By Fatin Abbas. The Black
World Today. Article Dated 7/30/2001
NEW YORK, (IPS) -- It has been used to combat outbreaks of bubonic plague in
Peru, hemorrhagic fever in Bolivia, leptospirosis in Nicaragua and other
rodent-borne illnesses in Costa Rica, El Salvador and the Dominican Republic.
And earlier this month, a donated shipment of the Cuban-made rodenticide
known as Biorat was on its way to vermin-infested inner cities around the United
States.
But U.S. Customs Service officials would have none of it. Now, a group that
routinely flouts the U.S. embargo against Cuba is being investigated for
attempting to bring the Cuban-made rat poison into the United States via Mexico.
Customs said that the New York-based group Interreligious Foundation for
Community Organization/Pastors for Peace is under investigation for violating
smuggling statutes and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations,
as well as for filing false statements.
Pastors for Peace routinely send humanitarian aid to Cuba. The group
attempted to bring the rodent poison into the United States in a reverse
challenge to the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
Customs officials seized the rat poison near the U.S.-Mexico border at
Falfurrias, Texas July 12.
The active ingredient in Biorat is a strain of salmonella that Cuban
researchers say is only harmful to mice and rats.
However, "Biorat is prohibited in the U.S. because it is a public
health hazard," said Dean Boyd, a Customs Service spokesman. IFCO/Pastors
for Peace might have violated EPA statutes, he added, because it did not seek
permission from the EPA to bring the poison into the country.
According to the EPA, which registers all pesticides before they can be
distributed here, "the pesticide product, 'Biorat,' is not registered for
use in the U.S." and therefore "is not permitted to be imported into
the U.S. for use in the U.S."
Although Biorat has been marketed in Latin America, Africa and Asia since
1994, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also disputes
its safety. In May 1998, the CDC issued an advisory that any rodenticide
carrying a strain of salmonella can "easily cause foodborne disease in
people." According to the agency, Biorat "is a product that poses a
public health risk worldwide."
Gail Walker, a spokeswoman for IFCO/Pastors for Peace, denied these
assertions and said that the group's lawyers are appealing to the EPA for
permission to distribute the product in U.S. cities especially hard-hit by rat
epidemics. These include New York, Washington D.C. and Chicago.
Boyd said U.S. Customs would investigate the group for smuggling and filing
false statements because its members who crossed the border at McAllen, Texas by
truck did not declare that they were bringing any goods into the United States
from Cuba.
Walker insisted that the members of Pastors for Peace who brought the
products across the border not only declared everything to Customs officials,
but they also asked them to inspect the shipment.
She added that there were many witnesses -- including members of the media
-- who were present at the crossing and who could confirm that the group
declared everything that they were bringing into the country.
Customs officials have said that the investigation of the group is not
driven by political tensions between the United States and Cuba, but is being
conducted primarily in the interest of public health.
Pastors for Peace, however, asserts that the public health claims made by
both Customs and the EPA are a tactic to divert attention from the embargo and
the political issues at the heart of the U.S. sanctions against Cuba, the
Trading with the Enemy Act.
By bringing in goods from the island, the group was challenging the Act,
which has restricted both monetary and charitable interaction between the United
States and Cuba for more than 40 years.
Pastors for Peace, which is a project organized by IFCO, is dedicated to
lifting the U.S. embargo against Cuba. Walker said that the group aims to "officially
do away with the idea that Cuba is a threat to the United States."
For the past few years the group has been organizing "friend-shipments"
to Cuba to defy and draw attention to the embargo imposed on the island. This is
the first time, however, that the group has attempted a reverse challenge to the
embargo by bringing goods from Cuba into the United States.
Walker said that as long as the embargo remains in place, the group intends
to challenge it by shipping aid to and from Cuba. "We will use whatever
creative ways we can to draw attention to the embargo," she added.
Asked why the group chose to bring back a product as controversial for
public health agencies as Biorat, Walker said that the group was only aiming to
show that Cuba has products that could benefit the United States.
She added that the rat poison was chosen because it was clear from
discussions with community groups working in poorer areas of U.S. cities that
rats are a major problem for residents. She pointed to the fact that there are
10 rats for every person living in New York City. The problem is considered so
grave that a "Rat Summit" was organized recently in the city.
The shipment carrying Biorat also included small solar panels manufactured
in Cuba.
The Customs Service would not comment on whether or not the panels were
allowed into the country. Pastors for Peace said that the panels were allowed
through the Customs checkpoint near Falfurrias, Texas.
The group said it intends to install the panels at a Hoopa native
reservation in Northern California that does not have electricity. | 
