Cuban Bishop Says U.S. Embargo Is Harming The Poor, Not Castro

TITLE: U.S. embargo harms Cuban poor

Release # 015 {2889} April 18, 1996
General Conference '96

DENVER (UMNS) -- Every day, Cuban Methodist Bishop Gustavo Cruz passes hungry children crying for milk in the streets of Havana.

Poor people in Cuba are dying for lack of medicine and people come to church in tattered clothes and shoes that are falling apart, he said.

As intended, the U.S. embargo has hit Cuba hard -- but it is the poor who are suffering, according to the bishop, not Fidel Castro's government.

Cruz was in Denver to attend the 1996 General Conference of the United Methodist Church, with which the 10,000-member Cuban Methodist Church is affiliated.

In an interview with United Methodist News Service, Cruz said he agrees with those U.S. Christians who are asking the U.S. government to end the embargo against Cuba.

He emphasized that he was speaking for himself, not on behalf of the Cuban church.

Cruz, a former pastor who was consecrated as bishop in March, wept during the interview as he recalled a friend who died 18 days after prostate cancer surgery because the Cuban hospital had no antibiotics.

"I don't blame the United States for the troubles between our countries. It's probably true that the Cuban government is very much responsible," Cruz said, adding that he does not take sides in the political battle, but considers himself on the side of Jesus Christ.

But, he said, the embargo is penalizing the poorest Cubans, not government officials. "When the Cuban officials get sick, they have their own hospitals and access to the best medical care. But when a poor person gets sick, they die because of lack of medicine."

Cruz called the embargo "a political idea that is hurting people who have the least power to make changes."

He suggested that the United States could make resumption of diplomatic relations with Cuba conditional, holding Cuba to certain requirements.

He told stories of friends and church members who struggle from day to day to feed and clothe themselves.

"A friend called me one day and said the sheets on his children's beds were so ragged that there was no place to patch them," he recounted. "And I've seen children infested with

Despite the economic strains, the bishop said an evangelical fervor is sweeping the country. "The spirit of Jesus Christ is bringing thousands to church," he added.

Cruz estimated that 80 percent of Cuban Christians are youth and young adults. The Cuban Methodist Church has at least 200 organized congregations, with at least 100 more house churches or informal ministries bringing even more people to the faith.

Christians also work ecumenically, in such organizations as the Council of Cuban Churches, the Caribbean Council of Churches and CIEMAL (the Council of Evangelical Methodist Churches in Latin America).

"It is amazing that our young people have been taught nothing about the faith in the secular, government schools, yet many of them are seeking a relationship with Christ," he said.

He recalled a young woman -- a high-ranking official in the Communist youth organization -- who came to his church, had "a life-changing experience" and became a Christian.

Cruz said relations between Christian churches and the Cuban government have been relatively good since 1991. He admitted, however, that tensions have increased since the downing of an anti-Castro dissident group's plane by the Cuban military earlier this year.

He said that Castro's government has cracked down on tourists coming to Cuba claiming to be church workers, because many of them preach anti-government sentiments.

Since 1984, the United Methodist Church has been on record as supporting resumed economic and diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba. The 1996 General Conference is considering

-- M. Garlinda Burton

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