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- From: nyt%nyxfer%igc.apc.org@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu (NY Transfer News)
- Subject: Fidel Greets Friendshipment Caravan
- Message-ID: <1992Dec12.021346.789@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
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- Resent-From: "Rich Winkel" <MATHRICH@MIZZOU1.missouri.edu>
- Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 02:13:46 GMT
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Lines: 164
-
- Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit
-
-
- Fidel Castro greets U.S.-Cuba Friendshipment
-
- By Gloria La Riva
- Havana, Cuba
-
- Havana residents came Dec. 2 by the thousands to greet the 103
- caravan members from the U.S. at the docks in Havana harbor
- tonight. We were all there to welcome the arrival of Pinar del Rio
- Cuban freighter, which was carrying 15 tons of humanitarian aid
- brought by the U.S.-Cuba Friendship Caravan.
-
- The evening dock-side rally was a special send-off for us. We were
- scheduled to leave Cuba in just a few hours, after 10 days of
- enlightening encounters with the Cuban people.
-
- Delayed a week by a severe storm en route from Tampico, Mexico, the
- ship finally landed Dec. 2, a special date in Cuban history. For 36
- years ago the Granma yacht, carrying 82 young and determined Cuban
- revolutionaries, landed on the southern shore of Cuba. They
- continued the revolutionary war that would end in victory two years
- later.
-
- As the crowd gathered for the rally, pre-university students danced
- in large circles to the music, and elementary-age Pioneros sang and
- chanted. It was a night to celebrate.
-
- Ignacio Arocha-Abeye, a Cuban worker who was waiting with his
- children told us, "I'm here because as a Cuban, a Black man and a
- revolutionary, I'm very happy for what you done for our people and
- our Revolution in breaking the blockade. I was born in 1950 and
- I've seen many things in my life, but this has been one of the most
- fundamental things to help the Cuban people."
-
- Ignacio continued, "Before the triumph in 1959, I shined shoes as
- a child on this dock. Now I earn a good wage as a merchant marine,
- and I did volunteer work to build the Pan American Games village.
- I'm very proud of you all, and so are 11 million Cubans.
-
- "If we struggle together, you in your country and I in my mine, we
- will defeat the Torricelli law." The Torricelli law, signed on Oct.
- 23 by George Bush, severely tightens the already-existing U.S.
- blockade of Cuba.
-
- CARAVAN CROSSES BORDER WITH GOODS
-
- On Nov. 20, the caravan to Cuba, sponsored by Pastors for Peace,
- successfully crossed the U.S.-Mexico border at Laredo, Texas, and
- transported hundreds of bicycles, wheelchairs, walkers, crutches,
- powdered milk, and Spanish bibles, in a historic first-time
- challenge of the U.S. blockade against Cuba.
-
- On Dec. 2, direct recipients of the material solidarity came to the
- docks to celebrate our shared victory. Among the institutions to
- receive the goods were the Jan. 28 Senior Home, the Cuban
- Association for the Deaf, the Cuban Association for the Blind, and
- the Cuban Association for People with Physical and Motor
- Limitations (ACLIFIM).
-
- Ida Hilda Escalona, national president of ACLIFIM, told us, "We are
- more 39,000 members who experience some form of physical or motor
- disability. In spite of the current economic difficulties, we
- haven't stopped our cultural, social and educational work. But
- because of the problems in production, the wheelchairs and walkers
- you have delivered are greatly appreciated.
-
- "And most of all, our people are very, very happy, we are vibrating
- with joy for the very courageous action that you all have carried
- out to break the blockade."
-
- Soon, the Pinar del Rio, a huge ship that we had helped load in
- Tampico, slowly eased into the dock. Shipworkers whom we had met
- days before were now about to join their families. Cuban President
- Fidel Castro, showing concern for the crew, walked to the freighter
- to shake hands with them as they stepped down the ladder.
-
- `FIDEL, FIDEL!'
-
- When it was clear to the Havana residents that Fidel had arrived,
- they broke into cheers of "Fidel! Fidel!" A memorable rally for
- caravanistas and Cubans alike was about to begin.
-
- Among the first to speak was Rev. Raul Suarez, Baptist minister and
- director of Cuba's Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Peace.
-
- Speaking of the caravan, Suarez said, "We express our gratitude for
- this injection of life, injection of faith, this injection that
- stimulates our faith and our conviction that our people will win.
-
- "As Rev. [Lucius] Walker has said, even more than the significance
- of the material aid, is the fact that Pastors for Peace has made a
- contribution to break the blockade and contributed to forcing the
- issue of the blockade onto the front pages of the press."
-
- In the course of the caravan struggle, Rev. Walker, leader of the
- U.S.-Cuba Friendshipment, became known to millions of Cubans for
- his tenacity in refusing to back down in the face of U.S.
- government threats. He was enthusiastically received tonight.
-
- The mayor of Havana, Pedro Chavez Gonzalez, and a woman crew member
- of the Pinar del Rio, who read a poem she had written on the ship,
- also addressed the crowd.
-
- When President Fidel Castro walked up to the podium to speak,
- everyone burst into cheers. The youth gave an especially rousing
- response. Caravan members had the opportunity to hear the Cuban
- president for a second time during their stay.
-
- A NEW DEC. 2 ANNIVERSARY
-
- Fidel revealed the extreme hardships that the crew of the Pinar del
- Rio faced on their journey, at one point almost capsizing. He
- eloquently related it to the Granma boat landing exactly thirty-six
- years ago, and the heroic struggle that the Cuban people are now
- engaged in to defend their Revolution and socialism.
-
- "When I met you last week," Fidel said, "I said that much would
- depend on the North American people. what they do will depend a
- lot on the examples they receive. A lot will depend on the
- consciousness that is awakened around the world, on what people
- like you do, on your capacity to mobilize.
-
- "You that are the pioneers, because as I said on Friday, the factor
- of the solidarity on the part of the North American people is
- decisive for the end of the blockade. You have the great merit of
- having shown the road to defeat the blockade, but we should not
- think it will be easy. It will be a long and hard struggle.
-
- "The blockade is a tangled ball of thread of very complicated
- legislation measures. They created it in such a way so that it
- would be extremely difficult to disentangle it. That is why I
- think you have a hard and difficult task in front of you.
-
- "In the future," President Castro continued, "we will have to
- commemorate the landing of Granma--and the landing of the
- donations."
-
- Afterwards, the caravanistas went to the various homes and centers
- for seniors and disabled, to personally deliver the humanitarian
- material aid.
-
- At the Jan. 23 Senior Home, the director told us, "By your actions,
- you are encouraging our daily work in spite of the difficulties
- imposed by an unjust blockade." The center cares for almost 400
- seniors, most of whom are disabled by Alzheimer's disease.
-
- Gail Walker, organizer with Pastors for Peace, spoke on behalf of
- the caravanistas, when she said, "We are deeply touched by your
- reception. It is obvious to us from our visit that the seniors here
- are well cared for and loved. Sadly, we are reminded that many
- seniors in the U.S. are cruelly neglected, because our government
- cuts back on essential funding. Please be assured that we will work
- harder than ever to see that the blockade is lifted."
-
- (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if
- source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21 St.,
- New York, NY 10010; "workers" on PeaceNet; on Internet:
- "workers@mcimail.com".)
-
-
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