NEW YORK (AP) --A New Jersey family detained in Cuba for a week without
explanation returned to the United States on Saturday.

Luis Lopez, 46, was held with his wife, mother and daughter after Cuban authorities
seized their passports and visas on March 1.

"I'm very upset," Luis Lopez said after landing Saturday afternoon at Kennedy
International Airport. "They embarrassed me there for no reason."

Sharing an emotional reunion at the airport with other family members, Lopez vowed
he would never again return to Cuba, his homeland.

Family members believed Cuban authorities were retaliating because Lopez's brother
had defected to the United States with his family at the same time the Lopez family
was heading south to visit them on February 23.

The family made the trip several times before without problems, but when they
arrived this time, they could not find Rolando Lopez, his wife, or the couple's
3-year-old daughter.

Luis Lopez called home and learned that his brother and his family had flown to the
United States using false papers.

Luis Lopez had gone to Cuba with his wife, Mireya Lopez, 43; their daughter,
Vanessa Lopez, 6; and Luis's mother, Aida Lopez, 69.

When they prepared to return to the United States, Cuban authorities seized their
papers, family members said.

The documents were returned Friday without explanation.

"In Cuba, you have no freedom," said Lopez, speaking in Spanish as his son
translated. "You are limited in everything you do. It's very sad."

Sen. Robert Torricelli and Rep. Robert Menendez, both New Jersey Democrats,
contacted U.S. diplomats in Cuba seeking information on the detention and pressing
for the family's release.

Menendez said the Cuban government gave no reason for the family's detention or
release.

Copyright 2002 The Associated Press.