Cuban churches back IFCO-Pastors for Peace amidst US federal threats

HAVANA, Cuba, Sep 1 (acn) The Cuban Council of Churches, a leading institution of Cuba´s Christian Ecumenical Movement, says threats by the US Internal Revenue Services (IRS) federal agency to withdraw the tax-exempt status of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO)-Pastors for Peace organization aims at undermining solidarity between the Cuban and the US peoples.

In a communiqué issued on Thursday, the Council expressed concerned about a recent press release by IFCO reading that they were informed about the imminent withdrawal of the organization´s tax-exempt status for its humanitarian work in Cuba, which the IRS considers a violation of the Trading with the Enemy Act of the US Treasury.
"In our experience with IFCO/Pastors for Peace we have learned that their social reasons and objectives are not exclusively aimed at Cuba, but also inside the United States, through the promotion of fair causes and educative programs on the industrial complex, the prisons, a fair migration reform, and educative projects on environmental concerns and the need for food sustainability, among many other issues," the Council explained in its communiqué.
The threat against IFCO/Pastors for Peace is a storm cloud over one of the actors who have contributed the most to the US government policy towards détente and understanding between the two nations, read the communiqué and recalled that IFCO/Pastors for Peace humanitarian caravans to Cuba started in 1992 and have brought donations for Cuban health services, education and for the Christian community here.
However, such items and resources are not donated by the Interreligious foundation, but by the US people and other nations, the organization has only been the visible face of that humanitarian action in bringing them to Cuba.
The Cuban Council of Churches considered the IRS threat an action aimed at undermining solidarity and fraternity between the Cuban and the US peoples and called for the end of injustice. "The Cuban churches, the Christian Ecumenical Movement and Cuba need IFCO/Pastors for Peace, and the United States needs IFCO/Pastors for Peace!, concluded the communiqué, signed by the Reverend Joel Ortega President of the Cuban institution.
The Cuban Council of Churches is made up of 52 churches and Christian institutions—protestant, reformed, evangelicals, Pentecostal, Episcopal and orthodox, and study and information centers, theological seminars and community service centers, as well as associated members such as the Cuban Jewish Community, and the Cuban Yoga Association, among others.