By crossing the southern border , this religious organization founded by Reverend Lucius Walker defy every year the intolerance and hate to open with each new action small gaps in the blockade against Cuba.
A quarter of a century has gone by since the day when the first Pastors for Peace caravan went across the border with goods and resources to be taken to Cuba in order to alleviate the ill effects of the blockade.
By repeating the good will actions transporting much needed supplies for Cubans, Pastors for Peace show that a part of American society pays no attention at all to the hatred towards Cuba voiced by the ultra right wing conservatives.
The yearly caravans to break the blockade against Cuba are a project of the organization known as IFCO, a community based group that goes by the name of Interreligious Foundation Community Organization.
Reverend Lucius Walker was the great organizer and the living soul of the initiatives to not only help Cuba, but also to highlight the terrible effects of the US blockade that has lasted now for more than half a century.
The beloved founder of Pastors for Peace passed away in 2010. All along the existence of the organization that he created, Walker was the essential figure in laying out the basis for a sustained effort that year by year tours between 50 and 80 cities gathering humanitarian donations that they then transport to Cuba, via Mexico, by crossing the US border in defiance of the blockade.
Looking much further than the actual volume and value of the resources that Pastors for Peace transport to Cuba, that range from hand tools, to school supplies, from parts to fix obsolete computers to school buses, what is really important is the fact that all this is done by volunteers, in solidarity with the Cuban people.
Pastors for Peace do not apply for any type of permits or licence from the US federal authorities, because they consider the blockade to be an act of injustice , totally out of place, inhuman and a part of the constant harassing of Cuba by the successive US administrations in power since 1962, when President John F. Kennedy signed the first documents to put in place the infamous , inhuman and illegal policy, that constitutes the longest lasting blockade of any country in modern history.
