said, "We have to be prepared for the possibility of arrests at the border when the caravan returns to the US. The Bush administration must be feeling a sense of desperation that it has not yet been able to destroy Cuba. The new report signals the possibility of extreme measures by the US government against Pastors for Peace because of its humanitarian mission in solidarity with the people of Cuba."

Pastors for Peace is a project of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), a national ecumenical agency which has been working for social justice since 1967.