A national caravan challenging the U.S. blockade of Cuba brought its message to Mobile, staging a rally as part of a monthlong tour that organizers billed as an act of civil resistance against travel and trade restrictions they called immoral and illegal.
The Pastors for Peace 22nd Friendshipment Caravan scheduled its Mobile event for 5 p.m. at Mount Hebron Church, 2531 Berkley Avenue. The program featured speakers, discussion and a new film about Cuba, drawing supporters of a shift in U.S. policy toward the island.
A cross-country journey
Mobile was one stop on a much larger itinerary. The caravan’s organizers said a highlight would come on July 20, when more than 100 volunteers carrying some 100 tons of humanitarian aid planned to converge on McAllen, Texas, and cross toward Cuba without U.S. Treasury Department licenses.
The volunteers intended to deliver school buses, construction tools and materials, educational supplies, medicines and medical supplies that had been gathered in communities across the United States and Canada. Organizers said they had identified 130 host communities, Mobile among them, that supported a new U.S.-Cuba relationship grounded in respect and non-aggression.
The case against the blockade
The group framed its effort in the language of international law. It contended that longstanding U.S. policy amounted to a violation because it allegedly used food and medicine as weapons of war to pressure another sovereign government to bend to Washington’s political will.
By deliberately traveling without federal licenses, the caravan’s participants sought to draw attention to restrictions they regarded as unjust, a tactic the organization had employed on previous journeys. The rally in Mobile gave local supporters a chance to hear firsthand accounts and to view the film that accompanied the tour.
A local hand in the arrangements
The event carried a distinctly local footprint. Organizers directed those seeking more information to contact the City of Mobile Archives, listing an email address and telephone number for the office. The involvement of the municipal archives underscored the way the national campaign wove itself into the fabric of the communities it passed through.
For a coastal city with deep maritime ties and a long history of connection to the wider Gulf and Caribbean world, the appearance of a Cuba-focused caravan added an international dimension to the local calendar. The rally offered residents an opportunity to weigh in on a debate that, while national in scope, had found a receptive audience among activists in Mobile.
As the caravan continued toward the Texas border and its planned crossing, the Mobile gathering stood as one link in a chain of stops meant to build public pressure for a reconsideration of decades of policy toward the island.