Cuban Rodenticide Brought to U.S. in Challenge to Cuban Economic Blockade...

Cuban Rodenticide Brought to U.S. in Challenge to Cuban Economic Blockade Impounded by EPA
Interview by Between the Lines' Denise Manzari.

Ninety-five members of Pastors for Peace, a project of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization, offered a new challenge to the 41-year-old U.S. economic embargo of Cuba on July 12, when they re-entered the United States with more than 30 pounds of Biorat, a Cuban-made rat poison scientists there claim is an environmentally-safe rodenticide.

U.S. Customs officials maintain that Biorat is toxic for humans and a hazard to the environment, and the product is now in the hands of the Environmental Protection Agency after being confiscated on the Texas border. IFCO/Pastors for Peace were returning from what was their 12th caravan of unlicensed humanitarian aid that they have organized and delivered to the people of Cuba since 1992. The latest caravan arrived in Cuba on July 4 with 75 tons of aid, including medical supplies and equipment donated from three doctors' offices and over 200 bicycles.

Rev. Lucius Walker is founder of Pastors for Peace and he spoke with Between The Lines' Denise Manzari about how this product could benefit the poor in the U.S., and his decades long struggle to end the American blockade against Cuba (A RealAudio Version of this interview may be found At http://www.btlonline.org) .

To contact IFCO/Pastors for Peace, based in New York City, call (212) 926-5757 or visit their Web site at http://www.ifconews.org

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