by Jeremy Hunt
Daily Lobo
Student Travis Cole said he's not worried about being arrested for traveling to Cuba and delivering humanitarian aid.
"It's an open form of civil disobedience," he said.
Cole is a volunteer for Pastors for Peace, a branch of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization. He helped organize a meeting Saturday in Dane Smith Hall.
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Since 1988, Pastors for Peace has traveled throughout the United States collecting donations and finding people to take to Cuba. Between 150 and 200 people go with the group every year, Cole said.
Last year, the group delivered 60 tons of aid to Cuba, including medical supplies and educational material.
Cole said the trip is good because people have the wrong impression about the embargoed country.
"There's kind of some misconceptions regarding the Cuban people," he said. "A lot of that is left-over Cold War rhetoric."
The trip costs $1,500, which includes room, board and traveling expenses, Cole said. There are $300 scholarships available and fundraising efforts to make the trip affordable, he said.
Cole said there are about 12 caravans that travel routes through the United States.
Starting in Canada, the caravans stop at 120 destinations on the way to Texas, where they meet up and cross the border into Mexico.
From Mexico, the group flies to Cuba. They stay in Cuba for about a week and a half, learning about the culture and distributing aid.
Cole said the U.S. embargo should be stopped, because it only harms the Cuban people.
"Essentially, it is a political tool that was meant to crumble the Castro regime, but that hasn't really worked," he said. "All it's doing is keeping a lot of people really poor."
The U.S. government is controlling Cubans by the embargo and determining how much prosperity they can have, Cole said.
"They're being denied their fundamental right to self-determination. They can't live fully," he said. "It's just not right to use economics as a political tool - a political weapon."
Cole said one of the goals for the caravan is to deliver turntables to Cuban hip-hop artists.
Cyrus Gould, who attended the meeting, said he is planning to go to Cuba with the caravan.
Gould said it's not fair that Cuban DJs don't have access to the equipment they need to make their music.
Gould said Cuban hip-hop is better than what radio stations play in the United States.
"It reminds me of old school hip-hop from the U.S. They're not rich. It's way more grassroots and real," he said. "Mainstream radio (in the United States) is not interested in promoting any ideas of revolution or free-thinking."
Ashley Moyer, who attended the meeting, said she is interested in going but doesn't know if she will go yet.
"I'm a humanitarian," she said. "This is what I've wanted to do my whole life. I just never had the opportunity."
Cole said the U.S. government does not like the effort, but it probably won't prosecute anyone, because then the issue will go to court and the embargo could be lifted. The organization has lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union on standby, and there is congressional support to stop the embargo, he said.
"I probably won't ever get a job with the State Department," he said. "Honestly, if it did go to court, it would probably be the best thing for the organization."
For more information, send an e-mail to Abq2Cuba@yahoo.com or visit PastorsForPeace.org.
