Assistance for Cuba

A group of US citizens is organising medical assistance for Cuba, despite such actions being outlawed under the Torricelli Act, passed last year.

The English-language Cuban paper Granma International reported in its May 5 issue that the International Peace for Cuba Appeal (IPCA) was planning to deliver US$70,000 worth of medicine to the Cuban Red Cross and other medical centres.

The IPCA delegation consisted of former US attorney general Ramsey Clark, author Alice Walker, actors Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis and Native American activist Dennis Banks. Initiators of the project include Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Ed Asner, Harry Belafonte, Jackson Browne, Frei Betto, Margot Kidder, Martin Sheen, Pete Seeger and the Reverend Lucius Walker.

Walker headed the Pastors for Peace US-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan which sent bicycles, medicines, wheelchairs, school supplies and Bibles in November.

Granma International also reported that one participant in the caravan has been convicted and fined at a trial in Texas. Four people had originally been arrested at the Mexican border, but only Ajumoke Tokunbo was brought to trial. (The supplies were taken to Mexico because they could not be loaded for shipment in the US.)

Tokunbo was convicted of battery of an officer during a skirmish when she was arrested. The officer claimed he had been bitten, and Tokunbo was convicted under a provision which holds all members of a group responsible for the action of any one member. She was fined $250.

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