NewsMax.com. Friday April 7, 2000; 9:58 AM EDT
The Clinton administration wants Cuban raft boy Elian Gonzalez returned to his rightful father. But Juan Miguel Gonzalez's legal claim to that title may not be as strong as once thought.
Six-year-old Elian, it turns out, was actually born more than two years after Gonzalez divorced the boy's late mother Elisabeth Brotons in 1991, undermining claims that the Cuban hotel worker has an unquestionable right to the boy's custody.
"Juan Miguel and Elisabeth met in junior high and were together, by his estimate, a total of 15 years," reported The Miami Herald on Friday. "They were married in 1985, then divorced in 1991, a decision prompted, according to relatives, by Elisabeth's miscarriages and resulting
depression."
Seven of Brotons' earlier pregnancies ended in miscarriage, which apparently caused Juan Miguel to seek an end to his marriage. But Gonzalez claimed to United States immigration officials that he and his ex-wife decided to continue to try for children two years after their marriage broke up.
Gonzalez has offered no explanation for the strange decision.
Despite Elisabeth's successful pregnancy and Elian's healthy birth, Juan Miguel declined to reconcile the split with his ex-wife, and instead took a new wife who bore him a son last year.
Cuba's state newspaper Granma claims that the divorced couple went to a specialized obstetrics hospital in Havana and, after faithfully following doctor's orders, Elisabeth conceived Elian. But the boy's paternity has never been established scientifically.
Further weakening Juan Miguel's claim on the boy; Brotons had sole legal custody over Elian -- though neighbors in Castro's Cuba say the boy often spent time with his biological father.
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