4-06-09, 3:00 pm

HAVANA, Cuba, April 6 (acn) US Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), visiting Havana this week, spoke out in favor of the normalization of exchanges between religious communities from Cuba and her country.

Rep. Lee, who co-chairs the Congressional Black Caucus, said in a press conference in the Cuban capital that the religious bonds between the two countries have been cut off for eight years during the Bush administration.

Rep. Lee, who was accompanied by Congressman Melvin Watt (D-N.C.), also stated they attended religious services on Sunday in Cuba and that when they return to the US they will consider ways to bring respective the religious communities from both countries closer.

Reverends Emanuel Cleaver II and Bobby Rush, who also happen to be members of the US Congress, each gave a sermon each at the Episcopal Cathedral of Havana and at the William Carey Baptist Church, respectively.

Rep. Lee also said they held a very fruitful meeting with representatives of the Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Memorial Center in Havana.

Rep. Watt said he felt very comfortable in each of the churches they visited and noted that the religious services were identical to those in his country, with the difference that they were given in Spanish rather that in English.

He expressed his commitment to work to rebuild and strengthen bilateral religious bonds.

In response to a question from the press, Rep. Lee said there are more than 100 House Representatives who support the lifting of travel restrictions to Americans.

She added that several bills seeking the end of political restrictions towards Cuba have been introduced in the Congress.

The Congresswoman reiterated that 68 percent of Americans want the economic, commercial and financial blockade by her government against the island to be ended.

On February 3, 1962, the then US President John F. Kennedy signed the bill that made the economic blockade of Cuba official.

This unilateral and coercive measure has caused material losses to the island of more than $224 billion adjusted for inflation. The blockade has also brought immeasurable suffering to the Cuban people.

From the Cuban News Agency