Washington, July 19 (RHC)-- For the first time since Pastors for Peace began traveling to Cuba from the United States, that caravan is unable to come to the Caribbean nation, due to the COVID-19 pandemic that is hitting the world.

The executive director of IFCO -- Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization-Pastors for Peace -- Gail Walker, assured that as soon as possible, they will return to Cuba.

Gail presented a video message to the Hot House Global platform in Chicago, on the occasion of the concert the day before dedicated to Cuba, which will continue for the second day this Sunday through different digital platforms.

For some 30 years, Pastors for Peace has been promoting a gesture of solidarity and resistance against the economic blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba, she said.

The activist recalled the legacy of her father, the late Reverend Lucius Walker, who promoted people-to-people exchange so that U.S. citizens could learn about the reality of Cuba.

She also referred to the program coordinated by Pastors for Peace to find young candidates in the United States interested in the scholarships offered by the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana (ELAM).

The graduates there then return to practice medicine in the communities of the northern nation, she explained.

That gift from the top leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, helped revolutionize medicine "in the belly of the beast," Gail Walker said.  The ELAM, she stressed, is another example of Cuba's internationalism and solidarity.