Yahoo! Wednesday April 5
Elian's Father Not Visiting U.S. for Now
HAVANA (Andrew Cawthorne, Reuters) - Cuba ruled out Tuesday an immediate trip to the United States for Elian Gonzalez's father, saying the six travel visas granted by Washington did not meet either of his proposals for taking charge of the boy.
The senior U.S. diplomat in Cuba, Vicki Huddleston, personally handed over earlier Tuesday six stamped passports for Elian's father, stepmother, baby half brother and young cousin, as well as for a kindergarten teacher and a pediatrician.
But that did not satisfy Havana, which said the father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, 31, was still insisting on one of two alternatives: that he go alone to pick up 6-year-old Elian and bring him back immediately or that he lead a 28-member delegation to look after the boy in Washington while the legal
battle finishes.
An official statement read on state television said the father ``remains firm'' on those options, publicly outlined on his behalf by President Fidel Castro in recent days.
Despite granting the six visas and suggesting the father would be given temporary custody once reunited with Elian, the United States has not specifically guaranteed he could bring the boy home immediately to end the 4-month-old saga.
On the alternative proposal, for a 28-member delegation, Washington appears to be balking at granting visas for the other 22 people, who include 12 schoolchildren, doctors, psychiatrists and a senior Cuban official, Ricardo Alarcon.
``Juan Miguel remains firm in the position expressed two days ago ... with options one or two,'' said Cuba's statement, read at the end of a round-table discussion attended by Castro.
``That is to say, travel to the United States absolutely alone to collect the boy and return immediately to Cuba. Or, failing that, to travel to Washington with his family and the people indispensable for receiving the boy and proceeding with his immediate recovery and reinsertion into the
family nucleus while the pending judicial process finishes.''
Father's U.S. Lawyer Flies To Cuba
In another initiative to unblock the logjam, U.S. attorney Gregory Craig, representing the father, apparently flew into Cuba soon after midnight. Craig, was believed to have been whisked away from Havana's international airport in a mini-convoy of Cuban government cars, although he was not seen
by waiting reporters.
A source close to the case in the United States said prior to Craig's departure that he would try and convince Juan Miguel Gonzalez to come with just a small group of five others.
Washington has said the six people with visas can travel at any time but the rest of the group's visa requests are still undergoing a case-by-case review based on ``what we regard to be the national interest.''
Havana's statement Tuesday said Elian's father was insisting on visas for all. ``Equally, he insists on the need for an experienced and totally trusted person to counsel him, as he has never been to (the United States) and knows very little about it,'' the statement added, referring to Alarcon.
The 62-year-old former foreign minister, now president of the National Assembly, is one of the most powerful members of Cuba's communist leadership and a close Castro ally. He is Cuba's point man on U.S. affairs and was personally assigned to the Elian affair early in its development.
Elian has been living with U.S. relatives since November, when he was picked up at sea after surviving 50 hours floating on an inner tube. His divorced mother died with 10 other Cuban migrants fleeing Cuba when their boat sank.
The ensuing family feud over Elian's future quickly escalated into an international political dispute, with Castro's government backing the father's demand for the boy's return and anti-communist Cuban-American groups supporting the wish of Elian's relatives in Miami to keep him there to avoid
his growing up under communist rule.
Castro has made it clear he sees the Elian issue as one of the most important in his four decades of rule, portraying Cuba's case as a patriotic crusade that symbolizes resistance to U.S. ``imperialist'' aggression over the years.
Gore Walks Tightrope on Cuban Case
By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, 4 (AP) - National sentiment supports returning Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba while the politically influential Cuban-American community in Florida desperately wants the 6-year-old boy to stay. It's a situation that has Al Gore (news - web sites) walking a political tightrope.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said Tuesday that the boy's father should be allowed to take his son home ``if the father says on free soil that he believes the son should go back to Cuba with him.'' But Gore also said that a family court should decide custody.
Likely GOP nominee George W. Bush (news - web sites)'s position seems clearer: The question should be decided in family court.
``My own personal judgment is I don't trust the Cubans to let this man make an informed decision,'' the Texas governor told reporters Tuesday. Asked if the boy's father should be allowed to stay in America permanently, Bush said, ``Absolutely.''
Politicians routinely say the boy's case should be above politics. But political scientist Susan MacManus of the University of South Florida says that's impossible on such an emotional issue in a state with 25 electoral votes.
``I think his basic motivation is protecting Florida for Democrats,'' MacManus said of Gore. The situation is politically trickier for him than for Bush, she said, for several reasons - because Democrats have been losing their grip on Florida politics, the administration would actually have a
role in sending the boy back to Cuba and Bush has been more consistent in his position.
The boy's Cuban-American relatives have suggested the boy's fate should be decided in family court or by a panel of psychologists, not by federal immigration officials.
However, almost two-thirds of Americans approve of the government's decision to send the boy back to Cuba to be with his father, according to a Gallup Poll released Tuesday. Just over half of those polled said the Clinton administration is making the decision on the boy based on what it feels is
in the best interest of U.S. relations with Cuba.
Gore finds himself being asked, as he was on NBC's ``Today'' show Tuesday, whether he was pandering to voters in Florida when he split from the Clinton administration last week concerning legislation that would grant ``permanent resident'' status to the boy and his immediate family, allowing
them to stay in this country while his case is decided in the courts.
Gore said his position hadn't actually changed.
His backing of legislation seeking permanent residency for the boy and his family brought protests from some Democratic lawmakers worried about the feelings of immigrant populations outside Miami who might want the same thing.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas, a Democratic Cuban-American, said he thinks Gore is not taking that position for political reasons.
``Nationally, it will end up hurting him more than helping him,'' said Penelas. ``Locally it won't help him because most Cuban-Americans vote Republican. I think he's speaking from the heart.''
The vice president says he's been consistent for months, ``that the father and his family should be given visas to come here and state what the father's wishes are.''
But Gore also has consistently said the boy deserves due process in the courts, at the same time he has said the father's wishes for the boy, if stated freely in this country, should determine the case.
Gore said Tuesday on ``Lifetime,'' a cable channel aimed at women, that Elian's case should go to family court regardless of what the father says when he and his family come to the United States, although ``the views of a surviving parent are very persuasive, of course.''
Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said late Tuesday he is uncertain of Gore's position on the case.
``When it comes to the future of Elian Gonzalez, it's becoming increasingly hard to understand what Al Gore believes in or what he thinks should be done,'' Fleischer said.
Visas were issued Tuesday in Havana to the boy's father and immediate family, but it was unclear when the family would fly to this country or how they would be reunited with the boy.
Elian is viewed by many in Miami's Cuban-American community as a ``miracle child'' after his mother drowned trying to bring him to Florida and he was found on an inner tube in November.
President Clinton and Gore won Florida in 1996, the first time a Democratic ticket had done so in 20 years. Clinton got 40 percent of the Cuban-American vote, including many younger Cuban-Americans, in a bloc that has voted Republican for decades.
Another political element in Florida this year is the Senate race, where Bill Nelson is a strong Democratic candidate running for the seat of retiring Republican Connie Mack. With Democrat Bob Graham holding the other seat, the Senate is a last refuge for Democrats in a state that has seen a GOP
takeover in recent years, including the 1998 election of Gov. Jeb Bush, younger brother of the likely Republican presidential nominee.
``I think he's put himself between a rock and a hard place,'' said political analyst Stuart Rothenberg, who said Gore ``risks adding to the impression that he is 100 percent pure-blood politician, who makes decisions based on political and electoral calculations.''
``This may put him in play in Florida, but most Cuban-Americans in Florida will prefer someone named Bush.''
Elian Case Stuck in Dispute
By Alex Veiga, Associated Press Writer.
MIAMI (AP) - The Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez and government officials are stuck when it comes to deciding how the boy would be returned to his father - if and when he arrives to claim his son.
The reunion between Elian and Juan Miguel Gonzalez is one of two issues in dispute between attorneys for the relatives and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, a government official said Tuesday on condition of anonymity.
The other is whether Elian's father, who has been granted a visa by the U.S. government, would stay in the United States until the relatives complete their federal court case seeking to keep the 6-year-old boy in Miami.
Talks are suspended until Thursday. But INS officials said this week that once Elian's father arrives in the United States they will go about turning the boy over to him.
Gregory Craig, a lawyer for Elian's father, arrived in Cuba early today. A source close to the case said Craig would try and persuade his client to come to the United States.
Fernando Remirez, head of the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington, said Elian's father's U.S. travel depends on ``the assurance he will get temporary custody.''
In a statement read on Cuban state television Tuesday, the father said he would either travel alone to pick up his boy and return to Cuba immediately, or go with all the people he considers ``indispensable'' if he must stay to wait out a federal appeal.
The U.S. State Department has granted visas to Juan Miguel Gonzalez, his wife and their infant son, as well as a cousin, a kindergarten teacher and a pediatrician. The agency said it was also reviewing visa requests from 22 other Cubans, including 12 of Elian's classmates and Ricardo Alarcon, a
top adviser to Fidel Castro on U.S. issues.
The developments come amid growing tension surrounding the Miami home of Lazaro Gonzalez, the boy's great-uncle who was granted temporary custody after the boy was rescued in November from a Thanksgiving shipwreck that killed his mother and 10 others.
Anti-Castro demonstrators surged through a police barricade and formed a human chain around the home. Many vowed to risk arrest rather than see the boy returned to Cuba.
Last month, a federal judge affirmed an INS ruling that Elian belongs with his father in Cuba. The Miami relatives have taken their case to a federal appeals court in Atlanta. Arguments are scheduled for May.
The relatives also want an independent psychiatrist or psychologist to advise the INS on how Elian's mental state would be affected if he is removed from the care of his great-uncle.
The U.S. government is willing to have psychologists help design the transfer of Elian to his father's care, but the relatives have insisted that such a panel decide whether the boy should be turned over.
Linda Osberg-Braun, an attorney for Lazaro Gonzalez, said her client wanted to make sure any INS move to reunite Elian with his father ``is done in a healthy manner, not just an expeditious manner.''
``(INS) must take action in an appropriate way so that they cannot harm Elian Gonzalez in any kind of way,'' she said.
The relatives' lawyers requested extra time Tuesday to consult with the family before resuming negotiations with the INS because the great-uncle is exhausted and overwhelmed and Marisleysis, his daughter, is in the hospital, according to the government official.
Maria Cardona, an INS spokeswoman in Washington, defended the extra time granted to the relatives, and said the INS' goal is to arrange a smooth and orderly transfer of the boy to his father.
``If there is a chance to do this with the cooperation with the family ... we need to exhaust the possibility,'' Cardona said.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Associated Press Writers Michael J. Sniffen and George Gedda in Washington contributed to this report.
Elian Demonstrators Break Barricade
By Mildrade Cherfils, Associated Press Writer.
MIAMI, 5 (AP) - As the Elian Gonzalez custody fight inches toward a conclusion, the house where the Cuban boy is staying has become surrounded angry protesters trying to keep Elian in the United States and media trying to capture the drama.
Hundreds of demonstrators converged Tuesday at the residence of Lazaro Gonzalez, the 6-year-old's great uncle, breaking down barricades and lying in the street to protest U.S attempts to send the boy back to Cuba.
At the same time, the number of news organizations camped outside the home in the Little Havana section of Miami continues to grow, from around the nation and the world.
``It's gone from a family barbecue to a county fair as far as the media,'' said CBS news correspondent Byron Pitts, who has been covering Elian since he was rescued off the Florida coast in November. ``It seems like every week we've seen more cameras.''
On Tuesday, tempers flared as demonstrators learned that Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, had been granted a visa by the U.S. government. Immigration and Naturalization Service officials are hoping to arrange a transfer so the boy can return to Cuba with his father.
``Elian won't go!'' demonstrators chanted as they linked arms around the small house.
There have been emotional protests in the Little Havana neighborhood for months, and anti-Castro groups have called on the city's large Cuban-American community to prepare to form a human chain around the house if necessary.
It has been tense. Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas even said he and the mayors of 22 nearby towns would not help authorities take the boy by force from the home, though they promised to help keep the peace.
Whatever happens, it will be covered by the news media. More than 50 television cameras sharing 15 tents are set up on the block across the street from the home.
On Tuesday afternoon, approximately 200 demonstrators were at the house, trading updates and rumors, some passing out water bottles to help endure the humid, 84-degree heat.
Elian spent most of the day indoors but emerged before noon and played with a small orange football.
About 100 demonstrators pushed through a metal barricade after a rumor spread that federal agents were en route in a bus or van to take Elian away in preparation for a reunion with his father. The crowd of demonstrators grew to about 300 by nightfall, but they remained behind the barricade.
A group of about 100 protesters carrying a 20-foot Cuban flag marched to a nearby main road, where some lay down in the street and blocked traffic for several minutes Tuesday night.
Many demonstrators said they were ready to be arrested for Elian's sake.
``They have to take all of us. We will not move,'' said Marta Lara, 24, a mortgage broker. ``I sincerely hope he feels protected. I don't want him to feel scared.''
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