IFCO/Pastors for Peace and Cuba

Why we go

The US embargo of Cuba causes shortages of food, medicine and other important supplies for eleven million people. The embargo is an immoral policy that uses hunger and disease as political weapons.

IFCO/Pastors for Peace works with the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center in Havana, the Cuban Council of Churches and a distribution committee with representatives from ten different Cuban denominations to deliver US-Cuba Friendshipments. These humanitarian aid shipments mitigate the impact of the embargo and mobilize thousands of US citizens in favor of an alternative. We call for an end to the embargo and normalization of relations between our two countries.

As a matter of principle, the Friendshipments refuse to apply for a license under the terms of the embargo, since to do so would be a de facto recognition of an immoral policy. From 1992 to 2006, IFCO/Pastors for Peace has delivered seventeen Friendshipments to Cuba; some encountered resistance from U.S. officials, but arrived safely in Cuba after these officials backed down. These provide proof of the power that people can have when they are organized, motivated and determined. Speaking truth to power and standing firm in the face of injustice are central to the work of IFCO/ Pastors for Peace.

Find out more about our work with Cuba

• a brief history of the Pastors for Peace caravans to Cuba
• why we refuse to get a license to travel to Cuba
• the scholarship program at the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana, Cuba
• Cuba in the news