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July 3, 2007

Caravan to Cuba makes Providence stop

PROVIDENCE – Three people who are part of a caravan heading to Cuba with medical and humanitarian aid have gathered this lunch hour at the downtown restaurant, Cuban Revolution, with about a dozen supporters.

The Pastors for Peace Medical & Humanitarian Aid Caravan to Cuba group that has stopped in Providence is one of 14 caravans from 46 states and six Canadian provinces, according to local organizer Wallace Sillanpoa, a Rhode Islander who is not heading to Cuba on this year’s trip. The group started in Canada.

“This is not an act of charity,” Sillanpoa said of the supplies the group is toting to Cuba. “The purpose is to defy the U.S. blockade [of trade, aid and other relations with Cuba], which the organization as well as the United Nations, the European Union parliament and most countries consider illegal and immoral.”

Last year’s caravan stopover in Providence drew about 20 supporters to Cuban Revolution in June.

One of the women on this year’s trip – from Quebec, Canada – was allowed to cross the U.S.-Canada border, but the medical and humanitarian aid she was carrying was confiscated at the border, Sillanpoa said. When that happens, the Pastors for Peace protest – including holding hunger strikes, Sillanpoa said. The interfaith organization has always been successful, eventually, in getting the U.S. government to allow the confiscated materials to move through the country, he said.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

Posted by Kate Bramson  at 11:55 AM | Permalink

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