U.S. Customs Seizes Medical Aid Bound for Cuba on Canadian Border ...

U.S. Customs Seizes Medical Aid Bound for Cuba on Canadian Border Other Cuban humanitarian aid crosses into Mexico unmolested.

Between The Lines' Denise Manzari

On July 2, the 12th U.S./Cuba Friendshipment caravan, organized by Pastors for Peace, crossed the U.S. border from Hidalgo, Texas into Reynosa, Mexico with no interference from U.S. officials.

The 95 participants were transporting more than 75 tons of humanitarian aid to be donated without license to Cuba as a challenge to the 40-year-old U.S. economic blockade of that island nation.

However, on that same day, at the Coburn Gore border crossing in the Maine woods, a related group was stopped as they attemped to cross the U.S. border into Quebec, Canada, with four truckloads of medical aid. Forty participants were part of the caravan organized by the Maine-based organization, "Let Cuba Live," along with the Quebec-Canada Friendship Association and Pastors for Peace.

A border standoff ensued when U.S. officials refused to allow two of the trucks -- loaded with critically needed anesthiology equipment and other medical aid for Cuba -- to cross the border. Two of the participants carried aid over the border and were threatened with arrest.

Judy Robbins is with the group "Let Cuba Live." She spoke with Between The Lines' Denise Manzari about the seizure, and how her group is still determined to deliver the medical aid to Cuba (A RealAudio Version of this interview may be found At http://www.btlonline.org).

To contact Let Cuba Live, call (207) 326-4405 or visit their Web site at http://www.letcubalive.org

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