Conchord Cayo Hueso, Inc.

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Conchord Cayo Hueso, Inc.

Aid & Hope to the Cuban People!

KEY WEST -- Ernest Hemingway said: ''Brother, don't let anybody tell you there isn't plenty of water between Key West and Havana!''. Well, we're here to tell you there's more than just water separating us.

Our organization, CONCHORD CAYO HUESO, Inc. (CCH), has been carrying food/medicine and hope to the Cuban people since 1992. Originally called BASTA!, we have 57 registered vessels and more than 450 volunteers crossing to Cuba. We even send missions with donations by air.

We are aware of a moral obligation to help our friends and neighbors down there.

We are non-political and, so often, find ourselves hunkering down in the trenches -- just like the Cuban people -- ducking the brickbrats of bitterness and animosity that are being heaved by our two governments at each other.

We are bound by conscious to help our sister island as much and as often as we can. The US economic embargo has been devastating for decades.

Until 1961 Key West was a suburb of Havana -- for more than 250 years. During that period no other US port had as much foreign maritime traffic as Key West, handling the Cuba's trade and passengers from Havana.

We residents of the Florida Keys long for the time we can go fishing again in Cuban waters. We miss the splendid relations between our two peoples, the cigars and rum and beauty of the Cuban tropics.

Last month we brought 30 violins, 2 cellos, 5 violas and 50 professional music stands to the Cuban Youth Symphony Orchestra. We even donated and carried a 2 1/2 ton printing press to a Cuban art collective! Hospital equipment, cooking oil -- you name it, we've crossed the Straits with it!

Perhaps you'd like to go see for yourself. No problem!

Go to Cuba Legally on Assignment

As you know, there is no law that forbids travel to Cuba by US citizens and residents; only a law requiring federal permission to spend money once there.

With our export license with the Bureau of Export Administration (BXA) in the US Department of Commerce, we are allowed to transport humanitarian aid there as often as we can.

Because of this, we are also authorized by OFAC to permit our volunteers to spend up to $158 daily for expenses while they are on assignment carrying supplies there -- by plane or boat, actually.

Authorized CCH Members will be required to initiate personal exchanges with the Cuban people whether it's cultural, educational, religious, athletic, or medical.

You'll be required to complete a short report upon return detailing your encounter while on assignment. Hopefully, you'll be able to document what supplies we might be capable of carrying on a later crossing - with or without your guidance.

By joining with us and paying your yearly $50 dues, you'll receive our monthly newsletter, THE INCUBATOR. It is one of the most informative journals on US/Cuban relations. We've been publishing it since 1991.

. . . think we're not serious?

... consider that CCH receives no support whatsoever from any governmental or private entity, be it from Havana, Washington or Miami.

In fact, certain elements make efforts to detain, prevent or deny us from our missions. (Can you imagine somone attempting to burn down our warehouse here in Key West holding 7 1/2 tons of powdered milk for Cuban children?)

And the villans aren't just rightwing extremists. We're continually being monitored by a variety of US law enforcement agencies, as well as anxious Congressional representatives from South Florida.


In Cuba, it's not less tedious. The officials don't even bother with conversation. If we commit any infraction of that government's stringent regulations we get the boot.


Our Director, John J. Young, has already been jailed and banished for two years from Cuba (1997-99). He was charged with staying in a private home.

We were officially marginalized by the Havana government in 1994. We had become, in their words, ''a tool of the Clinton administration's justification of the embargo''.

We're walkin' on eggs here.