Castro's Support Groups vs. Clinton's State Department (Part II) © 1997/2000

by Agustín Blázquez with the collaboration of Jaums Sutton

The Clinton administration's State Department, in order to dispel the outright misinformation campaign by anti-US and pro-Castro groups, released on May 14, 1997, a fact sheet about the shipment of food and medical products to Cuba.

Many well financed and vocal groups in the US, like the Minnesota based Pastors for Peace, in violation of the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act, refuse to ask for licenses from the US Government to send shipments to Cuba. Pastors for Peace, a supposedly religious-humanitarian group which has not raised its voice to denounce Castro's human rights violations, is partly financed by the Arca Foundation (which grants funds to many pro-Castro groups in the US). Arca granted $107,000 to the Pastors between 1993 and 1996.

"Pastors for Peace," who seem to be neither, paradoxically, specialize in creating international incidents, sometimes violent incidents, at US-Canadian and US-Mexican borders in their vociferous campaign against the US Embargo. Their humanitarian shipments seem to be merely an excuse to cause incidents. The Castro regime's Radio Havana said last May that Gloria La Riva, a participant in the seventh Pastors for Peace shipment to Cuba, denounced the complicity "between the US Government" and the anti-Castro "terrorist organization Alpha-66." La Riva claimed that Pastors participants were "assaulted" at the US-Mexican border at San Isidro by Alpha-66 and the California police didn't protect them. She said the "U.S. Government supports this kind of (anti-Castro) organization."

On May 14, 1997, a group of US Congressmen, headed by Robert Menéndez, Lincoln Díaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Robert Torricelli, Dan Burton, Peter Deutsch and Patrick Kennedy, sent a protest letter to the Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, Mr. Richard Newcomb, at the US Treasury Department in relation to the Pastors for Peace's case. This is the text:

"It recently came to our attention that Pastors for Peace is planning another illegal trip to Cuba to provide computers, buses, ambulances, a mobile multi-media library and other goods to the Castro regime.

"We understand that although Pastors for Peace declined to apply for an official license that your office has issued a discretional license.

"As you know, we believe that the federal embargo regulations must be fully applied - without exception - to all groups wishing to transfer humanitarian goods to Cuba. No person or organization is exempt from the law nor its licensing requirements. Americans are free to disagree with the law, but they are not free to disobey it.

"Many groups wishing to transfer humanitarian items to Cuba, including some who disagree with US policy, have complied with the law with respect to licensing and inspection requirements. However, Pastors for Peace has publicly and intentionally violated the law in an attempt to challenge US policy toward the Castro dictatorship. If Pastors for Peace was truly the peaceful humanitarian organization which it claims to be, it would not make its travel and resources contingent upon political posturing, or violently violate the law and injure customs agents.

"Once again, we support the shipment of private humanitarian donations to Cuba as is allowed under the law. However, we will continue to insist that the appropriate licensing and inspection procedures be met by all persons and organizations. If exceptions are made, then federal law becomes hollow.

"We are deeply concerned about your allowing Pastors for Peace to circumvent the law and we hereby request a meeting with you to discuss this matter at your earliest convenience."

Like Pastors for Peace, other groups engage in activities which far from benefiting the average Cuban, are helping to maintain the regime. As mentioned in the Congressmen's letter, Pastors for Peace ships such things as computers, buses, ambulances and a multi-media library to a country where everything is owned and controlled by Castro's regime - a regime that has created an apartheid system where goods and services are for the elite. So, who are being helped by this group?

Part of the anti-US Embargo strategy is to misinform. These groups are now engaged in a campaign to debunk the Clinton administration's State Department fact sheet. These die-hard Castro sympathizers (in spite of their technique to appear otherwise) are already calling the State Department's effort to get the facts straight, "blatant propaganda," while saying the US officials are "lying," "distorting" and "misrepresenting" the facts.

Many Americans distrustful-of-their-Government, not acquainted with the Cuban reality and unaware of the real motivation behind these fanatical groups, are influenced by their misinformation. In their confusion they ask, whom are we supposed to believe, Castro or the US Government? How can anybody place any credibility in an unelected totalitarian communist tyrant?

Before being confused any further by more misinformation, I suggest getting a copy of the State Department fact sheet titled THE US EMBARGO AND HEALTHCARE IN CUBA: MYTH VERSUS REALITY. For your copy contact US*CUBA POLICY REPORT, phone: 202-675-6344.

Agustín Blázquez, Producer/Director of the documentaries COVERING CUBA and CUBA: THE PEARL OF THE ANTILLES