Sun-Sentinel, April 14
Reno is reluctant to force final action on Elian
By William E. Gibson Sun-Sentinel. Web-posted: 12:03 a.m. Apr. 14, 2000
Janet Reno returned to her beloved hometown of Miami this week determined to resolve a crisis, not create one. She left on Thursday unable to force her will on a community that has defied her.
The attorney general's mission to Miami was to settle once and for all the fate of Elián Gonzalez, return him to his Cuban father as the law demands and do so without setting off a violent confrontation with those who want to keep him in this country.
But by the end of her trip, the woman who once took all the political heat for ordering federal agents to storm a cult compound in Waco, Texas, leading to a tragic conflagration, could not issue the order to send federal marshals into Little Havana to retrieve a 6-year-old boy.
From the beginning, she showed great reluctance to force final action. In an emotional speech to the people of Miami, she was almost wistful in the face of defiance. "Despite all the tension," she said, "it was wonderful to look out the window this morning and to see this
beautiful city lying out beyond the bay, to look to the west, towards the Everglades ... to realize that this community represents America and all that it is about."
Seeking cooperation
She implored everyone to cooperate with federal authorities, to step back from the brink of violence. She laid down a firm-sounding deadline for the Florida family to hand over Elián.
But she was stymied, in part by her own reluctance to use force and in the end by a sudden unexpected appeals court request to delay any enforcement action.
The court request, in a sense, was a relief for all concerned. It eased the crisis atmosphere surrounding the boy while perpetuating it for at least a few days.
In the short run, the request from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals took some of the pressure off Reno. At the same time, it prevented a swift resolution of a custody dispute that has gathered intensity for four months.
"It just kicks the ball down the road for a day or two," said a Justice Department official.
The order forestalls any enforcement action while the judges make a preliminary review of a motion filed by Elián's Miami relatives to stop the transfer of custody. The relatives want to block Reno from giving custody of the boy to his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, which could lead to
their return to Cuba.
Reno quickly complied with the delay, never eager to force the removal of Elián in the face of mass protests. She headed back to Washington, her mission unaccomplished, while the Justice Department prepared for the court's preliminary review.
Federal marshals, on alert for an order to muscle their way into Little Havana to seize Elián, privately doubted whether Reno would pull the trigger for such an order.
Lessons from Waco
Reno's reluctance to use force might have stemmed from her experience with the fiery end of the Waco disaster, which erupted just a few weeks after she took office in 1993. She was furious after the tragedy when she learned that underlings had failed to give her full information about the
siege, leading to what might have been a precipitous order to rush the compound.
The confrontation in Miami, though hardly a siege, poses some of the same issues about whether to force some action or wait it out. It is especially poignant because it takes place in the city Reno loves.
Even after laying down ultimatums, the attorney general seems determined to show restraint.
"We have the authority to take action," she said on Thursday. "But responsible authority means not only being able to take action, but knowing when and how to take that action."
Staff Writer John Holland contributed to this report.
William E. Gibson can be reached at wgibson@sun-sentinel.com or 202-824-8256 in Washington.
Home video of Elián stirs another furor
By LUISA YANEZ Sun-Sentinel. Web-posted: 11:53 p.m. Apr. 13, 2000
To see the Univision tape of a home video taken by Elian's Miami family, click on either the 28.8 speed or the 56k
version. The translation is by CBS4. (4/13/00)
MIAMI -- Speaking almost belligerently, Elián Gonzalez shakes his index finger as a video camera records him defying his father's wish.
"Papá," Elián says, sitting on the bed of his cousin Marisleysis, "I don't want to go to Cuba … If you want, you stay here … but I'm not going to Cuba … I am telling you guys, I don't want to go… ."
For the boy's Miami relatives, the home video -- given by the family to a Spanish-language TV network early Thursday morning -- is a from-the-mouths-of-babes testament to the boy's wish to stay in the United States. But the plea and its appropriateness have caused a furor, much like Elián's
interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer last month. By Thursday afternoon, the video had made the network news. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Univision and Telemundo showed clips of it.
Even the glitzy syndicated show Extra! asked viewers to vote on whether they thought the performance had been orchestrated.
When Elián's father saw the video on TV, he was reported to be shocked. "What are they doing to my son?" he said, according to former U.S. Sen. Dennis DeConcini, D-Ariz., who visited Juan Miguel Gonzalez at his temporary home in Bethesda, Md.
The father's attorney, Gregory Craig, blasted the media for airing the video. "The news media should know that Mr. Gonzalez has not given his permission or approval for any journalist to interview, photograph, film or broadcast his son. Elián Gonzalez has been exploited enough,"
Craig said.
Seething after their meeting with Attorney General Janet Reno at the Miami Beach home of Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, president of Barry University, the relatives put Elián on the spot in a last-ditch attempt to let the world know what he wants. On the tape, Elián seems to sense
that Reno was a foe, not a friend, and gives her a disrespectful jab. "You saw that old lady (Reno) that went to the nun's house?" he says to the camera. "She wants me to go to Cuba. …You guys, I'm telling you. … If you want, stay. … But I don't want to go."
But the most telling moment, according to a local child psychologist, occurs in mid-taping when the boy's eyes wander, apparently to adults in the bedroom, as if to ask: "Did I do that right? Is that what you wanted me to say? Are you happy with me?"
"Elián is desperately trying to please the adults around him," said Alan Delamater, a pediatric psychologist with the University of Miami. "And what those adults want him to say is what he will say because he wants to please them. This is a terrible position for the boy
to be in."
The central question was unanswered: How much stock should be put in the wishes of a 6-year-old who still has baby teeth?
Relatives have said repeatedly that the boy's wishes are paramount. Even Cuban-born actor Andy Garcia echoed that sentiment outside the house: "Elián has said time and time again that he wants to stay in the United States."
Raul Delgado, a Miami attorney who specializes in family law, said any judge in a custody case would look at the video and take it into consideration. But he said it wouldn't be the deciding factor.
"The wishes of a child are taken into account, but no judge would say, "Oh, he doesn't want to go? Then he can stay," Delgado said.
Maria Fernandez, a child psychologist at the Mailman Center for Child Development in Miami, said the family is projecting on him their desperate wish for him to stay.
Rafael Lorente of the Washington Bureau contributed to this report.
Luisa Yanez can be reached at lyanez@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7920.
What's next in the Elian story
Web-posted: 11:33 p.m. Apr. 13, 2000
The federal appeals court in Atlanta will decide within days whether to keep the child temporarily in the United States.
On May 11, the court will hear an appeal of a Miami federal judge's ruling that Elián is not entitled to pursue an asylum claim his father opposes.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey's order denying Elián's Miami family a hearing in state court could be appealed.
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