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Pro-Cuba group says U.S. seized Canadian computers

Posted on: Friday, 29 July 2005, 18:16 CDT

HAVANA (Reuters) - A religious group that gathers humanitarian aid for Cuba urged U.S. authorities on Friday to release 12 Canadian computers seized at the U.S-Mexican border under American sanctions against Cuba's communist government.

The 43 boxes of computer equipment donated by Canadians were en route to Cuba in an annual caravan organized by the Pastors for Peace group when they were seized last week by U.S. border officials at McAllen, Texas.

"These were Canadian computers that were confiscated by U.S. customs," said Genevieve Mutschler, a volunteer from the Canadian province of British Columbia. "They were sent from Canada in support of Cuba in its struggle against the U.S. embargo."

Pastors for Peace, a humanitarian group based in San Francisco, has delivered 2,500 metric tons of aid to Cuba in 16 years, including medical equipment such as operating tables and incubators, but also second-hand school buses and computers.

Treasury spokeswoman Molly Millerwise said anyone wanting to deliver aid to Cuba must apply for a license with the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Treasury office that administers U.S. economic sanctions programs.

Pastors for Peace has defied U.S. trade sanctions enforced since 1962 against President Fidel Castro's government by refusing to request the licenses for travel to Cuba or the donation of banned equipment such as computers.

Treasury and Commerce Department officials stopped the caravan of 150 people traveling in 12 vehicles as it was about to cross into Mexico on July 21 and searched the shipment of about 120 tons of donations.

"The seizure of the computers by the Commerce Department shows a new effort by the U.S. government to strengthen the blockade against Cuba," the Rev. Tom Smith told reporters.

American members of the solidarity caravan face arrest and fines of up to $10,000 for violating the U.S. sanctions on Cuba when they return to the United States over the weekend.

U.S. Reps. Charles Rangel and Jose Serrano, New York Democrats who oppose the embargo, urged Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez to permit the release of the computer equipment.

"If the Bush administration does not wish to help the people of Cuba, I appeal to them to get out of the way," Rangel said in a statement on Wednesday. "Let others prove the compassion that the administration has often claimed as its own."

The White House last year tightened sanctions on Cuba by restricting visits and cash remittances from relatives living in the United States, in an effort to undermine what it calls one of the world's last "outposts of tyranny."

Critics of the trade embargo say the sanctions have failed to achieve democratic change in Cuba and only hurt the Cuban people, not Castro's government.

Source: REUTERS

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