BY REBECCA ARENSON
PHILADELPHIA - Shortly after Pope John Paul II left Cuba in January, a panel of religious and community activists spoke out here against U.S. Treasury Department harassment of those who traveled to Cuba on a 1995 trip.

Philadelphia city council member Angel Ortiz pointed to the television coverage of the Pope's visit. "With all the problems they have had, with all the things that the newspapers and media keep saying about the Cuban system and the government, you do not see the pictures of kids with malnutrition. They might have been in poverty," he continued, "but you did not see people going hungry."

Other participants in the January 28 news conference held at the national offices of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) were longtime Black community activist Father Paul Washington, Tom O'Rourke of the Catholic Peace Fellowship, Efrain Cotto of the Hispanic Clergy of Philadelphia, labor and Puerto Rican community activist Wilfredo Rojas, Michelle Rief of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and Richard Erstad, who is the coordinator of the Latin America.

Also speaking at the news conference was Cuba Support Coalition activist Nancy Cole, who received a letter from the U.S. Treasury Department last year demanding she submit information on her 1995 trip to the Cuba Lives! International Youth Festival. A February 5 South Philadelphia Review article reported, "According to the U.S./Cuban Trading Economic Council in New York, 18,750 Americans made unauthorized visits to Cuba in 1997." The article went on to quote Cole, "Obviously the U.S. government is not going to investigate or take action against nearly 19,000 people, but investigations like the one of myself do stand as efforts to intimidate and threaten those who would join the next delegation to Cuba."

The Review article reports that the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York has responded on Cole's behalf, arguing her right not to answer the questions on constitutional grounds. "A phone call to OFAC [Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Treasury Department] was not returned," notes the Review.

Rebecca Arenson is a member of the International Association of Machinists.  
 
 
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