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SAUNDRA AMRHEINFlouting a U.S. embargo, a group picks up donations in the bay area and will try to cross the border into Mexico on July 7.
TAMPA - They've been run off the road, pelted by eggs and detained by the government.
Critics call them "agents of influence" for a communist dictator.
But supporters say their yellow school buses packed with aid for Cuba are just neighborly.
The 15th IFCO/Pastors for Peace U.S.-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan has already started rolling across the United States, picking up donations of food, medicine, computers and school supplies.
Two buses leave Tampa on Wednesday. About a dozen buses total, passing through more than 120 cities, will converge on McAllen, Texas, near the border, on July 4, before passing into Mexico and steering for Tampico, Mexico. From there the buses will be shipped to Cuba, along with about 100 tons of aid.
Under the U.S. trade and travel embargo, Pastors for Peace could have applied for a humanitarian license from the federal government to ship the goods and follow them on planes to Havana. But that would have meant selling out to an "immoral" law, they said. And in the climate of crackdown on travel to Cuba by the Bush administration, they are prepared for the consequences.
"We are trying to make the point that the imposition of those licenses is an impediment to peace and makes it difficult for people to act as good neighbors," said the Rev. Lucius Walker, executive director for Pastors for Peace, based in New York, and pastor for Salvation Baptist Church.
"We should be as free to go to Cuba as to Mexico," said the Rev. Lucius Walker, executive director for Pastors for Peace, based in New York, and pastor for Salvation Baptist Church. "We think the embargo is immoral. It's illegal and mean-spirited, and we don't want to be implicitly supporting it by asking for a license."
But Ralph Fernandez, a Tampa attorney who has represented Cuban exiles, called the group's caravan a "silly" stunt designed for self-promoting publicity and he labeled Walker a "Cuban agent of influence."
Only about 10 percent of the aid brought to Cuba by these groups, Fernandez said, ever makes it to Cubans. The rest of it winds up in clinics or hotels that cater to tourists, he said.
These trips are excuses for Americans to bask in the sun on tourist-only beaches and to meet beautiful young Cuban women, he said. He criticized the American government for not cracking down on Walker and his group.
"This is a violation of American law," Fernandez said.
Ellen Bernstein, associate director of IFCO, which stands for Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, and coordinator of the caravan effort, said the aid reaches Cubans.
"We've had extensive experience on the ground in Cuba, and we've seen the aid be put to use," she said. "A lot of it is medical equipment and sutures, and those . . . get used in places where Cubans get their medical care."
Members questioned what European and American tourists in Cuba would want with some of the donated goods, such as used bicycles, clothes, computer parts - and the buses themselves.
During the first seven or eight caravans to Cuba, federal officials either detained members or temporarily confiscated buses at the border with Mexico, Walker said. They never stopped the caravan from its ultimate destination, he said, and soon let up on the group as it drew more publicity.
Nor was the caravan stopped by anti-Castro groups based out of Miami, who followed the buses, pelting them with eggs and rocks, he said.
But this year, things could be different when the caravan tries to cross the border on July 7. President Bush has vowed to crack down on Americans who flout the embargo, and he recently approved new restrictions on travel to Cuba.
Starting this week, Cuban-American travelers can visit only immediate family members and only once every third year instead of every year. Visitors can spend only $50 per day, down from $167, and luggage is limited to 44 pounds.
Also, under the new rules, Cuban-Americans can send money only to immediate family, not extended family.
"The language of this administration over the last two years toward Cuba has been so bellicose," Walker said. "We have to be prepared for the worst. The inconvenience of being stopped is the price we pay for the free exercise of our consciences."
At 82, Al Arteaga says he won't be intimidated.
He's with Cuba Vive in Tampa, an organization that works to pressure the U.S. government to lift the embargo. Arteaga has helped coordinate efforts for the caravan in the area.
He plans to drive with the school bus to northern Florida, then return to Tampa before flying to Texas to meet the caravan. He'll then pass into Mexico and fly to Havana with more than 100 other group members.
Arteaga bought a school bus at auction for $2,100. Donations have been pouring in to reimburse him. He has already packed that bus with donations, but another bus came into Tampa from Gainesville and members packed it with donated goods before rallies Sunday in St. Petersburg and Ybor City.
The bus Arteaga bought will be donated to a home for the elderly in Havana, a home where his 92-year-old sister lives. Arteaga was born in Tampa to Cuban parents who came to work in cigar factories. His parents took him to Cuba as a young boy when they returned to find work during the Great Depression.
Arteaga came back to Tampa in the late 1940s, after his father died. But his sister remained behind.
On one of his visits in 1994, he noticed the homes for the elderly lacked good transportation to take seniors to the doctor or to the hospital.
"I'm not hiding," Arteaga said. "I don't have any reason. I'm not doing anything bad. On the contrary, I think I'm doing something good for the world and this country."
- Saundra Amrhein can be reached at 813 226-3383 or amrhein@sptimes.com