Detroit Press Conference: Travel Group to Cuba Explains Why Ban is 'Sicko'

Assata Shakur: Activist, Former Political Prisoner, Writer
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Justice for Cuba Coalition

PRESS RELEASE - PHOTO OP
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For information contact:
Ignacio Meneses 313-587-9285
Cheryl LaBash 313-999-1376

-GROUP PREPARES TO TRAVEL TO CUBA, EXPLAINS WHY THE U.S.
TRAVEL BAN OF CUBA IS 'SICKO'
-GREETS 'PASTORS FOR PEACE' MINI-BUS ON ITS WAY TO CUBA
-CARAVAN KICK OFF/DISCUSSION/FILM - CUBA'S HEALTH CARE
COMMITTMENT

Friday - July 6 - 6:30 pm
St. Peter's Episcopal Church Trumbull and Michigan Ave. (across from old Tiger Stadium)

As part of Michael Moore's hard hitting, uncompromising exposure of for-profit health care film 'Sicko' that opened this week, Moore and 9/11 volunteers who could not get good affordable health care in their hometowns traveled to socialist Cuba where they received excellent, humane care - free of charge.

In response, the U.S. Treasury Department Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) threatened to fine Moore. Moore is not alone - Michiganders have also received these letters.

But OFAC can't stop travel to Cuba. On July 4, 5 and 6 Pastors for Peace will kick off its 18th Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba in the Detroit Metro Area, beginning one of fourteen separate routes through more than 120 U.S. and Canadian cities.

These Cuba travelers will exercise rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and by the International Human Rights Declaration of the United Nations.

“As people of faith and conscience, it is our duty to resist and condemn this cruel U.S. policy," declared Rev. Lucius Walker, Jr., Executive Director and founder of IFCO, a 40-year old ecumenical agency.

"IFCO/Pastors for Peace rejects this licensing system as both immoral and illegal.

It is immoral because it endangers the lives of millions of Cubans and inflicts suffering on innocent children, as well as adults. It is illegal under international law because it uses medicine and food as weapons of war to force another
nation to change its government."

Last December at the International Human Rights Day event sponsored by Detroit Councilmember JoAnn Watson, Rev. Walker presented details for full medical school scholarship at Cuba's Latin American School of Medicine.

These scholarships are available to disadvantaged students who after graduation will practice medicine in underserved U.S. communities. Scholarship information will be available at this event.