Guantánamo (Solvisión).- The Pastors for Peace Brigade has arrived for 21st time in Cuba. Persistence is their motto and driving force. They come from very far away, crossing borders and facing threats and confiscations; but as they always say, any obstacle compares with what the Cuban people have lived during the more than 50 years of US blockade
The Pastors for Peace Brigade has arrived for 21st time in Cuba. Persistence is their motto and driving force. They come from very far away, crossing borders and facing threats and confiscations; but as they always say, any obstacle compares with what the Cuban people have lived during the more than 50 years of US blockade.
There has been no law, or US Department of the Treasury, or elected president that makes them give up. The Pastors for Peace are in Cuba with people from 28 US states, who have been joined by people from Ireland, Canada, Germany, England and Mexico.
Led by Reverend Lucius Walker, the brigade arrived in Cuba from Tampico, Mexico. They were welcomed at the airport by the president of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, Kenia Serrano.
This year, the 85 members of the brigade had to face many difficulties. After travelling 125 cities in the United States and the south of Canada collecting 100 tons of aid, they had to face the border police in the frontier between Canada and the United States, and the same happened when they crossed the US border with Mexico.
Five of the 60 computers they were bringing were confiscated. Authorities needed to be sure that they were not going to be used for “military purposes” in Cuba, an absurd and risible justification to avoid the new blow to the US blockade.
This 21st Brigade, which will stay in Cuba till August 2, is dedicated to the Cuban children. We are proud of the achievements Cuba has made to increase the quality of life of children. It may be the only country of world where there are no indigent children, where 100 percent go to school, Lucius Walker said.
The brigade’s program includes visits to the provinces of Havana, Matanzas, Villa Clara and Sancti Spíritus. Construction tools, computers, sport and medical equipment, and school material are part of the aid they brought.
