Published Tuesday, April 11, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Dad gets an offer to defect
By Frank Davies . fdavies@herald.com
WASHINGTON -- Faced with the growing likelihood that federal officials will transfer Elian Gonzalez to his father, the three Cuban-American members of Congress are questioning Juan Miguel Gonzalezs ability to act independently, and inviting him to lunch -- and a chance to defect.
Gonzalez told top U.S. officials Friday, with his wife and infant son at his side, that he only wanted to retrieve Elian and return to Cuba, and there were no Cuban officials present at the meeting, Attorney General Janet Reno said.
But Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Miami Republican, has sent a memo to Republican leaders on Capitol Hill asserting that Gonzalezs lawyer, Gregory Craig, assured Fidel Castro last week that he would work with U.S. security forces to prevent Gonzalez from defecting or meeting with people Castro
objected to.
``Craig is working as Castros main public relations agent,'' Diaz-Balart said Monday, citing his own sources.
``Hes following Castros orders that Gonzalez cant meet with us [the three Cuban-American House members] or with his uncles.''
Craig did not return phone calls Monday but Saturday he told columnist Robert Novak that Diaz-Balarts memo was ``false -- I dont know where they get that. They just make it up.''
Floridas two senators, Republican Connie Mack and Democrat Bob Graham, urged Craig in a Friday letter to set up a meeting with the father and several of the Miami relatives who have cared for Elian. ``Were still pressing for that,'' a spokeswoman for Mack said Monday. Craig had not responded to
the request.
One invitation Gonzalez is not likely to accept came from Reps. Diaz-Balart, Miami Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez to a private lunch on Capitol Hill with the encouragement to defect.
Gonzalez has spent his five days in the United States at the Bethesda, Md., home of the chief of the Cuban Interests Section, Fernando Remirez.
Cuban officials said they would waive diplomatic immunity on the home, but a State Department spokesman said Monday that was not done, and that Secret Service forces continue to provide some security at the residence.
Herald special correspondent Ana Radelat contributed to this report.
Elian's Relatives Won't Budge
INS' order to surrender boy could come today
By Andres Viglucci, Sandra Marquez Garcia And Ana Acle. aviglucci@herald.com
The U.S. government's handpicked team of mental-health experts failed Monday to win agreement from Elian Gonzalez's great-uncle on a willing hand-over of the boy to his waiting father, virtually ensuring that immigration authorities will formally order him -- as soon as today -- to surrender
the 6-year-old.
Lazaro Gonzalez's reluctance to cooperate with the government's plan for a transfer of custody at a neutral site sets the stage for a flurry of desperate legal moves by his attorneys to block Elian's return to Cuba as federal officials try to bring down the curtain on the drawn-out custody
drama.
In short order, government officials say, they will issue a demand letter to Gonzalez with specific instructions on when and where to turn over the child. The government hopes the transfer will occur before the end of the week.
The great-uncle's attorneys say they will respond by seeking an emergency order from a federal judge to bar the government from letting the father leave the United States with Elian until a court appeal is concluded. They will also attempt today to revive Gonzalez's custody petition in
Miami-Dade family court, asking a judge to conduct a full hearing on the fitness of Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
Complicating matters were unconfirmed news reports out of Cuba on Monday night indicating that Elian's father was prepared to fly to Miami to pick up his son, but only at a secure location such as Homestead Air Reserve Base. But a spokesman at the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington suggested
there was no such plan, saying ''conditions are not right'' for a turnover in Miami. U.S. officials said they thought a trip to Miami now was unlikely.
The Miami relatives continued to insist Monday that any transfer take place at their Little Havana home, which is surrounded by protesters.
That insistence killed any chance of an agreement during Monday evening's meeting between Lazaro Gonzalez and three mental-health experts appointed by the government to recommend a plan for a transfer that would cause as little trauma to Elian as possible.
LOCATION CHANGE
The meeting took place hours late after a last-minute change of location forced by Lazaro Gonzalez's refusal to leave the hospital where his daughter is being treated for stress and exhaustion. First scheduled for 1:30 p.m. at Jackson Memorial Hospital, it finally took place at Mercy Hospital at
about 5 p.m. after the government refused to postpone it.
Lazaro Gonzalez was interviewed for about an hour by the three doctors, less than the three hours set aside for the meeting.
Family spokesman Armando Gutierrez said Gonzalez's 21-year-old daughter, Marisleysis, who regards herself as Elian's surrogate mother, did not participate. Elian was in the hospital visiting Marisleysis, but he was not at the meeting either, Gutierrez said.
In attendance were Lazaro Gonzalez, one of his attorneys, and several Immigration and Naturalization Service officials. The doctors were psychiatrists Dr. Jerry Wiener and Dr. Paulina F. Kernberg, and a psychologist, Dr. Lourdes Rigual-Lynch, all affiliated with top northeastern medical schools
and hospitals.
Manny Diaz, the Miami family lawyer who attended the meeting, said there was no clear outcome. Diaz said no further meetings have been scheduled with the INS.
''It was just a quick meeting to exchange ideas,'' Diaz said. ''There was just a lot of discussion about the welfare of the child, no specific conclusion.''
DISAPPOINTED
But a source familiar with the talks said government officials were disappointed by what they regard as Lazaro Gonzalez's stubborn refusal to discuss ways to transfer Elian to his father with a minimum of trauma.
''The government once again bent over backwards to accommodate the relatives by agreeing to move the meeting, but Lazaro remained very unwilling to discuss a neutral location for the transfer,'' a source familiar with the talks said. ''He was adamant it happen at his house.
''We sincerely believe that Elian needs to see his primary caregivers are supporting him in this, and they're just not willing to do it.''
One government official said authorities would likely ask that Elian be brought to a neutral location in Florida to be turned over either to Juan Miguel or to a third party. A more remote possibility would be to ask the Miami relatives to bring him to his father, who flew to Washington, D.C.,
last week.
If the great-uncle refuses to obey the government's instructions for a hand-over, U.S. immigration authorities have said they will seek a court order forcing him to surrender Elian. Continued defiance could mean criminal contempt of court charges and arrest.
As a last resort, government officials say they are prepared to send in federal agents to take custody of the boy so he can be reunited with his father. The government has said the father is free to return to Cuba with Elian immediately upon regaining physical custody.
ADDITIONAL VISAS?
In Washington, meanwhile, the State Department indicated it might approve some of the additional 22 visas requested by the Cuban government as a ''support team'' for Elian's father -- its condition for Juan Miguel Gonzalez's remaining in Washington while court appeals in the case are wound up.
In a last-ditch appeal to stave off Elian's return to Cuba, Miami Mayor Joe Carollo said he and Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas will fly to Washington this morning to meet with U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. Carollo said they will ask Reno to establish a ''transition period of about 30
days'' to lessen any risk of trauma to the boy.
Even as the government and Lazaro Gonzalez haggled over the meeting Monday, it quickly became apparent that the relatives planned to continue to fight.
''We are actively considering several legal remedies to prevent removal of Elian to Cuba,'' said Kendall Coffey, one of the team's attorneys.
On Monday, just minutes before deadline, the relatives' legal team filed legal arguments at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, which will hear the family's challenge of a federal court ruling last month that upheld the government's authority to send Elian home.
Barring an emergency order prohibiting the government from going ahead, Reno has said she is not bound to await the outcome of the appeal.
Herald staff translator Renato Perez, Herald writer Mireidy Fernandez, and Herald wire services contributed to this report.
Crowd appears resigned to child's return to Cuba
By Eunice Ponce, Sara Olkon And Martin Merzer. mmerzer@herald.com
Defiance beginning to vaporize into acceptance of the inevitable, thousands of Cuban Americans and others gathered in prayer Monday night to seek divine intervention on behalf of Elian Gonzalez -- not just to keep the boy in Miami, but to safeguard him wherever he ends up.
''I would hope that if the child is sent back to Cuba, he would find happiness in his soul,'' said the Rev. Armando Perez of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs in Fort Lauderdale, ''that he would be a man who would always look for freedom, and that he would not be mistreated or manipulated.''
Conducted just two blocks from the Little Havana home of Elian's relatives, the vigil at Northwest 22nd Avenue and First Street attracted parents and children, executives and factory workers -- all joined by a desire, a need, to demonstrate their concern for the 6-year-old boy who now seems
certain to return to Fidel Castro's regime with his father.
Stretching from the intersection in all four directions, they carried signs, and they carried rosary beads and crucifixes, and they carried the burden of 41 years of exile.
''I think the harder you fight, the greater the victory,'' said Fernando Rivero, 72, of Miami. ''Today's vigil won't change anything, but it's an act of support.''
Many cars were covered with placards that said, ''Pray for Elian,'' and heavy traffic compelled some people to park five blocks or more from the scene.
Flags of Cuba and the United States flew everywhere -- a sea of red, white and blue -- and dangled from surrounding doors and chain-link fences. Tied atop many of these flags: black ribbons of mourning.
To some extent, the vigil carried an air of finality.
''We know we have lost, the child will go back, but we will remember,'' said Aleda Quintas, standing incongruously under the bright yellow balloon of the Happy Face auto dealership on 22nd Avenue. She held a sign that said: ''Clinton -- in November we'll remember.''
Some Cuban Americans and other supporters remained hopeful that somehow Elian would remain in the United States, though they acknowledged that such an end would require an extraordinary event at this point.
''A miracle has to happen here -- something big is going to happen to turn this whole thing around,'' said Matilde Montejo, a native of the Dominican Republic who was accompanied by her daughter and 18-month-old grandson.
Others found comfort in the thought that even what they see as a bad end -- a return to Cuba -- could lead to something good.
''The kid is equipped to start something in Cuba,'' José Duarte said. ''I don't think they will be able to change him. He will inspire the people.''
En route between the boy's current home and the vigil, Miami City Commissioner Joe Sanchez conceded that Elian's return seemed imminent. He urged the community to respond maturely and calmly, and to dwell not on what was lost -- but on what was gained.
''If a decision is objectionable, then go to the ballot box and cast your vote there, but don't lift your hands in rage,'' Sanchez said. ''That's what Fidel Castro wants, so he can say, 'Look, they don't follow their own laws.'
''We fought a good fight, and if Elian goes back, at least he tasted freedom and he will never forget it.''
Herald staff writer Ana Acle contributed to this report.
Great-uncle's lawyers to rush to court today
They seek to bar boy's return until father's fitness is proven
By Jay Weaver . jweaver@herald.com
The legal team for Elian Gonzalez's relatives will race to Miami family court this morning to ask a state judge to stop his father from returning with the boy to Cuba as part of their request for a full hearing on Juan Miguel Gonzalez's fitness as a parent.
Lawyers for Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez want state Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey to bar the boy's removal from Miami because they worry that once the U.S. government hands over the 6-year-old to his father, they will leave immediately for Cuba.
In family court papers, they expressed fear that the father, now in Washington, D.C., won't stay for the relatives' appeal of a recent federal court decision that upheld Attorney General Janet Reno's decision to reunite the little boy with Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
But Bailey, in an order filed Sunday, raised serious questions about whether the family court could even conduct such a hearing on the father's fitness because of the supremacy of federal law and the parental rights of Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
The judge also cited Florida law to point out that the great-uncle may not be able to seek temporary custody of the boy because the statute only allows ``the child's brother, sister, grandparent, aunt, uncle or cousin'' to make such a claim in court. She told the Miami relatives' lawyers to
respond to her questions by today, and then she will decide whether to grant their request for the custody hearing in 10 days.
HEARING DELAYED
Lazaro Gonzalez was awarded emergency custody of Elian on Jan. 10 by another circuit court judge, after the great-uncle sued the father to obtain temporary custody of the boy. But after Bailey took over the case, she delayed a full hearing on allegations that Elian would be harmed if raised by
his father in Cuba until the relatives' federal court case was resolved. Their legal team filed their first appellate papers Monday, arguing that even a minor as young as Elian has a legal right to seek political asylum. Oral arguments are scheduled in that case for May 11.
The team, frustrated by the enormous powers of the U.S. government in the custody and immigration disputes, is also likely to seek an emergency order this week from the federal court to block the boy's return to Cuba before the appeal is over.
``If Elian goes back to Cuba, no one in this land can bring him back,'' said Kendall Coffey, one of the team's attorneys.
NO GUARANTEE
Reno said she could not guarantee that the boy will stay with his father in Washington until the outcome of the relatives' appeal. But she indicated that Juan Miguel Gonzalez promised he would wait out that appeal.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service, backed by Reno, found that only the father could speak for the boy, following the loss of his mother in late November on a tragic boat trip from Cuba. The government, after two interviews with Juan Miguel Gonzalez, found that he had a loving, caring
relationship with his son.
But Gonzalez family attorney Jose Garcia-Pedrosa said the government has ignored evidence, filed in the federal court case, that the father has been abusive toward his son -- physically and verbally.
``We have said and the boy has said -- he has told psychiatrists -- that he's deathly afraid of his father because his father beat him up,'' Garcia-Pedrosa said Sunday on CBS' Face the Nation.
On Monday, he told The Herald: ``I have talked to the boy about that myself.''
Garcia-Pedrosa declined to elaborate, saying that Lazaro Gonzalez did not want the lawyers to talk about the father's alleged unfitness earlier in the dispute but that he changed his mind in recent weeks.
``The other side is saying that we're just saying it now because we're desperate,'' Garcia-Pedrosa said.
But a prominent family law expert said that desperation is precisely why the Miami relatives' legal team has started to defame Elian's father in public.
``This is all a last-ditch, desperate attempt to concoct claims that cannot be proven,'' University of Miami law Professor Bernard Perlmutter said. ``It's unconscionable that these type of blustery, malicious claims are going on. But it doesn't surprise me, because they have essentially lost in
the federal court. This is the stock in trade of family lawyers to malign and cast aspersions in an ad hominem way on the other side. They are dragging Elian into the morass.''
Elian's cousin in, out of hospitals
Treated for stress in her teen years
By Meg Laughlin. mlaughlin@herald.com
The Marisleysis Gonzalez mystery deepens. She again is hospitalized for an illness only vaguely described as ''emotional anxiety,'' and the Gonzalez family again is drawing a protective curtain of silence around her.
This latest hospitalization of the 21-year-old woman, called the surrogate mother of Elian, brings the known number of hospital stays to 11.
On Monday, her father, Lazaro, went to see her at Mercy Hospital. He was joined there by two INS-appointed psychiatrists and a psychologist who came to discuss the transfer of Elian to his father.
Marisleysis Gonzalez has been hospitalized eight times since Elian's rescue at sea in late November, and three times prior to that -- always for stress-related problems.
Since December, she has been admitted once to Pan American Hospital, South Miami Hospital and Hialeah Hospital, twice to Coral Gables Hospital and three times to Mercy Hospital.
Family spokesman Armando Gutierrez attributes Gonzalez's frequent panic attacks and stomach problems to worry that the Immigration and Naturalization Service will send her 6-year-old cousin back to Cuba, as well as the unrelenting media attention.
But hospital records show that her emergency-room trips for stress-related problems began years ago.
In June 1996, when she was 17, she sought treatment at the Kendall Medical Center emergency room. She also was treated at emergency rooms at Baptist Hospital in May 1998 and Palmetto General Hospital in June 1999.
When Elian moved in with Lazaro and Marisleysis Gonzalez, the hospitalizations became more frequent: eight since December, including three hospitalizations since April 1.
Saturday, the grandmother of Gonzalez's good friend Georgina Cid, whose home Gonzalez often visits, described the young woman as ''vomiting constantly with stomach cramps.''
''Her state is precarious,'' the grandmother, who asked not to be named, said in Spanish. ''She is in need of a long rest, away from everyone.''
Outside of her immediate circle of family and friends little is known about Gonzalez's history of emotional anxiety. She graduated from Miami High School in June 1997, where teachers describe her as ''a decent student'' who was ''quiet, well-behaved and pleasant.''
''No one remembers that she was troubled,'' says a teacher who asked not to be named.
After high school, Gonzalez went to Miami-Dade Community College for three semesters, dropping out before the end of the semester each time. She then became an assistant loan processor at Ocean Bank, where she is on unpaid leave.
Jesse Jackson offers to mediate case
By Larry Olmstead And Ana Acle. aacle@herald.com
The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Monday called for Cuban Americans to avoid an ''Orval Faubus-kind of standoff'' and seek the peaceful return of Elian Gonzalez to his father.
''That kind of showdown was not good for Southern whites in the 1950s and 1960s,'' said the civil rights leader, who contacted The Herald from Washington. ''It would not be good for Cuban Americans in the year 2000.''
Jackson, who said he met with Elian's father Sunday night in Washington, added he was available to serve as an intermediary to help ensure a peaceful resolution, and called for an end to hot rhetoric on both sides.
Jackson's mediation offer isn't likely to be accepted by Cuban exiles, many of whom consider him too friendly to Cuban President Fidel Castro. Jackson supports easing the U.S. embargo against Cuba, and in 1984, negotiated the release of 22 Americans from Cuban prisons.
When told of Jackson's comments, Miami Mayor Joe Carollo found himself without words. He raised his eyebrows, closed his eyes and laughed. ''Those are my thoughts on that,'' he said outside the Little Havana home of Elian's Miami relatives.
Protesters outside the home had a similar response.
''The Cuban exiles have enough leaders to do the mediation,'' said Maria Corzo, a scrub technician at Miami Heart Institute.
''We don't need him,'' said Fernando Rivera, a retired hairstylist. ''What does he have to do with any of this? He just wants publicity.''
In his comments to The Herald, Jackson said Cuban immigrants were ''a success story and had contributed greatly to American society over the past 40 years.''
''The American people and journalists should not demonize Cubans or stereotype them. There should not be one brush.''
Jackson added: ''Their pain is understandable. Expressing their pain by resisting the U.S. government will not benefit the Cuban American community in the long term.''
Jackson is among several public figures and commentators in the last two weeks to draw parallels between Southern opposition to civil rights and opposition in Miami to U.S. government efforts to reunite Elian with his father.
As governor of Arkansas, Faubus in 1957 called out the National Guard to keep nine black students from entering an all-white Little Rock high school, prompting then-President Dwight D. Eisenhower to send 1,000 paratroopers to enforce federal court desegregation orders.
Jackson said he visited Sunday night with Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, at the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, that nation's diplomatic mission to the United States.
''I saw in him the pain of a father,'' Jackson said.
Former S. Florida man leads vigils in Maryland
Frances Robles. frobles@herald.com
The sounds of a strange partnership can be heard each night outside the Bethesda, Md. home of Cuba's top diplomat.
It's partly in English, partly in Spanish. Part Amazing Grace, part El Padrenuestro, the sounds come from the now-nightly prayer vigils held here in support of Elian Gonzalez's Miami family. Cuban Americans in the Washington, D.C., area have organized a half-dozen Elian-related events here, some
with the Rev. Patrick Mahoney, a former South Florida man known mostly for anti-abortion protests.
''We needed somebody to pray. He's experienced and a reverend,'' said Mercedes Viana, 27. ''What makes it extraordinary is that he's not Cuban. It adds something.''
Viana, a D.C.-based lobbyist for Florida International University, is one of a handful of young Cuban professionals living in the nation's capital who have decided to take action through prayer vigils. The group also held a service in honor of Elisabeth Brotons, Elian's mother who perished at
sea.
Somewhere along the line, the loosely organized group reached out to Mahoney after seeing him on television.
Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition, did most of the talking at a Sunday afternoon prayer service held outside the Bethesda home where Juan Miguel Gonzalez is staying. The service, attended by about 30 people, was a mix of prayer, song and politics.
Mahoney, 45, said the idea is to plea for Gonzalez to defect. Their back-up prayer: for Elian to stay here. Mahoney lived nine years in Boca Raton, where he was sued and arrested at least a dozen times -- legal troubles that stemmed mostly from anti-abortion protests.
So what's a guy like that doing getting into the Elian mix?
Mahoney acknowledges that it's a strange relationship, and says he's disappointed that more Christian leaders have not spoken up on the issue.
''We're committed to human rights. We're committed to children. I think this naturally goes along with my views on a variety of subjects,'' he said.
Mahoney's church followers and the Cuban-American exiles who attend the services get around their differences. He preaches in English and appoints someone else to pray in Spanish.
Myriam Sanz, from Virginia, said she attended to show another side of the Cuban exile.
''Everyone thinks all Cuban Americans are shouting and in hysterics. We're not. We just think it's very sad that Elian was saved for nothing,'' she said.
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald |