11 February 1995
Letters to the Editor
San Jose Mercury News
750 Ridder Park Drive
San Jose, CA 95190
Dear Editor:
As a participant in the INFOMED-Pastors for Peace caravan with humanitarian aid for Cuba I am taken aback by the misunderstanding expressed in the letter from Raghavendra Rao Loka (Page 7B, Feb. 7)
Rao Loka may not have been told that these computers are intended for use in the INFOMED network, an electronic network for the dissemination of medical information to hospital physicians, medical students, research scientists and remotely located family doctors. All modern medical systems (and Cuba's is one) use computers for this purpose. It was the United Nations Special Projects which funded Cuba's acquisition of the file servers (central computers holding medical databases). Our old IBM-compatible computers were to be used as terminals to access those servers. It should be realized that our Project INFOMED, which is centered in the Bay Area, had already delivered 17 computer systems to Cuba's Project INFOMED via the previous Pastors for Peace caravan in July 1995. Without our request, the Cuban Ministry of Public Health has sent back a list of 15 medical institutions (including a major children's hospital, the William Soler) where those computers are now in use. Anyone can go there to see for themselves.
Up to date medical information for physicians and surgeons is indispensable to a health care system. This form of humanitarian aid is far more basic and significant that the contribution of a random assortment of medications, bandages, crutches, etc. It is the type of aid that is beneficial to the entire nation of 11 million Cubans, as opposed to the "CARE Package" approach that is all too commonly regarded as humanitarian aid. A national medical system as is Cuba's requires a national plan and a national budget. The real annual needs are established on the basis of previous years' medical experience and not on the whim of random donors of surplus pills.
The refusal of the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Foreign Assets Control Division to acknowledge that these computers are for medical purposes is a deliberate effort to limit humanitarian aid to meaningless, token contributions. Since our computer aid will enhance the medical infrastructure of Cuba the U.S. government, in its frenzy to strangle the island nation, went to great lengths to seize the material. This computer aid epitomizes the classic case of the contrast between giving a hungry person a fish, or giving that person a means to catch fish.
It should be pointed out that the border incident was incited by the U.S. Customs Service which offered only two choices:
The option to move the cargo back and return to San Diego was denied to the Pastors for Peace. With no reasonable option remaining, the Pastors attempted to walk the material across the border, as they had done successfully on several similar occasions on past caravans. The Customs Service were not satisfied to stop the aid from proceeding, but focused their efforts on prying loose our hands from the cartons and seizing the contents.
Beyond the case of this specific instance of denial of Cuba's right to receive humanitarian aid, there is the question of the broader aspects of humanitarian aid. That is the aid which allows a Third World nation to develop its society in such areas as education, health care, culture, industry , agriculture, etc. The U.S. government, as well as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, claim that this is their primary aim in policy making. This cruel action by the Customs Service abridged that human right. Their hypocrisy lies in the denial of this basic human right to the people of Cuba -- not to Fidel Castro, as they claim.
As was the case with the civil rights movements' lunch counter sit- ins in the Deep South decades ago, the Pastors for Peace will continue to make efforts to carry this humanitarian aid to the people of Cuba. Their next effort will take place on February 17, once again from San Diego.
Sincerely,
David Wald, Project INFOMED
(408) 243-4359
February 5, 1996
Our attempt to deliver genuine humanitarian aid to Cuba has been blocked by the Department of the Treasury. The U.S. Customs Service seized that aid on January 31.
The government claims that it grants licenses for humanitarian aid, but they say that INFOMED computers are NOT humanitarian aid.
[user]infomed.sld.cu) was established three years
ago with the help of United Nations Special Projects and the
Pan American Health Organization. The UN funded the 14 file servers
(14 provinces) but left Cuba to obtain the end user terminals.
Our old computers are intended for that purpose.
A national network of computers for disseminating medical information in Cuba is having a significant effect on the health care system of Cuba. It is precisely this genuine development which the U.S. government wishes to stifle. It seeks to bring about a collapse of the Cuban government and, failing that, keep Cuban development in a state of suspended animation, thereby proclaiming it a failed society.
That is why our INFOMED computers were confiscated by the Treasury Department. It has nothing to do with the interests of the U.S. people or its national security.
Beyond that, genuine humanitarian aid to Third World countries must encompass the concept of developmental aid; the need and right of a country to develop - in such areas as health care, education, science, culture, industry and agriculture - cannot be abridged. The Cuban people have a right to these things.
See also What Is Project InfoMed
February 2, 1996
Secretary Robert Rubin
U.S. Treasury Department
Washington, DC
Dear Secretary Rubin,
We learned today that agents of the U.S. Treasury, along with other police forces took action yesterday in California to seize a shipment of computers being brought to Cuba by Pastors For Peace to aid that country's on-line medical information system, and detained on criminal charges those who were bringing that shipment in to Mexico for transport to Cuba. Moreover, we learned that the police action was conducted with extreme police violence, resulting in injury to many of those arrested, despite the full knowledge that all participants in the Friendshipment Caravan were explicitly pledged to nonviolence.
Mr. Secretary, you, your department and the entire US government ought to be ashamed of its actions. The violence, arrest of these people, the seizure of property, the suppression of humanitarian aid to Cuba are all contemptible. We agree with IFCO Director Rev. Lucius Walker, "It is inconceivable that our government would want to deny modern medical care to Cuban children and senior citizens," stated Rev. Lucius Walker, Jr. "The seizure of these computers is a shameful page in U.S. history."
We add our voices to those you have already received and will continue to receive demanding the release of the computers that have been seized, the release of the volunteers who have been arrested and the dropping of all criminal charges, and an end to the economic war on Cuba's people that the US government wages through this illegal embargo. Drop the embargo, drop the charges and release the activists and release the computers for delivery to Cuba. Do this as a matter of justice and decency and do it today.
Sincerely,
Paul Magno for Dorothy Day Catholic Worker
Copies to: Attorney General Janet Reno
Commerce Secretary Ronald Brown
President William Clinton
We the undersigned, representatives of various Cuban institutions, Health Care workers and Christians state that:
Access to information is an essential necessity for health care workers. The difficult economic situation facing Cuba after the fall of the Socialist Bloc, particularly the Soviet Union, added to the brutal tightening of the US government blockade has had an extremely negative impact on the country's ability to provide the necessary information to support the efforts being made to maintain and improve the public health standards of the Cuban people.
The right information in the right hands at the right time SAVES LIFE'S, even more effectively than any medicine or new techniques.
The National Center for Medical Sciences Information is coordinating a national network which encompasses libraries and other kinds of information centers serving of the health system. The economic difficulties the country is experiencing have obliged us to seek out alternative information sources to make it possible to provide the level of information necessary to support the work of doctors and other health professionals.
INFOMED has been one of these alternative methods. The medical science electronic information network is the most developed alternative. It's development is due to the support given by the Ministry of Public Health, aided by international organizations such as the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the United Nations Development program, and the Caribbean and Latin American Medical Science Information Center.
The Network has been extending it's coverage over the last few years and today is in every province of Cuba. It has 24 hour service seven days a week and offers a growing number of information services which make up for the lack of information received through traditional channels.
These computers which represent a humanitarian gesture of solidarity are today held up at the US border. They were coming to support our efforts to allow specialist who provide primary care, workers in intensive care wards where children's lives are saved and specialists in general medicine to begin to take advantage of the new possibilities opened up by information and communication. In a world where all recognize the importance of information as a resource essential for improving the living standards of our peoples, especially their health standards, any attempt to hamper efforts to achieve this objective infringes the rights of states and of humankind. From the basis of our Christian faith moreover, we have continuously and committely opted for life and for each and every way which helps to improve and extend the quality of life. The way shown by Jesus Christ in his relations with disease and the sick lights our way and gives us courage in this undertaking.
Cuban Council of Churches Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Center Cuban Worker-Student Baptist Congress Christian Student Movement Brotherhood of Cuban Baptist Churches Oscar Arnulfo Romero Reflection and Solidarity Group Kairos Christian Center for Arts and Liturgy The "El Fuerte" Reflection and Discussion Center The Latin American Union of Ecumenical Youth The Christian Medical Commission Dr. Noemi Gorrin- Pediatrician and President of the Christian Medical Commission Dr. Flina Ceballos- Neuro-Pediatrician Angel Lorenzo Gonzalez- Intensive Care Nurse Dr. Marianela de la Paz- Family Doctor Dr. Loida Sardinas- Family Doctor Yamila Laura Lee - Nurse Dr. Roberto Ohoa- Family Doctor Dr. Amaryllis Castro- Family Doctor
San Diego, January 31(RHC)-- The 6th Pastors for Peace caravan, has been stopped at the U.S. border with Mexico and U.S. Customs agents have violently attacked the caravan. After a several hour stand-off, riot police moved in and began arresting caravanistas and seizing computers destined for the Cuban Ministry of Health. Led by the Reverend Lucius Walker, the 30-vehicle caravan made its way to the border around 12 noon Pacific time and were stopped by San Diego Police. Blake Dunlap, National Co- Coordinator of Pastors for Peace, spoke with us by phone from the border and takes up the story.
"After being blocked several times by the San Diego police, U.S. Customs agents replaced the locks on the trucks with their own locks. Officials also totally shut down the bridge to all pedestrian traffic for most of the day. At approximately 4 p.m. local time, U.S. Customs agents opened the backs of several trucks and began removing computers. Caravan drivers, who had formed a protective ring around the trucks, some even sitting on top of the trucks, were violently dragged away from their vehicles. Several caravanistas then attempted to carry the computers across the border on foot and were gang-tackled by as many as eight police officers at a time. The officers then violently wrenched the computers from their arms. Several people have been detained and several more have been injured. As many as 50 riot police with shields, helmets and billy-clubs moved into place, despite the commitment that caravan drivers have expressed to conduct themselves non-violently at all times. Fifteen squad cars and many uniformed and plain-clothed police from a number of law-enforcement agencies have converged on the border along with 19 tow-trucks. According to unclassified government documents, this was a coordinated effort by U.S. Customs, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the FBI, California Highway Patrol and the San Diego Police and Fire Departments, who have been planning for weeks to seize the computers before they crossed the border to Mexico."
San Diego, February 1(RHC)-- After a day and night of confrontation on the U.S.-Mexico border, organizers of the 6th Pastors for Peace caravan worked for the release of eleven caravanistas who were arrested and remained in jail on Thursday. U.S. Customs agents brutally attacked caravan participants who were on foot, attempting to cross the border with computers destined for Cuba. Authorities then confiscated all of the 300 computers, forcibly arresting twenty caravanistas -- one of whom was injured and is still hospitalized. As dawn broke Thursday morning, all but eleven of those detained were released.
Radio Havana Cuba spoke with the Reverend Lucius Walker, who outlined the immediate tasks ahead for the group:
"Our struggle now is on three fronts. First, to seek the release of our caravanistas who are still imprisoned; second, to achieve the return of all of the computers; and thirdly, we must continue to struggle to raise the consciousness of people in the United States about the injustice of the blockade. In this, the caravanistas are completely and totally committed.
"Yesterday, we saw a display of police power and brutality which was shocking and shameful. The experience made it abundantly clear, once again, the hostility of the U.S. authorities towards Cuba and towards those of us who work in solidarity with Cuba. But I must say that our heads -- those of us who work in solidarity with Cuba -- our heads are bloodied, but unbowed. We realize that the struggle is still ahead of us. We have been working through the night to rally our support throughout the United States. Our visit to Cuba will be delayed, unfortunately, because we must continue the struggle here for the next few days.
"It is my good pleasure to send greetings to all of our sisters and brothers in Cuba from all of our caravanistas who are still in jail. We send our love and goodwill from all of the caravanistas -- seventy in number -- who are on this caravan. And we assure you that we will continue to work for an end to the blockade and for the return of these computers which it is our hope to ultimately deliver to Cuba."
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