Granma International
July 22, 2005
 
U.S. authorities stop Pastors for Peace

MEXICO, July 22 (PL).—The U.S. authorities are preventing the free passage into Mexican territory of the 16th Friendshipment Caravan coordinated and organized by the Pastors for Peace.

Only two of the 12 vehicles that attempted to enter Raynosa, Tamaulipas from McAllen, Texas with more than 80 tons of humanitarian aid for the island have been able to do so to date, social activist Víctor Vargas told Prensa Latina.

FBI agents and U.S. Customs agents are exhaustively checking the vehicles and seizing all computer and electronics equipment, he said.

The coordinator in Mexico for the Pastors for Peace caravan said that, as a sign of protest, the 100-plus caravanistas began to cross the international border bridge on foot, carrying the aid onto Mexican soil.

He explained that the caravanistas were expected to cross the border at 10:20 local time and from shortly before then, members of the Friends of Cuba Committee arrived at the control point.

They stayed there for four hours with a huge banner reading. "No to the Blockade" with the figure of the heroic guerrilla Ernesto Che Guevara and the flags of the United States and Mexico.

However, he commented, given the intentional delaying tactics on the U.S. side the Mexican authorities also felt under pressure and forced the demonstrators to withdraw from the international bridge.

At that point, both the members of the welcoming committee, the aid consignments transported and some caravanistas remained in the Plaza de la República, where there is to be a friendship with the Cuban people event tonight.

The Friendshipment Caravan officially started its tour of the United States on June 30 in New York and three days later, from the city of Montreal in Canada.