LAGUNA HILLS : Resident Joins Group Taking Aid to Cuba

A retired Laguna Hills nutritionist will be heading to Texas today to join a group that by personally bringing humanitarian supplies to Cuba will confront the U.S. government’s ban on trade and travel to the Caribbean nation.

Rosemary Gould said she will be among 104 people, organized by a group called Pastors for Peace, who will take to Cuba humanitarian supplies, such as powdered milk, medicines, school supplies, bicycles and Bibles.

The group--which includes ministers and lay people from Catholic, Methodist and Baptist churches--wants to help the Cuban people and also defy the U.S. government’s ban on travel and trade with Cuba, she said.

Despite being told by federal officials that they will be violating federal law, which prohibits trade with the Communist nation, the group plans to travel to Mexico and then board a ship for Cuba.

The maximum sentence for violating the 30-year-old embargo, which was recently made more restrictive, is 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, Gould said.

“The embargo is doing so much damage to the Cuban people,” Gould said. “We don’t see the embargo hurting Fidel Castro any more than the embargo against Iraq is forcing Saddam Hussein out of power. We need to lift the embargo and have normal relations with Cuba.”