------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the July 19, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- U.S. CUSTOMS SEIZES SOME, BUT CARAVAN TAKES MEDICAL EQUIPMENT TO CUBA PLANS TO BRING BACK CUBAN PRODUCTS IN "REVERSE CHALLENGE" By Teresa Gutierrez The 12th U.S. Cuba Friendshipment Caravan made its way into Cuba early in July. But all did not go without a hitch. U.S. Customs agents in Maine seized and impounded nearly $250,000 of medical equipment as it was being transported across the Canadian border by the Maine-based Let Cuba Live Coalition and the Canada-based Cuba Friendship Association. The two groups had worked together to raise material aid for Cuba. U.S. Customs officials stopped the Friendshipment and confiscated the material at the remote Coburn Gore border checkpoint in Maine. They are holding two trucks, a trailer, and an assortment of valuable medical equipment--including two anesthesia machines, electro-cardiogram machines, cardiac defibrillators and other heavy hospital equipment. As of this writing, the struggle is still at a standoff. Customs has not released the aid, and the activists from Let Cuba Live are determined to stay until the equipment is released for shipment to Cuba. The activists' spirits are strong, said Steve Burke of the coalition. "We're in this for the long haul," he declared. As other sections of the Caravan made their way across 100 cities in the U.S., through Mexico and into Cuba, Friendshipment brought the message that the U.S. blockade of Cuba must be ended. It got news coverage in many U.S. cities as well as around the world. Reuters and the Associated Press, for example, carried the news of the arrival of the caravan in Cuba. According to IFCO/Pastors for Peace, the confrontation at the remote Maine crossing involved 30 law enforcement officers and 40 activists. That was in contrast to the lack of U.S. government confrontation at the U.S.-Mexico border when the Caravan crossed from Hidalgo, Texas, into Reynosa, Mexico, earlier the same week with 95 caravanistas, nine vehicles and 75 tons of aid. The Reuters wire reported that the 12th Friendshipment would also be carrying out a reverse challenge this year by bringing aid from Cuba into the U.S. "We want to inform the world that we are doing a reverse challenge for the first time in history, taking aid from Cuba by way of our caravan to the people of the United States,'' said IFCO/Pastors for Peace Executive Director Rev. Lucius Walker. Walker said the Caravan planned to bring back Cuban solar panels and a biological rat killer called Biorat made by the Cuban biotechnology firm Labiofam. "There is a rat problem in the United States in addition to the one in the White House,'' he said. As part of their program in Cuba, the Caravanistas will visit the Labiofam factory where Biorat is produced. This species-specific rodenticide kills only rats and mice. It is environmentally friendly, safe to use around humans, pets and foodstuffs, and is used throughout the world. Caravanistas will be given samples of Biorat to take back to the United States for use in rat-infested communities here. New York City, for example, was estimated to be the home of 28 million rats in 1997. The Caravan is stressing that this rodenticide is an example of how the U.S. blockade denies the people in this country access to important goods that are produced only in Cuba. The Let Cuba Live Coalition and Pastors for Peace are urging supporters to contact the U.S. Treasury Department and demand that the aid be released. Activists should call Richard Newcomb, the Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control at (202) 622-2500. On July 21 the Let Cuba Live Coalition will hold a rally to continue the struggle to get the aid released. The event will be held at 12 noon at Monument Square in Portland, Maine, and will march to the Customs Building. For more information, readers can call Pastors for Peace at (212) 926- 5757 or the International Action Center at (212) 633-6646. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
