U.S. officials seize computers bound for Cuba that were donated by Vancouver residents
BY JACK KEATING, THE PROVINCE
JULY 21, 2010
U.S. Customs and Border Protection guards seized five computers donated by Vancouver residents that were bound for Cuba Wednesday as part of the 21st Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba.
“They confiscated five computers that had been donated by people in Vancouver,” Janine Solanki, an organizer with Vancouver Communities In Solidarity with Cuba, said from the Texas side of the U.S.-Mexico border. “I think this is just an harassment and intimidation tactic.”
Solanki, one of five Vancouver residents on the 85-person humanitarian aid caravan to break the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, said the reasoning behind the seizure was the U.S. authorities wanted to investigate whether the computers could be used for military purposes.
“These computers are Pentium 4s that are five-year-old used computers, so it’s a bit of a ridiculous charge,” said Solanki. “So they took five of them to inspect them to see if they could be used for military purposes by Cuba. That doesn’t even make sense, because they confiscated five of them and left another 55 computers with us.”
The caravan that includes 12 school buses, nine of which will be donated to Cuba, and more than 100 tons of medicines, medical supplies, computers as well as school supplies, sports equipment and construction supplies, was allowed to leave the U.S. at Pharr, Texas and enter Mexico, with the final destination Havana.
“And so this is something we have seen in past years,” said Solanki. “In 1996, they confiscated 400 computers and we actually had a 94-day hunger strike until they were released after getting international pressure on them.”
Solanki said the limited seizure was just to “annoy us and to show that they can confiscate the computers, but they didn’t confiscate them all so as to avoid a big international protest.”
The seized computers will be returned when the 85-member group returns to the U.S. through the same border crossing, she said.
After more than seven hours of negotiations at the Mexican border, the humanitarian aid for Cuba was allowed into Mexico Thursday night, where the buses and the cargo will be loaded on to barges Friday that will leave Tampico bound for Cuba.
Solanki and the other volunteers will fly from Tampico to Havana Friday, where they will meet the buses and humanitarian aid upon its arrival in Havana.
Solanki said the bus from Vancouver was allowed into the U.S. at Blaine, Wash., on July 4 with the humanitarian aid for Cuba after “questioning us pretty heavily for quite a while.”
“The aim of the caravan is to break the U.S. embargo against Cuba,” said Solanki, a 23-year-old BCIT student, travelling with volunteers from Canada, the U.S., Europe and Mexico. “The Cuban aid and the U.S. citizens with the caravan are going to Cuba without a licence from the U.S. Treasury Department, so that we are openly breaking trade block and the travel ban against U.S. citizens.”
“The U.S. economic blockade is something that very much hurts the Cuban economy and therefore is harmful to the Cuban people. It is illegal under international law and must end.”
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