[act-ma] 4/24 Save the date: for "Solidarity from Cuba to Standing Rock"

[Charlie Welch]

Nancy Kohn writes

Friends:

I write to alert you that the Pastors for Peace Caravan is coming thru 
Boston much earlier than usual this year. Our meeting will be at First 
Baptist Church in JP on Monday, April 24th from 7 to 9 p.m.

We are thrilled to have Diana Gutierrez, a recent graduate of the Latin 
American School of Medicine in Havana, as our main speaker.Diana 
recently returned to her home in Queens from the Standing Rock 
reservation in North Dakota where she put her medical skills to good use 
to serve the water protectors there.

Also speaking will be John Waller,current coordinator of the 
IFCO/Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravans to Cuba. He 
has coordinated 10 such caravans. He was formerly part of the national 
leadership of the British Cuba Solidarity Campaign and has visited Cuba 
15 times since 1991. Johnhas also worked as a primary healthcare center 
manager in both England and the U.S. and has written extensively on 
Cuba’s outstanding approach to delivering quality healthcare to all its 
citizens.

While they are in town, we will be visiting the district offices of our 
Reps. and Senators to push for an end to the blockade. We invite you to 
join us in those offices on Tues., April 25th. Our elected officials 
need to hear directly from their constituents (you) that there are 
people they represent who support Cuba with no preconditions.


Congressman Jim McGovern may be joining us Monday night to discuss his 
recent trip to the island. He has led the fight in Congress for 
normalization and helped train some of us to do effective constituent 
advocacy visits.


It has been two years since President Obama began moves to normalize 
relations with Cuba.Since then we have seen Cuba removed from the State 
Sponsors of Terrorism list, the reopening of embassies in the U.S. and 
Cuba, an expansion of the categories of people who can travel to Cuba 
with a government license, and some limited steps to ease the blockade.  
(Of course, the Cuban 5 also won their freedom!) However, the ban on 
unlicensed travel and the key measures of the economic blockade remain 
in place.  Those policies and Cuba's unique contribution in the health 
care field will be the main focus of the event Monday night, April 24th.


I'll send more details once they become clear, but please mark your 
calendars now and plan to join us then.


In solidarity,


Nancy