• Submitted by: admin
• Politics and Government
• 04 / 08 / 2010

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Federal agents have made unannounced visits to the homes of members of a group that visits Cuba each year to protest the U.S. ban against travel to the island, said group members and a lawyer who represents them.

Venceremos Brigade, which has members nationwide and in North Jersey, says that FBI agents earlier this year went to the homes of some of the people who traveled to Cuba with the group last summer in violation of U.S. laws barring trade with the
island and traveling there.

Diego Iniguez-Lopez, a Leonia resident who is the spokesman for the group, said the FBI visits seemed to signal a new crackdown on such trips, which, while unlawful, usually have generated little more than interrogations by U.S. customs officials at U.S. ports of entry as brigade members returned from Cuba and warnings from the U.S. Treasury Department about possible fines.

"The Venceremos Brigade denounces the recent FBI harassment," said Iniguez-Lopez, who was not among those visited by the FBI.

"They will not be intimidated. The brigade intends to continue traveling to Cuba, bringing material aid to the people and facilitating cultural and educational exchange."

‘Right to travel’

Michael Warren, an attorney for the brigade, said FBI agents visited the homes of five people who traveled to Cuba with the group.

Four of the homes were in New York and one was in Minnesota, said Warren, whose office is in Brooklyn. Warren said only one of the people the FBI tried to speak with was home at the time the agents stopped by; they left their business cards at the other homes.

"This really involves the whole question of the First Amendment, the right to travel, which we should all have," Warren said.

"Our Constitution gives us the right of free association without any intimidation."

The FBI said it was familiar with the brigade and its allegations, but declined to comment specifically on them.

"The FBI does not confirm who we talk to or don’t talk to," said Special Agent Richard Kolko, adding that "the FBI does not violate people’s rights by asking them questions."

Warren declined to provide details of what the FBI discussed with the person they found home.

But Iniguez-Lopez said the agents asked the person about where in Cuba the travelers went, with whom they spoke and what they did while there, among other things.

The brigade typically refuses to answer questions from U.S. officials about its Cuba trips, and refers them to their attorneys.

Pastors for Peace, another group that travels to Cuba in violation of the ban to deliver such things as computers and medical supplies, said FBI officials stopped by their office in Manhattan last summer after years of not contacting the organization.

"They said they just happened to be in the neighborhood and thought they’d visit," said the Rev. Lucius Walker, a Tenafly resident and founder and executive director of Pastors for Peace.

The group also refuses to directly provide U.S. officials with information about its Cuba trips, which it calls "peace caravans."

Benito Rivero, a Hackensack restaurateur who was born in Cuba, said he supports normalizing relations with Cuba, but objects to breaking existing U.S. laws to protest the embargo.

"It’s the law. You can’t just say you’re breaking a law because you don’t like it," Rivero said. "These groups that travel there should be prosecuted. I don’t like paying all the taxes that I have to pay every year, but I can’t just decide I’m not
going to pay them to make a point."

E-mail: [email protected]

Source: www.northjersey.com