The story of InfoMed has already received media attention
via the Pastors for Peace and their confrontation with the U.S. government
over the transport of almost 400 computers to Cuba. Like most sporadic media
coverage of the moment, the full story needs both background and follow-up.
Such follow-up includes details on the resolution of that confrontation
and a glimpse into the future.
Project InfoMed, the Cuban side of it, began more than three
years ago when Cuba's medical system, an advanced and sophisticated system
rivaling those of the developed world, found itself bereft of funding. in
particular, the budget for the purchase of medical information in the form
of journals and texts - something essential to the maintenance of a modern
medical technology - was drastically reduced. The solution was the creation
of an electronic medical information network to disseminate information
to physicians, medical students and researchers.
The planning of InfoMed and its implementation was and is a home-grown
Cuban undertaking. Some of the vital material resources (network file
servers) came from United Nations Development Programme funding, after
the Pan American Health Organization discovered Cuba's efforts in creating
a limited electronic network in connection with a medical research project.
When Dr. Juan Reardon, Bay Area epidemiologist and David Wald, Silicon
Valley engineer, visited the offices of National Center for Medical Sciences
Information, a division of the Ministry of Public Health, they learned
about InfoMed's desperate need for end user terminals, in the form of
IBM-compatible personal computers. The two returned to organize Project
InfoMed-USA to obtain and deliver computers. (They set their sights on
delivering 200 within six months, but subsequently obtained almost 400.)
With the help of some 20 volunteers, and the use of two donated workshops,
one each in the North Bay and South Say, the group serviced, repaired
and even re-built computers donated by individuals and institutions.
Dave Wald and Dr. Juan Reardon
Early on, Reardon and Wald discovered the difficulty in arranging for
transportation of those machines to Cuba. They turned to the Baptist ecumenical
organization, Pastors for Peace, for their expertise and experience in
delivering humanitarian aid to Cuba and elsewhere. The Pastors agreed
to organize a special, West Coast Friendshipment Caravan to bring the
machines to Cuba. They chose to use the path of open, public challenge
to the U.S. government's stringent embargo on Cuba.
With about 100 volunteer caravanistas and about a dozen vehicles, including
two large vans carrying the bulk of the computer cargo, the Pastors led
the group to the border crossing with Tijuana, Mexico on January 31, 1996.
Despite five previous successful caravan crossings (three at Laredo, Texas
and two at Buffalo, New York) the Pastors encountered an unbending array
of government agents including Customs Service, San Diego police, U.S.
Treasury agents, San Diego Fire Department, FBI and others. The mission,
according to a leaked U.S. government planning document, was not merely
to prevent the passage of the computers but to seize them. And seize them
they did, but only after a five hour melee at the Otay-Mesa crossing point,
a period during which all normal traffic to and from Mexico was suspended.
Seeing passage blocked for the vehicles, the caravanistas unloaded some
of the cargo and attempted to hand carry it across the border into Mexico.
Government agents, greatly outnumbering the volunteers, forcible seized
the computer material from the arms of the caravanistas. There were. a
few minor injuries to caravanistas, including one hospitalized volunteer
who was the victim of a Treasury agent choke hold.
The agents proceeded in cutting the locks on the two large vans and installing
their own locks, thereby taking possession of the entire cargo.
On February 17, a second attempt was made to take a small number of leftover
computers to Tijuana at the San Ysidro crossing point. This effort met
the same fate, with some small amount of medicines and related material
allowed to pass through. But NO computers! A similar scene was enacted
that day at a border crossing between Canada and Vermont, with similar
results - seizure!
A few days afterward, the Pastors for Peace announced the initiation
of a Fast for Life, with the demand that the computers be released and
allowed to be taken to Cuba. The Reverend Lucius Walker, Director of
Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (parent organization
of Pastors for Peace), Seya Sangari of San Jose, Brian Rohatyn of Victoria,
British Columbia, Jim Clifford of Louisville, and Lisa Valanti from
Pittsburgh, PA comprised the hunger strikers, The five subsisted on
nothing more than a mixture of water, lemon juice and maple syrup, living
in a tent called the Wayside Chapel, pitched at the San Ysidro border
crossing. They eventually moved to Washington DC. I The federal government
allowed the release of the computers which had been confiscated at the
Vermont border, Canadian Citizen Brian Rohatyn thereby ended his participation
in the hunger strike after more than two months,
The Fast for Life ended on May 24, 1996, 94 days after it began when
the US government announced that it would release all the computers
to the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church.
This came about as a result of intense lobbying and organizing by Pastors
for Peace, the United Methodist Church and the efforts of some 70 Members
of Congress, led by Rep. Charles Rangel of New York with the support
of a number of Bay Area congress members. It was a sweet victory,
The latest, but hardly the final chapter was written on July 22 when
it was announced that the U.S. government had granted permission for
the entire lot of computers to be transported to Cuba. The government,
which had all along insisted on an application for a license to send
this humanitarian aid to Cuba, Claimed that the Methodists had applied
for such license. But the Methodists have denied this, holding fast
with the Pastors for Peace to the principle that humanitarian aid needs
no license.
The Pastors for Peace have announced that the reconstituted Friendshipment
Caravan, delayed by almost eight months of intransigence by the federal
government, would commence on September 12, 1995 with a border crossing
of caravanistas and computers at the San Ysidro crossing point, followed
by a flight of everyone and everything from Tijuana to Havana an September
13.
This does not close the book on Project InfoMed, the medical information
network in Cuba needs thousands of computer terminals. We will continue
to solicit computer equipment and volunteers to fulfill our commitment
to bring genuine humanitarian aid to the Cuban people.
On May 30th 1997 in San Jose, California, InfoMed-USA representatives
presented a paper about Cuba's InfoMed at the Spring Meeting of American
Medical Informatics Association. The paper's title was "Supporting
Medical Informatics in the Developing World. Cuba's InfoMed: A case
study"
