Customs Seizes Computer Parts From Cuban Aid Group

Customs agents have seized a load of computer components from Pastors for Peace, an activist group holding a hunger strike at the U.S.-Mexico border to protest the confiscation of computers bound for Cuba, the U.S. Customs Service announced Friday.

Agents raided a small warehouse Thursday in San Diego and seized 390 computer components after determining that the group was preparing a third attempt to take computer supplies across the border into Tijuana in order to ship them to Cuba, authorities said.

Pastors for Peace, a coalition of church organizations, argues that the computers are humanitarian aid for the Cuban medical system. The group opposes the U.S. blockade of Cuba, which the Clinton administration has toughened after Cuban warplanes recently shot down two unarmed civilian planes flown by a Cuban exile group.

To dramatize their cause, Pastors for Peace has used a time-honored stage for political theater: the U.S.-Mexico border.

The group has clashed twice with U.S. border guards who blocked the entry of their caravan into Mexico, resulting in arrests and counterdemonstrations by anti-Castro groups. Five group members are holding a hunger strike near an entry to Tijuana until the computers are returned.

As the hunger strike entered its 17th day, the Rev. Lucius Walker said the computer parts seized this week were spare equipment being sent to San Francisco, not Cuba.

Walker said he and the other hunger strikers feel “a little weak physically, but very strong spiritually.”

The Customs raid brings the total of computer components seized during the last five weeks to 1,219, authorities said. Agents said the ministers have failed to submit petitions to request the release of the equipment or apply for an export license.