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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
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Note 430 by UMNS on Nov. 3, 1997 at 15:57 Eastern (4288 characters).

TITLE:	Cubans Highlight Need for Food, Medicine

Contact:  Joretta Purdue   	618(10-32-71B){430}
		Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722  	Nov. 3, 1997

Cuban Council of Churches delegation
stresses urgent need for food, medicine

by Lee Ranck*

	The urgent need for medicine and food in Cuba was the message that a
four-member delegation from the Cuban Council of Churches brought to Capitol
Hill the last week in October.
	In meetings with members of Congress, the delegation urged passage of the
Cuban Humanitarian Trade Act of 1997, introduced June 18, 1997, by Rep.
Esteban Torres (D-CA).
	On Oct. 30, the delegation met with staff members of denominational agencies
housed in the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill and called on the
churches to advocate for passage of the bill HR 1951.
	It would exempt food, medicine and medical equipment from the U.S. embargo.
The bill currently has 80 co-sponsors, and similar legislation is pending in
the Senate. 
	U.S. humanitarian agencies have been able to get some food and medical
supplies into Cuba, though hampered by bureaucratic procedures and the
administration’s policies, which currently prohibit direct flights to the
nearby island nation.
	"It's impossible to solve the food and medical needs of 11 million people
relying on donations," said the Rev. Estela Hernandez, a member of the
Fraternal Baptist Church. "No country can live on donations alone."
	Hernandez and her three companions -- the Rev. Raul Suarez, also of the
Fraternal Baptist Church; the Rev. Oden Marichal, general vicar of the
Episcopal Church; and the Rev. Arnaldo Miranda, president of the Nazarene
Church -- sought the aid of United Methodists and other denominations.
	"We had good interviews with some members of Congress or their staffs, and
people seemed interested," Hernandez said. "It was like planting a seed. Now
we would like U.S. churches to help tend that seed by letting Congress know
about the problems in Cuba."
	Discussing those problems,  Suarez noted that the Cuban economy dropped
severely in the early 1990s and "hit bottom" in 1993 causing a severe scarcity
of food and medicine and a "regression in public health."
	He cited three causes of the economic crisis: 
	1) the break up of the socialist bloc; 
	2) "our own errors in economic and agricultural policies;" 
	3) the U.S. embargo, made even tighter by the Democracy Act of 1992, which
sets U.S. penalties on other countries if their ships stop at Cuba. More
recently the Helms-Burton Act, passed after Cuban military aircraft downed a
plane piloted by Cuban-Americans, further tightened the embargo.
	"Some say we will fall into capitalism, while the conservatives from the
revolution say we need to go back to the previous stage," Suarez said.
"However, we want to see an economic system rooted in our own society -- not
only Cuban, but Caribbean and Latin American."
	Speaking of the church in Cuba, Miranda indicated that though church people
experienced "some discrimination and limitation" in the past, today the church
is flowering, "growing day by day."
	"We church people have struggled with injustices in Cuba," Marichal
explained, "particularly in regard to education and employment." He said,
however, that "a serious dialogue with the government and the party" initiated
a process that has led to ending discrimination against churches.
	"We have been able to achieve a climate of more religious freedom," he said,
which also has led to increased social freedom and democratic advances.
However, "vestiges of discrimination against the churches still remain," he
indicated. 
	The Cuban delegation’s visit to the United States was sponsored by the
Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) and Pastors for
Peace, an ecumenical action and education IFCO project. 
	These organizations, with assistance from the United Methodist Board of
Church and Society, were instrumental in getting 374 donated, low-grade
computers into Cuba last year. The computers were distributed, with the help
of the Cuban Council of Churches, to clinics and hospitals to support a
medical information network.

	# # #

	* Ranck is editor of Christian Social Action and assistant general secretary
for communications of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society.
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