The Vinceremos brigade is greeted at a neighborhood association in Santiago, Cuba.

Rosendale resident Ed Felton, who has been threatened with up to $65,000 in fines and 10 years in prison by the US government, said he is hoping for the worst.  "The more they do to us, the more absurd the travel ban and embargo will finally appear," Felton said after returning from a two-week trip to Cuba during which he and other volunteers met with social and civic organizations and worked renovating schools.

In April, George Bush announced new measures to tighten the 44-year embargo on Cuba and hasten what he called "democratic change."  In addition, the administration said it will increase enforcement and "sting operations" against "mules" who illegally carry money or supplies to Cuba.  The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) recently reduced the employees tracking terrorist financial networks, while doubling the number of agents tracking violators of the Cuban embargo, Felton said.

In defiance of the US-imposed travel ban, Felton, steering committee member of the Caribbean and Latin American Support Project, was one of about 200 hundred US citizens who traveled to Cuba with solidarity groups this summer, joining thousands of other from around the world.

Chanting "Who will break the travel ban?  WE will break the travel ban," they returned from Cuba on July 19 over the International Peace Bridge that connects Fort Erie, Ontario, to Buffalo.  Felton walked with members of the Venceremos (We Will Overcome) Brigade, and other national and international groups.  This was the 35th year that the Venceremos Brigade has traveled to Cuba illegally.  Pastors for Peace, who worked alongside the brigade in Cuba and re-entered the US through Mexico, has also refused to follow federal procedure since their first caravan to Cuba five years ago.

Pastors for Peace Executive Director Rev.  Lucius Walker explains in a mission statement: "We oppose the Bush Administration's warlike actions towards Cuba and its relentless pursuit of "regime change" in Cuba - a country where people have free health care and education, where they do not suffer homelessness and hunger, and where racism is actively combated, and whose largest export to the poor countries of the world is medical assistance."