Castro Praises U.S. Hunger Strikers

Cuban President Fidel Castro on Saturday praised a group of hunger strikers in the United States whose 23-day protest ended when U.S. authorities granted them permission to take a school bus to Cuba as part of a humanitarian aid donation.

Nine members of Pastors for Peace were on a hunger strike aboard a school bus in Laredo, Tex. They started the protest after U.S. Customs officials refused to let the vehicle into Mexico, from where it was to have been shipped to Cuba.

Castro said the action was an “example of brotherhood, peace and union” in Cuba’s struggle to achieve the lifting of a longstanding U.S. economic embargo.