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Cuba's Elian Delegation Hands in U.S. Visa Requests
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba formally requested visas on Monday for a proposed 28-member delegation led by shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez' father to take charge of him in the United States.
``We have received 28 passports and applications,'' a spokesman for the U.S. Interests Section in Havana told Reuters.
The spokesman could not say how long the requests would take to process, nor if the request for the father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, would be considered separately from the rest.
``We have been prepared a long time to give the father a visa, but on the rest of the group, we have to talk about it,'' the spokesman added.
Havana is proposing that the group take charge of Elian in Washington while a four-month-old custody battle over the 6- year-old boy winds through in U.S. courts. The father has also offered to travel alone to the United States if Washington could guarantee he would immediately bring his son
home.
Castro: Elian's Dad May Come Monday
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA, 3 (AP) - In an apparent bid to show flexibility in the campaign to return Elian Gonzalez to Cuba, President Fidel Castro said today the boy's father has offered to travel alone to the United States to pick up his 6-year-old son.
However, a group trip with the boy's relatives and classmates appeared more likely than a solo trip by his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
Gonzalez, the boy's stepmother, his baby half-brother, a dozen classmates and some adults applied for American visas today at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, the American mission here. The group would be ready to leave for the United States as soon as Tuesday, Castro said.
A U.S. government official confirmed that requests for 28 American visas, along with the accompanying 28 Cuban passports for the would-be travelers, were turned over to the U.S. Interests Section this morning.
Continuing the government's campaign to marginalize Elian's Miami relatives and their supporters in the Cuban-American exile community as intransigent rebels, the Communist workers daily Trabajadores ran an editorial day describing Miami as a ``banana republic'' characterized by ``disorder,
corruption, ungovernability, and lack of social discipline.''
Gonzalez said he would go get his son alone if U.S. authorities promised they would turn Elian over to him immediately and allow them to fly back to Cuba right away, Castro said Sunday.
``I am willing to leave tomorrow, absolutely alone and transport myself to where the child is,'' Castro read from a letter signed by Gonzalez.
``Only the government of the United States can decide if it prefers this variant,'' continued the letter, which Castro read on a state television station broadcast.
Gonzalez for months refused requests by Elian's Miami relatives to go to the United States to claim the boy.
At the same time, the lawyers for the boy's relatives in Miami said they might try to argue that his father is an unfit parent.
The White House has said there is no evidence of unfitness, and the father's lawyer, Gregory Craig, said the ``outrageous'' allegations were a sign the Miami relatives were getting desperate.
It was unclear if American authorities would give the Cubans the 28 visas they have proposed. The group would not leave until Gonzalez had assurances that American authorities would give him custody of his son.
The plan is for him and other members of the delegation to stay in Washington at the homes of Cuban diplomats while awaiting the results of a federal court appeal by Elian's Miami relatives, who have temporary custody of him and are seeking to block his return to Cuba.
In another dramatic move, Castro announced that the chief of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington was willing to revoke the diplomatic immunity on his residence, where Cuba has proposed Gonzalez stay with Elian and the rest of his family during the federal appeal - which could take as long
as a month or two.
Castro said that if those who oppose returning Elian to Cuba are worried about turning the child over to ``what is considered Cuban territory, then our Interests Section is willing to renounce diplomatic immunity of the residence of the chief of this section in Washington.''
Elian has been at the center of an international tug-of-war since he was rescued off the coast of Florida in late November. His mother was among 11 people who died after they boat sank during the attempted crossing from Cuba to the United States.
Elian's Miami relatives are fighting to keep the boy in the United States, saying they can give him a better life off the communist island. Gonzalez has demanded his rights as the child's sole surviving parent and wants Elian returned to him.
In its latest deadline, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has given the Miami relatives until 9 a.m. Tuesday to sign a paper promising to turn over the boy to immigration authorities if they lose their federal court appeal.
The Miami relatives thus far have refused to sign the document, and in recent days said they would not turn Elian over to his father if he came to the United States. Earlier, they had said they would give the boy to Gonzalez if he made the trip.
Before his Sunday night address, Castro played the affectionate grandfather to the 12 first-graders proposed to go on the trip, assuring them that their planned trip to Washington to retrieve their little friend was a very important mission.
Patting some of the kids on the head, Castro assured them that they formed a powerful ``commando.''
``Not even the Pentagon can handle these kids,'' he joked. "We are hoping that they get their visas.''
Elian's Miami Kin Say Dad Is Unfit
By Laura Meckler , Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON, 3 (AP) - Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez and their allies are questioning whether the boy's father is a fit parent as time runs out in their battle to retain custody of the 6-year-old refugee.
The White House and the father's attorney insist that the boy belongs with his father, but lawyers for the relatives suggested Sunday there is evidence he is unfit to care for the small child.
A Miami lawyer who on Sunday had said the father told Elian via telephone that his mother was alive and waiting for him in Cuba, acknowledged today she had heard no such remark. ``We're sure he loves his own son and we know Elian loves his father,'' Linda Osberg-Braun, an attorney for the boy's
relatives, said on CBS' ``The Early Show.''
The boy was pulled from the Atlantic last November after his mother and 10 other people drowned while fleeing Cuba. Since that time, Elian has been with Miami relatives.
``We believe (the father) Juan Miguel (Gonzalez) is completely under the gun of the Castro regime,'' said Osberg-Braun. ``We think they are putting him up to psychological warfare and tactics against his own son.''
A State Department official said the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana received visa applications this morning from 28 Cubans in the Gonzalez case, presumably including the father and grandparents.
Gregory Craig, who represents the father, said he expected the father to get a visa today to come to the United States. ``We really don't think there's any excuse for any more delay between the time these two can be reunited, the father and son,'' Craig told CBS.
Talks between government lawyers and representatives of the Miami relatives were resuming today, against a Justice Department-set Tuesday deadline for a signed agreement by the family to turn Elian over for return to Cuba if it loses a custody battle in court.
In Havana, Cuban President Fidel Castro said Elian's father was willing to travel alone to the United States today if officials promised to turn over the boy to him and let them return to Cuba right away.
The boy's great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, issued a statement Sunday in Miami inviting Juan Gonzalez, his wife and their baby son to ``spend time with us as a family, to begin a process of interaction with Elian under circumstances that are best for him.''
``Our goal is to reunite Elian and his father,'' said Maria Cardona, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. ``Suffice it to say, the issue is not whether we will transfer Elian to his father, but when and how.''
Manny Diaz, an attorney for the boy's relatives, said the federal court and Clinton administration have been presented evidence relating to the father's fitness as a parent, but he declined to detail it.
``One of the lawyers on our team met with the attorney general at the beginning of this process and raised those types of concern,'' Diaz said on ABC's ``This Week.''
But Craig said the family is just now raising the issue after months of acknowledging that Gonzalez was a loving man. ``It's outrageous,'' he said on CNN.
The family's arguments come as the Justice Department insists the relatives agree to surrender Elian if they lose their pending court case.
It has given the relatives until Tuesday to sign such a promise and has threatened to revoke the boy's permission to be in this country if they do not agree. That deadline has already been extended twice.
Family members want to preserve their option to keep up the legal fight even if they lose their case in federal court. They also want a family court, which considers a child's best interests, to hear the case.
The Miami relatives have said they will surrender the boy if INS agents show up at their door and demand him. Federal officials hope to avoid that.
White House chief of staff John Podesta stressed that the administration believes Elian should be with his father, who wants him back in Cuba.
``A child belongs with his natural parent unless that parent's unfit,'' Podesta said on CBS' ``Face the Nation.'' ``We have no indication that Elian's father is an unfit parent.''
Public sentiment around the country leans toward sending Elian back to Cuba to be with his father, according to an ABC News-Washington Post poll released over the weekend. In that poll, about six of 10 Americans said the boy should be returned to his father, while a third said he should stay in
the United States. In December just under half said he should be returned to Cuba and one in five had not made up their mind.
The sentiment to return the boy was spread across the political spectrum with almost two-thirds of independents taking that position, six in 10 Democrats and more than half the Republicans. The poll was taken Thursday through Saturday of 930 adults and has an error margin of plus or minus 3.5
percentage points.
Supportive members of Congress backed the attorneys' theories. Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., said the father should not be allowed unrestricted visitation with his son unless a court grants him the right.
Others forcefully disagreed. Conservative Rep. Steve Largent, R-Okla., said Elian should be returned to Cuba right away.
``If my little boy ... was lost, what position does a court have to come in and start evaluating whether I'm a fit father or not?'' he said on Fox.
Meanwhile, President Clinton said he was optimistic a resolution could be found.
``There are a lot of people on both sides of this issue who are more concerned with what is in the best interest of the child than the larger political issues involving Castro and Cuba,'' he told reporters Sunday while flying on Air Force One to Las Vegas.
``That ... gives me hope we can find a principled resolution that is not just a train wreck for the child, a train wreck for the rule of law or a train wreck for all concerned. We'll see. I'm hopeful.''
Russian Defector Supports Elian
By Wilson Ring , Associated Press Writer.
MIAMI, 1 (AP) - Walter Polovchak, once the object of an international custody dispute, has met with Elian Gonzalez for the first time and says he understands how the 6-year-old feels.
``I think he knows the difference between freedom and not having freedom,'' Polovchak said at the end of a 45-minute meeting Sunday. ``You don't have to get hit by a car to know it's painful.''
Two decades ago, Polovchak defied his parents and chose to stay in the United States while they returned to the Ukraine, then a part of the Soviet Union.
As a 12-year-old defector, Polovchak listed Jell-O and bananas as top reasons for wanting to stay in the United States. But what he really was expressing was a love of freedom, he says. He marveled at walking in a grocery store and plucking things from the aisles; he was used to long lines and
small rations.
Polovchak's refusal to return to the Ukraine with his parents set off a 51/2-year custody battle that didn't end until he turned 18 and was granted U.S. citizenship. He's now an office manager in Chicago, is married and has a 6-year-old son of his own.
He has been following Elian's case since the boy was found clinging to an inner tube off Florida's coast on Thanksgiving Day. The boy's mother and 10 others died when their boat sank two days earlier during an attempt to reach the United States.
Polovchak said he volunteered to come to Miami and his way was paid by a California doctor with no connection to the Cuban exile community.
Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez, visibly frustrated over the attention focused on the boy, said Elian was in good spirits when he and family members went to church Sunday morning. But when the family returned later from an afternoon county fair, Elian seemed tired.
``He's a little bit stressed out,'' said Elian's cousin Marisleysis Gonzalez.
Polovchak said the best solution for Elian might be for his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, to come with his wife and young son to live with him in the United States, rather than fighting to take him back to Cuba.
He said he understood the pressures of being a child caught in a tug of war between competing ideologies.
``I was looked at as a traitor to my country,'' he said. ``My father was under a lot of pressure to return. Elian's father is under tremendous pressure, too.''
Elian's Classmates May Come to U.S.
By Vivian Sequera , Associated Press Writer.
CARDENAS, Cuba 1 (AP) - ``Washington is up there, in the sky,'' the 6-year-old tells his classmates, pointing toward the ceiling of their classroom. Most of them collapse in giggles.
The 12 first graders, classmates of Elian Gonzalez, are preparing for the biggest adventure of their short lives: to travel on an official Cuban government tour to the U.S. capital to pick up their absent friend.
It still remains unclear if the trip will come off.
Some American officials have been put off by the communist government's proposal to send a dozen of the boy's classmates with his father to spend as long as a month or more in the United States. The idea is to make Elian feel as comfortable and loved as possible while an appeal by his Miami
relatives plays itself out in the federal court appellate system.
The government has not yet applied for the visas for the schoolchildren, Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, told The Associated Press on Friday. Plans also call for Alarcon to go on the trip as an adviser.
But if the children do get the visas, they're ready.
Their parents have given their consent. Each child has visited the doctor and dentist, and has received clothes, a suitcase, a toothbrush and other items for the trip.
``I'm going, we are all going, to get him and to put him on the plane,'' Elian's best friend and deskmate Hanser Muniz, 6, said as he sat in the classroom in Cardenas, a two-hour drive east of Havana.
He and the other children worry about Elian, who hadn't yet learned all his letters and was still unable to count to 20 when he was discovered floating in an inner tube off the coast of Florida last November. They wonder if he has been able to learn those things at his school in Miami, if he is
confused by lessons in English.
All are sure he will come back someday and are saving his seat for him. ``This desk is untouchable,'' read the letters on a white cloth draped on his little school desk.
Eleven people including Elian's mother, who was divorced from his father, died when their boat sank during the illegal crossing from Cuba to the United States.
The boy's Miami relatives, who were given temporary custody of the child after the accident, are fighting to keep him in the United States, saying they can give him a better life off the communist island.
But Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, is demanding his parental rights and fighting to return the child to his homeland. Last week, President Fidel Castro announced that the father was ready to travel to the United States to claim his boy as soon as U.S. officials give assurances that he
would be given custody.
The father, accompanied by 30 others including the first graders, would stay with Elian in the United States during the federal court appeal, Castro said. Each member of the entourage would be ``indispensable'' in helping Elian readapt to his former life in Cuba.
But there are obstacles to this plan.
In Miami, the boy's great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, has refused to sign a promise to officials of the Immigration and Naturalization Service that he will surrender Elian if he and his family lose their court battle.
The parents of Elian's classmates in Cardenas said authorities approached them two weeks ago about the possibility of the trip, asking them not to tell their sons and daughters until plans were firm. All interviewed by the AP said they supported sending their children.
``This is not a trip like Elian's trip ... in a bad boat,'' said Ada Gonzalez, mother of 6-year-old Reynaldo. ``They will be very well taken care of.''
Like mothers everywhere, they worry they will miss their little ones. Or that their children will grow homesick. But they see the trip as a great opportunity for their boys and girls.
``This is a mission I cannot undertake,'' said Susana Fernandez, whose son Jonny is among the children chosen for the trip. ``Since I cannot go, I would like him to be able to.''
Miami Cubans Flex Political Muscle
By David Crary , Ap National Writer.
MIAMI, 1 (AP) - In boxing terms, South Florida's Cuban-American community punches above its weight, especially in a presidential election year.
Critics say militant anti-Castro leaders are abusing this influence in their fight to keep 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez in Miami.
Cuban-Americans insist their hard-nosed approach is simply democracy at work.
``We're an example of a community that gets involved in the political process,'' said Jorge Mas Santos, chairman of the powerful Cuban American National Foundation. ``It's nothing to be embarrassed about.''
The majority of the Miami area's 800,000 Cuban-Americans oppose the Clinton administration's efforts to return Elian to the custody of his Cuban father.
Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites), competing against George W. Bush (news - web sites) for Florida's 25 electoral votes this fall, has broken with the administration by supporting permanent U.S. residency for the boy.
It's a move David Abraham, an immigration law professor at the University of Miami, characterized as ``shameless pandering.''
``But it's not hard to explain,'' Abraham said. ``How much there is to gain from supporting Cuban-Americans is an open question, but it's obvious how much there is to lose. There is no constituency for Fidel Castro.''
Anti-Castro leaders, Abraham says, are still waging a 40-year-old civil war and ``holding other Cuban-Americans hostage'' in the process.
``They're not learning about the rule of law as a way of life, they're not learning about democracy more generally,'' he said. ``They are a captive community.''
Elian has been a galvanizing symbol for Cuban-Americans since he was found floating at sea Thanksgiving Day and placed in the temporary custody of Miami relatives. His mother and 10 other people drowned when their boat capsized during an attempt to reach the United States.
Florida politicians, including its Democratic and Republican U.S. Senators, have generally supported the efforts to keep Elian in the United States even though normal U.S. policy would call for prompt reunification of a child with his surviving parent.
``Some of this stuff is unheard of - giving citizenship to a 6-year-old when his custodial parent wants him back,'' said Berta Hernandez-Truyol, a Cuban-born professor of human-rights law at the University of Florida.
``But Cuba is unique. It's a Cold War relic - it's still Cold War politics,'' she said. ``The people came here because they say there's no rule of law in Cuba. And yet they want to throw out the book of law here.''
Last week, Miami-Dade County's Cuban-American mayor, Alex Penelas, took a particularly defiant tone, saying the Clinton administration would bear the blame if violence broke out during any attempt by federal agents to remove Elian from his relatives' Miami house.
Penelas also said police would not assist federal agents. To Jean-Robert La Fortune, a leader of Miami's 150,000-member Haitian community, this kind of talk verges on ``an act of secession.''
``If the federal government allows a local government to be so defiant publicly, we'd see that other minorities would try do the same thing,'' he said. ``It's mind-boggling.''
La Fortune and Leonie Hermantin, executive director of the Haitian-American Foundation, both complained that the Justice Department's preoccupation with Elian has diverted attention from the fate of illegal Haitian immigrants. Some Haitian parents face deportation even though their U.S.-born
children are entitled to remain.
``The policy-makers have turned a blind eye on the plight of our children,'' said Hermantin. Yet she sounded envious, not resentful, toward the Cuban-Americans.
``It's great to have that clout,'' she said. ``I admire the Cuban community which has been able in such a short time to amass such power. They're my role model.''
Jorge Mas Santos says the Haitians should take pointers from the Cuban-American lobby.
``They need to get involved,'' he said. ``That's the American way. When we think there's something wrong, we go to Washington to try to fix it.''
Jose-Miguel Vivanco, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Americas division, said politicians' acquiescence to the Cuban-American lobby can sometimes be harmful. Elian's case, for example, could backfire on American parents trying to recover their children from foreign countries, he said.
``Many of those campaigning to keep this little boy in the U.S. are just going after a political benefit,'' Vivanco said. ``The Cuban-American community is so influential, so powerful ... the politicians, instead of leading the debate and making tough choices, are willing to just follow.''
Elian's Kin Won't Give Boy to Dad
By Mildrade Cherfils , Associated Press Writer.
MIAMI, 1 (AP) - Elian Gonzalez's relatives here are fearful that an entourage of classmates, doctors and other officials seeking permission to travel to the United States with the boy's father could cause more harm than good.
They no longer are willing to hand over the 6-year-old to his father if he comes to Florida to await the outcome of their court appeal to keep the boy in the United States.
While Juan Miguel Gonzalez would be welcome to visit his son at the Little Havana home of his Miami relatives, no Cuban officials would be allowed past the front gate, said Eduardo Rasco, an attorney representing Lazaro Gonzalez, the boy's great-uncle.
``We certainly are vehemently opposed to allowing Juan Miguel to come here, take the child and put him in isolation where they can start indoctrinating him,'' Rasco said Friday.
Gregory Craig, a Washington lawyer representing Elian's father, said his client will travel to the United States as soon as he is assured by the Immigration and Naturalization Service that he will be given custody of his son. The lawyer said he also will seek permission for the boy's classmates,
teacher and doctors to travel to the United States.
Armando Gutierrez, a spokesman for the Miami relatives, said the strategy is ``harming'' talks with the INS, which have ended for the week with no agreement. He did not elaborate.
U.S. officials were examining visa regulations to determine how many of the 31 would-be companions would be able to join Elian's father. There are strict eligibility limits for Cuban visas.
Lazaro Gonzalez has refused to sign a promise to officials of the INS that he will surrender Elian if he and his family lose their court battle.
Unable to reach an agreement, the INS has threatened to revoke the boy's residency status, but twice this week pushed back the deadline, now set for 9 a.m. Tuesday.
Kendall Coffey, another attorney for the Miami relatives, said officials would have to come to the Little Havana house to get Elian, but relatives would not resist if they tried to take the boy.
A Justice Department official said Friday that Juan Miguel Gonzalez will probably be given custody of Elian if he comes to the United States, though the official also said it is uncertain whether that would happen right away.
``If Elian's father comes to this country, it's likely we will transfer custody of Elian to him. This is consistent with our goal of reuniting them, which was upheld by the district court,'' the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The father has requested a visa to come to the United States for as long as it takes to complete the court case. A federal appeals court in Atlanta has scheduled arguments for May 11.
Elian spent Friday with a teacher who has been home-schooling him. His relatives have said they were keeping Elian home out of fear he could be taken away while in school.
He apparently was unaware of the two dozen demonstrators outside who stood for hours in the 90 degree heat, some holding signs, as the Cuban national anthem played on a sound system.
The day ended with six of Elian's supporters pitching an overhead tent and declaring themselves on a hunger strike.
``We're going to stand with the boy,'' said K.A. Paul, one of the strikers.
Four protesters remained Saturday morning while Elian played with a white rabbit in the family's yard.
Elian has been at the center of an international custody battle since November, when he was rescued from waters off the Florida Coast. His mother and 10 others died when their boat sank en route to the United States from Cuba.
U.S. Executives To Visit Havana
HAVANA, 31 (AP) - Dozens of representatives of American firms are planning to visit the communist island as part of a U.S.-Cuba Business Summit, organizers announced here Friday.
The business executives will meet with Cuban cabinet-level ministers in Cancun, Mexico, on June 7 and 8, then fly to Havana to meet with representatives of state-owned businesses and more government officials.
Cristobal, an Italian firm with offices in Havana, organized the event at the request of Alamar Associates, a Washington-based consulting firm that had set up three previous summits. Alamar said the U.S. government has refused it permission to hold the gathering in communist Cuba.
Under the U.S. embargo against Cuba in place for nearly four decades, the Treasury Department regulates spending on the island by American firms and individuals.
Gore Support May Change Elian Bill
By Tom Raum , Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON, 1 (AP) - Heartened by Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites)'s unexpected support, sponsors of a bill to grant Elian Gonzalez and his family permanent U.S. residency are hoping for a surge in support. But don't count on it, a White House spokesman suggests.
Deputy White House press secretary Jake Siewert said support for the legislation still seems slight, despite Gore's backing.
Was the White House threatening a veto? ``We believe that is unnecessary,'' given the lack of support, Siewert said Friday.
Even so, supporters welcomed Gore's break with the administration.
At issue is a bill by Sens. Bob Smith, R-N.H., Bob Graham, D-Fla., and Connie Mack, R-Fla., to give Elian permanent residency status in the United States. It was proposed this week as a compromise after an earlier bill to give the boy U.S. citizenship languished in both the House and the Senate
for lack of support.
The new version also would extend permanent residency status to Elian's father and five other family members now living in Cuba should they come to the United States. Residency is a step short of citizenship.
Graham said Gore's support ``certainly helps'' the bill. ``There will be significant Democratic support,'' he said. Gore's support for the legislation had been evolving for some time and shouldn't have caught anyone by surprise, the Florida Democrat added.
But Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said he had only a few hours' notice of Gore's intentions.
``I was surprised. We were notified in advance. But I was surprised,'' Daschle said.
He said he disagrees completely with the vice president. ``What is best for the child is for him to be reunited with his father as soon as possible in the most calm environment we can create,'' he said.
Daschle said he didn't know whether Gore's position would translate into more support for the bill.
``The circumstances, I should say, are rapidly changing, and I don't know at this point whether anybody's done an accurate head count on what the votes might be,'' he said. ``Anything is possible.''
Gore also apparently didn't tell President Clinton directly.
``His office spoke to the chief of staff's office, and we let the president know,'' said Siewert, the White House spokesman. Was Clinton upset?
``I don't think the president's angry at all,'' Siewert replied. ``We've said for some time now that the president and the vice president would occasionally differ on issues, particularly as the vice president makes his views known as he begins to run for the presidency himself, and that's to be
expected.''
The legislation would have the immediate effect of allowing Elian to stay in the United States while a Miami family court decides his custody.
The Justice Department wants to return the boy to his father in Cuba. Discussions between immigration officials and the boy's Miami relatives, who want to keep him in Florida, are to resume Monday.
The boy has become the center of an international custody battle since he was found last November clinging to an inner tube in the Atlantic after a shipwreck. His mother died in the accident.
The Elian Effect
By Ayaz Nanji. ABCNEWS.COM. Friday March 31 03:38 PM EST
Despite the heated rhetoric over Elian Gonzalez, experts on Latin America say that the controversy probably won’t seriously harm the tenuous — but growing — relations between the two countries.
"When the Elian story broke I thought that it had the potential to be very destructive to U.S.-Cuba relations," says Julia Sweig, Deputy Director of Latin American Studies for the Council on Foreign Relations.
"However, so far it hasn’t seriously worsened bilateral relations."
Sweig notes that, while some legislative proposals dealing with Cuba have been postponed, the controversy has not halted shipments of food and medicine, dialogue between the nations or visits to Cuba by large delegations of American businessmen.
"The Elian Gonzalez case has actually led to further discussions between the nations about issues like refugees and drug smuggling," says Sweig. "There has even been increased dialogue about security issues in the Florida straight."
Fascination, Not Fear
Nicholas Robins, director of the Cuban Studies Institute at Tulane University, says that most Americans seem more interested, not afraid, of Cuba.
"My experience has been that there is an absolute fascination with Cuba in the U.S. right now, there is a tremendous interest in anything Cuban such as music or cigars," says Robins. "There also is a growing interest in traveling and investing in Cuba."
For Robins, the Elian Gonzales incident is less about a conflict between the countries and more of a reflection of long-standing domestic issues within the U.S. and Cuba. Specifically, in explaining the U.S. stance on the issue, Robins points to the influence of a large group of anti-Castro
Cuban-Americans living mainly in Florida.
"If Elian were from Haiti, he would have been repatriated a long time ago," says Robins. "A friend told me that recently at a conference, and I think it illustrates the point that a powerful group of Cuban-Americans are able to affect domestic discussion on Cuba. Most
Americans want to travel to Cuba, most Americans support returning him to his father, but that is not happening."
Picking the Fight Carefully
In terms of Cuba, experts note that the vehement anti-American statements made by Fidel Castro in relation to Gonzalez seemed to stem from domestic political necessity rather than a real attempt to critique the United States.
"Castro gained power by playing upon anti-American, anti-imperialist, sentiments," says Ana Dopico, a Professor of Latin American Studies at New York University. "To stay in power he needs to maintain that oppositional nature of Cuba, so in the case of Elian Gonzalez he is
beating that horse."
Yet, while he has manipulated anti-American feelings, Castro has also been skillful in wording his rhetoric.
"Castro has been careful to not attack President Clinton or the U.S. government too directly," says Dopico. "If things are to eventually open up in Cuba he wants to be the one who wants to be at the center of the action. He’s almost responding more to the Cuban exiles in
Miami — it’s a very strategic engagement."
Ultimately, like Robins, Dopico sees the Gonzalez controversy as a rhetorical revival of outdated ideas, not a real conflict between two states.
"Elian may be the last battle of the Cold War," she says. "This won’t change anything on an international level, it is just the symbolic theater of politics."
Miami Activists Continue Elian Vigil
By David Crary, Ap National Writer.
MIAMI, 31 (AP) - Day after day, night after night, they stand vigil near the small white house: Cuban-Americans whose lives are now devoted to a 6-year-old boy they don't even know.
``I believe this kid has a call from God,'' said Aida Taylor, one of the faithful hoping their presence will somehow ensure that Elian Gonzalez is not sent back to Cuba.
They are a hardy group. Rita Oliva, 32, fainted in the midday heat this week but rejected the urgings of a fire-and-rescue team to go to a hospital.
``I said, `No, I don't want to go,''' Oliva recounted later, resting weakly in a folding chair, a small satchel next to her with a change of clothes. ``I'll stay here as long as I need to stay.''
A metal police barricade keeps the crowd a few car lengths from Elian's house. They wave and applaud whenever the boy emerges. Sometimes he waves back.
Taylor, who emigrated from Cuba as a 15-year-old in 1969, has been outside the home in Miami's Little Havana almost daily since Elian's arrival in late November.
The boy was placed in the temporary custody of his great-uncle after surviving, alone, a shipwreck that killed his mother and 10 other Cubans fleeing toward Florida. The Miami relatives are resisting federal efforts to return Elian to his father in Cuba.
Like many Cuban-Americans, Taylor believes Elian's survival was a sign from God.
``He was two days in the water - the dolphins helped him,'' she said. ``Only God can do that.''
The size of the crowd outside Elian's house varies, sometimes more than 100 in the cool of the evening, sometimes just a half-dozen or so spending the whole night. They wave Cuban flags, sing Cuba's national anthem and chant obligingly whenever a television news crew wants some rousing footage
for a live feed.
Activists distribute anti-Castro fliers and yell through bullhorns. T-shirts are on sale, bearing a picture of Elian and the words, in English and Spanish: ``This child has a right to liberty.''
Tempers can flare quickly. A group of non-Hispanic journalism students from Broward Community College retreated hastily Thursday night when members of the crowd bristled at being photographed and starting chanting, ``Go home, communists.''
Some of the regulars sit quietly in folding chairs beside a motorboat in a front yard within sight of Elain's house. Others, like Jorge Gonzalez, are self-appointed organizers, bustling about like political operatives.
Gonzalez, equipped with cell phone, pager and walkie-talkie, was asked what would happen if federal agents tried to force their way through protesters to extricate Elian from the house.
``Real trouble,'' he replied, a slight grin on his grizzled face.
On Thursday, dozens of activists rehearsed resistance tactics outside the house, linking arms in a human chain that would be formed in the event of a federal attempt to remove the boy.
Even some of the oldest Cuban-Americans in the vigil said they would willingly be arrested if it would help Elian stay.
``Yes, I would do it,'' said Danilo Lopez, 72, a retired doctor who has been coming daily to Elian's house. ``I believe that if we weren't here every single day, every single night, the child would have been back in Cuba three months ago.''
Lopez came to Florida from Cuba in 1969, after a bitter five-year attempt to emigrate. He said Cuban authorities punished him for applying to leave by cutting his salary in half and increasing his work load.
``I was working like a slave,'' he said. ``Why I didn't go to prison, I don't know. I was hot at them.''
Aida Taylor also is prepared to be jailed, though she hopes for a peaceful outcome.
``This is spiritual warfare,'' she said. ``I believe the power of God will do something. I'm expecting a miracle.''
For many of the activists, devotion to Elian is virtually inseparable from a visceral hatred of Fidel Castro. They call him a child-murderer, a maniac, sometimes in obscene terms.
Oliva, who came to the United States as a 2-year-old, said she joined the vigil partly on behalf of her mother, who is not healthy enough to participate.
``All my life, my mother has been suffering and crying about the cruelty of Fidel Castro - how my grandfather was executed,'' said Oliva, an artist who also studies psychology at Dade Community College.
``Castro is trying to make this boy go back to the land of hell,'' Oliva said. ``When he goes back, the first thing he has to learn is to hate his mother, because she's a traitor. Talk about trauma.''
In the event of a confrontation outside Elian's home, said Oliva, ``I would not be scared. All I would have to do is think of my grandfather.''
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