Cuba aid group to visit city

Pastors for Peace, a humanitarian aid group, will be making a stop in Bloomington next Monday as part of a continent-wide bus trip that started in Canada and Northern U.S. states and is expected to end in Cuba. \nThis year marks the 16th annual Caravan to Cuba, where a fleet of school buses and trucks are currently traveling 14 different routes stopping in various cities to collect aid and inform the public about the U.S. political relationship with Cuba. \nCubamistad, a sister-city group which has established ties between Bloomington and Santa Clara, Cuba, is hosting the Bloomington stop of the Caravan on July 11 at the Bryan Park Woodlawn Shelter from 5 to 9 p.m. There will be live music, free salsa lessons, a potluck dinner and guest speakers. Anyone who wishes to attend is encouraged to bring food and an open mind. Those who show up will be given a chance to talk with riders on the Caravan about United States' restrictive trade policy with Cuba. \nArthur Stein, member of Cubamistad, explained that U.S. citizens who want to travel or send supplies to Cuba must apply for a license from the U.S. Treasury \nDepartment. \n"At this time, if we wanted to send a wheelchair to Santa Clara lets say, we could not send it directly without getting a license from the U.S. government," Stein said. "So even for humanitarian effort, we need to get a license. Because there are restrictions on trade and travel, there are many things they cannot get."\nWhen the Caravan bus stops in Bloomington, they will pick up supplies that have been collected by Cubamistad. Stein said they went to local businesses, hospitals and the University looking for donations -- particularly medical supplies and special needs items like wheelchairs and books in Braille.\nStein said they had been collecting supplies for two months. According to Stein, the IU Biology Department has provided microscopes, the Spanish and Portuguese Department has given textbooks, some of the local bike shops have donated bicycles and local hospitals have donated medical equipment for operations. \nEach time one of the Caravan vehicles stops in a city, it will pick up more supplies and more people until all 14 routes meet in McAllen, Texas, where they will challenge the license requirement.\nThe Caravan has successfully crossed the Texas border into Mexico in the past. Participants were searched, but no one was prevented from crossing the border. This year they hope to continue that tradition. \nAccording to Stein, he is the only member of Cubamistad who hasn't been to Cuba. Michael Gasser, computer science professor at IU and member of Cubamistad, has been to Cuba five times. \n"I've been to about 25 countries," he said. "No place, I think, is as complicated as Cuba. It's hard to figure out. There's always some strange thing that doesn't make sense. It's a place with universal free health care, universal free education. But it's a third-world country"