Caravan to Cuba returns from Mexico still fighting against embargo

HIDALGO — Joe Barndt says building walls is never the solution.

The Berlin Wall fell when German leaders caved to continuing protests, said Barndt, a member of the clergy from California. A virtual wall has existed between the United States and Cuba since 1960, and Barndt wants to see it go the way of the Berlin Wall.

“To me, human beings have the incredibly important task of tearing down walls,” he said by telephone as the caravan traveled north Monday toward San Antonio. “We understand what the wall between Cuba and the United States does to damage both countries.”

About 130 members of Pastors for Peace, a national ecumenical agency that works to promote racial, social, and economic justice, returned Monday from a nine-day trip where they delivered 115 tons of aid to Cuban residents.

The returning caravan crossed back into the United States over the Hidalgo International Bridge after delivering medicine, books clothes, wheelchairs and sports equipment to the island nation.

Because of an embargo initially imposed by the Kennedy Administration in response to the county’s communist revolution, federal law prevents U.S. citizens from traveling and trading with Cuba.

The Pastors for Peace caravan has traveled for the past 20 years to South Texas to cross the border into Mexico where the goods can be shipped from Tampico to Cuba.

Ellen Bernstein, a New Jersey resident who works in the office of the interfaith group that founded Pastors for Peace, said hopes were high on this trip that a new relationship between Cuba and the United States could soon emerge.

Members of Congress introduced legislation earlier this year to lift the travel ban between the two countries.

Talks between the two countries started for the first time in six years on a number of issues, including drugs, immigration and hurricane preparedness.

But Bernstein said her group advocates lifting trade restrictions against Cuba as well as removing other laws that prohibit interaction between the two countries.

In a 140-city tour in the United States before the caravan crossed into Mexico two weeks ago, Bernstein said they asked people to phone their representatives to support the end of the embargo.

“It’s time for a new understanding in the hemisphere,” she said. “The Cold War has been over for a long time, and no one has a justification to keep this blockade in place.”

Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4424.