Yahoo! April 10, 2000
Feds Draft Elian Custody Letter
By Michael J. Sniffen, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON, 7 (AP) - Federal officials drafted a letter Friday telling Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives when they must relinquish the 6-year-old shipwreck survivor they have fought for months to keep. Attorney General Janet Reno reassured the boy's father he will be able to take his son home to
Cuba.
``I am going to have my child soon,'' the solemn-faced father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, told reporters after an hourlong meeting at the Justice Department with his most powerful ally, the attorney general.
``I have been able to explain the suffering that I have been going through and the suffering my son Elian has been going through for the last months,'' the father said in brief remarks in Spanish.
After Gonzalez, his wife, infant son and lawyer described their case in person, Reno pledged in a statement ``to take every step to ensure that a transfer occurs in a fair, prompt and orderly manner.'' Justice aides said the meeting intensified Reno's determination, and that Gonzalez hugged her
and Immigration Commissioner Doris Meissner at the close of the private session.
Meantime, Miami braced for a possible protest tying up rush-hour traffic around its international airport by angry Cuban exiles determined to thwart the boy's return to an island run by Fidel Castro, whose rule they fled.
Elian has been in the temporary care of a great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, and his family since he was found in the Atlantic off Florida last Thanksgiving after his mother drowned as their ship sank during an escape from Cuba.
The immigration service ruled in January that the father has the right to have his son returned. Reno upheld that ruling and so did a federal district court, but the relatives have appealed. A ruling might come by late May.
On Thursday, the relatives broke off days-old negotiations with the government over the transfer of Elian to his father, who arrived from Cuba on Thursday morning.
On Friday, the relatives were to receive a letter from immigration officials announcing that custody of Elian would be transferred to Juan Miguel Gonzalez, probably sometime next week, said Justice officials, speaking on condition that they not be identified.
A second letter was to follow within days instructing them exactly when and where to turn Elian over. Among the locations under consideration for the transfer were federal buildings, universities, schools and churches in the Miami area, officials said.
For weeks, the relatives have said the elder Gonzalez would have to come to their house in Miami's Little Havana section to get Elian. Hundreds of Cuban exiles gathered outside the home have vowed to form a human chain to prevent his removal.
But on Friday, a family lawyer, Manny Diaz, said the Miami relatives might be willing to go elsewhere to meet Juan Miguel Gonzalez so long as government officials did not come along. Two Miami relatives - another of Elian's great-uncles, Delfin Gonzalez, and a cousin, Alfredo Martell - flew to
Washington on Friday to try to see the father and persuade him to come to Miami.
Asked if the father would see them, Fernando Remirez, the top Cuban diplomat in Washington, said: ``It is his choice.'' Gonzalez spent the afternoon at his attorney's office, and Remirez met with him there.
Linda Osberg-Braun, another attorney for the Miami relatives, said Friday morning on NBC's ``Today'' that the relatives would be willing to come to Washington ``in a heartbeat'' to meet with the father.
If the relatives refuse to turn over Elian, the government has two options. It could return to federal court for an order reinforcing its instructions or it could try to remove the boy from Lazaro's home. But the government opposed the second option because of the Cuban exiles camped outside and
the possible impact on Elian of any tumult there.
To entice Lazaro Gonzalez to give up the boy, federal officials offered assurances that father and son would remain in this country until a federal appeals court rules on the case, expected in late May.
Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder acknowledged the government has oral assurances but no written promise from the father that he will stay in this country with Elian until the appeal is completed. But he noted the government could prevent Elian from leaving, if necessary.
At the State Department, spokesman Jamie P. Rubin noted that there are 1,100 cases in which U.S. parents are seeking the return of their children who have been taken abroad. ``We're concerned that a failure to return and reunite Elian with his father quickly could jeopardize our efforts on
behalf of over 1,000 American citizens,'' Rubin said.
Elian Protesters To Clog Fla. Roads
By Alex Veiga, Associated Press Writer.
MIAMI, 7 (AP) - Anti-Casto demonstrators fighting to keep Elian Gonzalez from being returned to Cuba threatened to step up their protests by tying up rush-hour traffic at the Miami airport Friday afternoon.
The airport girded for delays and suggested travelers fly into other Florida cities instead.
The leader of the Cuban-exile Castro Democracy Movement, Ramon Saul Sanchez, urged demonstrators in front of the child's great-uncle's house to crowd the airport's access roads and drive slowly beginning at 4 p.m.
"The campaign of civil disobedience begins,'' Sanchez said. The organization urged nonviolence.
Hours later, though, Sanchez said if Attorney General Janet Reno agreed to ``give Elian a few more days,'' he would ``put the campaign on hold to give space to good will.'' Reno scheduled a 3 p.m. news conference.
Miami International Airport officials said the airport would remain open ``with a lot of police presence.'' But they advised travelers to factor in an extra hour of delay and consider flying into other nearby airports.
``I would choose Fort Lauderdale, if it was up to me,'' Miami airport spokesman Hernando Vergara said.
Miami-Dade police would not go into details about their plans.
Cuban-Americans have held steadily bigger demonstrations over the past few days. Supporters of Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives have poured into his great-uncle's Little Havana neighborhood, honking horns, singing, praying and forming human chains.
``If there's ever been a moment when the Cuban-Americans have been emotional, this is it,'' said Javier Hernandez, 42, a Mexican-American who lives in Miami and was outside the house Friday.
On Jan. 6, the day after the Immigration and Naturalization Service said the child should be returned to his father, hundreds of Cuban-Americans chanting, ``Liberty! Liberty!'' blocked intersections, including at least one near the airport, and cut off access to the Port of Miami. Officers in
riot gear used tear gas to disperse demonstrators. At least 135 people were arrested.
This week's demonstrations intensified after Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, arrived in the United States on Thursday to reclaim his son. The elder Gonzalez met with Reno on Friday morning, and she pledged to work for a ``fair, prompt and orderly'' return of the boy to his father.
Gov. Jeb Bush on Friday expressed confidence the situation could be resolved.
``I think a lot of people are passionate about this because they have suffered at the hands of Fidel Castro,'' he said. ``But I have confidence that we will be able maintain order.''
Gadhafi, Arafat, To Attend Summit
HAVANA, 7 (AP) - Moammar Gadhafi of Libya and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat will join more than 65 other heads of state at a summit of developing nations here next week, officials said Friday.
Known as the South Summit, it is the first gathering of the Group of 77 heads of state and government since the organization was formed in 1963. Originally made up of 77 countries, the group has grown to 133 members.
Kim Yong Nam, president North Korea's parliament and the country's ceremonial head of state will come to Cuba for the summit and an official visit, the North's media reported. Communist North Korea is controlled by Kim Jong Il who took over power from his father and president, Kim Il Sung, who
died of heart failure in 1994.
The presidents of Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia have also confirmed their attendance at the April 10-14 conference.
About half of the heads of state will come from African nations that have friendly relations with communist Cuba, including Namibia, Zambia, Angola, and South Africa.
The summit will try to promote relations among Third World nations, said Arthur Mbanefo, president of the G-77 and Nigeria's ambassador to the United Nations.
``We have not been able to talk with each other,'' Mbanefo said. He also stressed the need for poor nations of the southern part of the globe to improve relations with richer nations located largely in the north.
Mbanefo announced the attendance of Gadhafi, Arafat and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan at the summit in a news conference in Havana.
High ranking officials from G-77 nations will begin meeting on Monday and Tuesday, with leaders to meet Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
In addition to South-South and South-North cooperation, delegates will also discuss the globalization of the world economy, as well as high technology in developing nations.
Reno Turns to Doctors in Elian Case
By Genaro C. Armas, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON (AP) - In his 38 years as a psychiatrist and a consultant in child custody battles, Dr. Jerry Weiner has never seen a case quite like this.
On Friday, Attorney General Janet Reno turned to Weiner, along with two other doctors for their help in determining how, and not if, custody of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez would be transferred from the Miami relatives who have been caring for him the past four months to his father.
Reno invited the Miami relatives to meet with the doctors on Monday, and said further instructions on the transfer would be given later in the week.
``I've been a psychiatrist since 1962. I've worked with custody cases before but nothing like this situation,'' said Wiener, professor emeritus in residence of psychiatry and pediatrics at the George Washington University Medical School in Washington.
``If the family agrees to the proposal that's being made to them ... then we would go meet with them,'' Wiener said. ``We would go to counsel with the family in the most constructive and positive way to do it, and help them to prepare Elian with the transfer.''
Also named by Reno were two New York doctors: Dr. Paulina Kernberg of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, a professor of psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University, and Dr. Loudes Rigual-Lynch of Monterfiore Medical Center, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Albert Einstein
College of Medicine.
Reno said the doctors' role would be to ``to get an assessment from them, and to make recommendations as to how it most can be done, with as little disruption as possible.''
However, the government will ultimately decide how the transfer takes place, she said.
Both Kernberg and Rigual-Lynch declined to comment Friday.
However, Wiener said the doctors' goal was to make Elian's transfer ``as positive as possible.'' He said it was unclear if or when they would travel to Miami, and also added that it was possible they would meet with the father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, this weekend.
Juan Miguel Gonzalez arrived from Cuba on Thursday, and met with Reno on Friday.
Wiener said he has not met with any of the family members yet in the case.
Linda Osburg-Braun, a lawyers for the Miami relatives, contends Elian would be ``irreparably harmed'' if he goes back to Cuba.
``Everything I've read and heard indicates that he is a competent, caring father, I've never heard anything to indicate otherwise,'' Wiener said.
``There is no reason to think there would be any irreparable harm by a return to his father,'' Wiener said. ``I think the fact is the way in which they prepare him for the transfer is what is critically important as to whether or not it's a positive one for him.''
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EDITOR'S NOTE - Associated Press writer Beth Gardiner in New York contributed to this report.
Reno Orders Elian Custody Transfer
By Michael J. Sniffen, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Moved by meeting Elian Gonzalez's father, Attorney General Janet Reno announced Friday officials would arrange next week for him to reclaim his 6-year-old son, but she gave Elian's Miami relatives one more chance to drop their resistance and join in a peaceful transfer.
``The law is very clear,'' she sternly told a Justice Department news conference. ``A child who's lost his mother belongs with the sole surviving parent'' - even a parent who volunteered to her on Friday that he wants to live in Cuba, not the United States.
After talking with Reno earlier in the day, the solemn-faced father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, told reporters: ``I am going to have my child soon.''
In an unexpected move, Reno invited the Miami relatives - who have cared for the young Cuban shipwreck survivor for four months - to meet Monday with two psychiatrists and a psychologist to determine how, not if, the transfer should take place. Transfer instructions will follow later next week.
Reno's announcement prompted angry Cuban exiles, who want to prevent Elian's return to a Cuba ruled by Fidel Castro, to call off a protest designed to snarl rush-hour traffic around Miami's international airport. They said she in effect gave the Miami relatives a few more days with Elian.
``I understand and respect with all my heart the deep-seated beliefs which the Cuban exile community feels on this subject,'' said Reno, who grew up in Miami and was an elected state prosecutor there for 15 years. ``I wholeheartedly reject Cuba's system of government. Mr. Gonzalez and I do not
share the same political beliefs.''
``But it is not our place to punish a father for his political beliefs or where he wants to raise his child,'' Reno said. ``If we were to start judging parents on the basis of their political beliefs, we would change the concept of family for the rest of time.''
The feeling of Elian's father for his son clearly had touched the attorney general during a face-to-face meeting hours earlier Friday at the Justice Department.
``All you had to do was listen to him and look at him and see how much he obviously loves this little boy,'' Reno told reporters.
The father emerged with his new wife, six-month-old son and lawyer from the hourlong meeting with Reno and Immigration Commissioner Doris Meissner and said in Spanish:
``I have been able to explain the suffering that I have been going through and the suffering my son Elian has been going through for the last months.''
Reno later emphasized that no Cuban officials were present at the session, which she called ``open and honest.''
Gonzalez hugged Reno and Meissner at the end of the meeting, Justice aides said.
Reno said the government could have moved anytime since January to return Elian to his father's custody, but it chose instead to give the Miami relatives a chance to challenge the INS decision. They lost that challenge in federal district court.
After that, ``all we asked for was a pledge that the Miami relatives would turn over Elian voluntarily'' if their appeal failed, Reno said. ``They were unwilling to provide us with that assurance.''
Elian has been in the temporary care of a great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, and his family since he was found in the Atlantic off Florida last Thanksgiving after his mother drowned as their ship sank during an escape from Cuba.
On Thursday, the relatives broke off days-old negotiations with the government over the transfer of Elian to his father, who arrived from Cuba on Thursday morning.
Next week, Reno said, the government would send them instructions on where and when they must transfer Elian. She noted that immigration law requires temporary custodians to follow government instructions. Among the locations under consideration were federal buildings, universities, schools and
churches in the Miami area, officials said.
Before that, though, Reno invited the Miami relatives to meet Monday in Miami with psychiatrists Jerry M. Weiner of The George Washington University Medical School and Paulina F. Kernberg of Cornell University Medical College and psychologist Lordes Rigual-Lynch of Montefiore Medical Center in
New York.
She said they had advised the government to reunite the father and son quickly.
On Friday, the relatives appeared to soften their weeks-old insistence that Juan Miguel Gonzalez would have to come to their house in Miami's Little Havana section to get Elian. Hundreds of Cuban exiles gathered outside the home have vowed to form a human chain to prevent his removal.
Family lawyer Manny Diaz said the Miami relatives might be willing to go elsewhere to meet Juan Miguel Gonzalez so long as government officials did not come along. Two Miami relatives - another of Elian's great-uncles, Delfin Gonzalez, and a cousin, Alfredo Martell - flew to Washington on Friday
to try to see the father and persuade him to come to Miami.
Delfin went to the suburban home of a Cuban diplomat where Juan Miguel Gonzalez is staying, but the father refused to see him.
Florida's senators - Republican Connie Mack and Democrat Bob Graham - said they had been asked by Elian's Florida relatives to intervene to set up a meeting Monday, either at Lazaro's Miami home or at a neutral location in Florida or Washington between the father and the Florida relatives. They
had no immediate answer from Juan Miguel's lawyer.
If the relatives refuse to turn over Elian, the government has two options. It could return to federal court for an order reinforcing its instructions or it could try to remove the boy from Lazaro's home. But the government opposed the second option because of the Cuban exiles camped outside and
the possible impact on Elian of any tumult there.
Reno said that if Elian is transferred without the cooperation of the Miami relatives, his father will be free to take him to Cuba immediately. She offered to try to negotiate an agreement for Juan Miguel and Elian to stay until the appeals court rules, in late May, if the relatives cooperate in
a prompt turnover now.
Religious Images Surround Elian
By MILDRADE CHERFILS, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI (AP) - Along the narrow street, the images pop up everywhere: Elian Gonzalez starring in elaborate religious murals. Color-soaked T-shirts depicting the 6-year-old boy in divine contexts.
In the Little Havana neighborhood where the child is staying with his great-uncle, things have taken on a religious flavor - not only because people are praying for him to remain in the United States but because, some say, Elian's entire story is practically biblical.
``No one's ever seen anything like this. He's a miracle child,'' said Elvira Gonzalez, 61, a demonstrator not related to Elian. She compared Elian to Moses, who started life set afloat on a raft in the Nile River before being rescued.
Religious leaders hold prayer vigils nightly, uniting Roman Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical Christians. Paintings and tapestries of Jesus and Elian hang from fences and police barricades. One depicts Christ with his back turned.
A mural near the house of Lazaro Gonzalez, Elian's great-uncle, depicts Elian inside an inner tube in rough seas, surrounded by dolphins. A woman resembling the Virgin Mary stands over him, and a pair of giant outstretched hands reach down from the sky.
Many in the neighborhood say Elian's account of being protected by dolphins while he was floating in the ocean has theological implications.
``God is the only one who can fix everything. God gave his hand to Elian; only God can make it so that Elian stays. And he'll fix everything,'' said Alina Gonzalez, 37, a housewife - also no relation - who has been visiting the house of Elian's great-uncle every day to offer emotional support.
The religious imagery has intensified in recent days. On Wednesday, signs denouncing Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Attorney General Janet Reno came down, replaced by ones that say ``Pray for Elian.'' Demonstrators explained they figured Elian needed prayer, not politics.
On Thursday, demonstrators carried in a 51/2-foot wooden black cross with a bleeding Christ tacked to it. Through the afternoon, people gathered around it to pray.
A pamphlet circulating among the crowd, said to have been published in Cuba, accuses Castro of being obsessed with Santeria, an Afro-Cuban religion. It compares Elian with ``Elegua,'' a chosen child in the religion.
``Elegua, the chosen one - the boy who opens and leads the way - moved away from Fidel and with him went his luck,'' the pamphlet says.
The Miami relatives have spoken of religious imagery as well. Late last month, members of Lazaro Gonzalez's family said they spotted an image they believed to be the Virgin Mary in a bathroom mirror. The family allowed a few reporters inside the house to show them the image; tears flowed down
Lazaro Gonzalez's cheeks as he pointed it out.
Earlier that week, a similar spotting was reported in the window of a Little Havana bank.
Clotilde Martinez, 59, a Cuban who has been here 30 years, said she expects God to intervene if the government tries to return Elian to Cuba.
``If God brought him, God will keep him here,'' she said. ``He can have one foot on the airplane, but that child will not go.''
Church Agency Raises Money for Elian's Father; IRD Responds
SOURCE: Institute on Religion and Democracy
WASHINGTON, April 7 /PRNewswire/ -- A United Methodist Church agency has helped procure a lawyer for the father of little Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez. Unfortunately, that church agency is more interested in protecting the interests of the Cuban government than the interests of Elian or his
family, the IRD spokesman warned.
The United Methodist Board of Church and Society is also raising money to pay this lawyer's legal fees. The Board wants 6-year-old Elian to be taken from his Florida relatives and returned to Cuba with his father. According to the Board's general Secretary, Thom White Wolf Fassett, the Board
hopes to raise $50,000-$100,000 for its ``Humanitarian Advocacy Fund.'' The Board is the Washington, D.C. lobby office for the 8.4 million member United Methodist Church.
``How shameful that the Board has stooped to exploiting Elian's situation for its own pro-Castro political agenda,'' responded Mark Tooley, who directs the United Methodist committee of the ecumenical Institute on Religion and Democracy. Tooley commented that the Board, like its partner in this
effort, the National Council of Churches, has long been supportive of the Castro dictatorship.
The lawyer whom the Board helped to recruit for Elian's father is Gregory Craig, who gave counsel to President Clinton during his impeachment proceedings. According to Fassett, the Board is helping to raise funds because of its ``long history of advocacy for children in every area of the
world.''
Tooley further responded: ``The Board's concern for children evidently does not extend to the children of Cuba who, thanks to the 40-year communist dictatorship of Fidel Castro, have little hope of full religious, political or economic freedom.'' Tooley noted that the Board, like the National
Council of Churches, blames Cuba's poverty on the U.S. trade embargo, while ignoring the failures of communism to provide for the needs of its people. Even more scandalously, Tooley observed, these church agencies have consistently refused to speak out against Castro's continued restrictions on
church activity in Cuba, along with Cuba's complete ban on any political activity not controlled by the Communist Party.
``There may be good arguments for giving custody of Elian to his father,'' Tooley admitted. ``But the left-wing Board of Church and Society is hardly the type of impartial agency that can make them convincingly.'' Tooley said that Elian's father, like other family members in Cuba, cannot speak
freely. His public statements and actions are completely subordinate to the wishes of the Castro government. Elian's Florida relatives claim the father approved when his ex-wife left Cuba with Elian. She drowned when their small craft sank. Castro prohibits free travel by Cubans, forcing refugees to
flee often in unsafe vessels.
``Elian's mother gave her life so that her son might live in freedom,'' Tooley concluded. ``Would left-wing church groups be so determined to return Elian to his native land if he had escaped a right-wing dictatorship, instead of a communist one? I doubt it.''
SOURCE: Institute on Religion and Democracy
Cuban Baseball Team Coming to Minn.
Equipo Caribe, which means ``Team Caribbean'' in English, will be in Minnesota May 6 through May 11. The team consists of players from the University of Havana and other Cuban colleges.
The May 9 game will be a rematch of the games played in Cuba in January, in which St. Thomas won 7-0 and 10-1.
The last time a Cuban team of college players came to the United States was in 1987 when a national team played several games at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.
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