Elian's Saga. Published Tuesday, April 25, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Last-minute differences for deal were significant
By Jay Weaver And Ronnie Greene. jweaver@herald.com
In the tense hours before federal agents stormed the Little Havana house where Elian Gonzalez was residing, the boy's Miami relatives and Attorney General Janet Reno had significant negotiating differences in how, where and when Elian would be reunited with his father, documents released Monday
show.
At 2:59 a.m. Saturday, Reno faxed a final offer that demanded physical custody of Elian be turned over to his father, and a family reunion be in Washington, D.C.
The document, released for the first time Monday, differs sharply from the family's last written offer, faxed at just before 5 p.m. Friday, which called for a Miami meeting and suggested Elian would stay with both his father and Miami relatives.
Two hours and 16 minutes before the armed raid, the records show, a wide gulf remained between the two sides. Although attorneys for the Miami relatives say they tried to close the gap, they missed Reno's final deadline.
The family's proposal, which had the blessings of major Cuban-American leaders in Miami, boiled down to several key terms: The Miami relatives wanted to require that Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, live with them in a temporary residence in Miami-Dade County during the boy's federal court
appeal for a political asylum petition.
The relatives wanted no government officials and lawyers in the picture -- just U.S. marshals to protect the site. And they wanted ``facilitators'' -- probably a psychologist and a priest -- to help the families ``get together and do what is in the best interest of the child.''
``We request that you consider the findings and observations of the facilitator in reaching any decision concerning Elian,'' they wrote to Reno.
The relatives insisted on staying with Elian and his father in the neutral site until all the boy's legal appeals were concluded. They acknowledged that the INS transferred temporary custody of the boy to his father, but didn't directly say they would immediately surrender the boy to his father.
``We understand that you have transferred temporary custody of Elian to his father,'' they wrote Reno.
CUSTODY DEMANDS
Reno's demands, written 10 hours later, directed that Elian and his relatives go to the Miami Federal Courthouse on Saturday at 3:30 a.m., where he would be in the attorney general's custody. Later Saturday, Elian and his relatives would drive or fly to Washington, not Miami. In Washington, Juan
Miguel Gonzalez would take immediate custody of his son.
Reno directed that Elian's father meet with Lazaro Gonzalez's family and allow mental health experts to evaluate the boy during the transition.
But Juan Miguel and Elian would live together -- in separate quarters from the Miami relatives while in D.C. And Reno ordered a much shorter living arrangement for the two families -- ``not to exceed one week.''
Maria Cardona, spokeswoman for the INS, said the Miami relatives still were unwilling to sign off on two essential Justice Department conditions that had been under discussion all night: that they transfer physical custody of Elian to his father before the family meeting, and that the meeting
take place in Washington and not Miami.
``We thought maybe the family will finally give on these points,'' Cardona said. ``Unfortunately 3 a.m. came and went. It became clear by 4 a.m. this was going nowhere.''
MISSED DEADLINES
She said the deadline was just the latest in a series missed by the family.
Yet mediators -- and the Miami relatives' legal team -- believe an agreement could have been reached.
``I do not agree that we weren't close to a settlement,'' lawyer Aaron Podhurst said at a press conference Monday at the University of Miami. Podhurst was drafted by Miami civic leaders just last week to serve as a mediator between Little Havana and Washington.
Lazaro Gonzalez's lawyers accuse Reno of changing the terms at the last minute, when at 2:59 a.m. she said a reunion in Florida was out of the question and demanded an explicit statement that the family would hand over Elian to the father before they took up temporary residence together.
``Up until that point, I thought we had an agreement,'' said Carlos de la Cruz, one of the Gonzalez family's negotiators. ``All of sudden, she [Reno] starts introducing drastically different terms. But even so, we were willing to work with those terms.''
Reno had never formally agreed to a Florida site, Podhurst acknowledged, but lawyers for the Miami family say they believed she had been open to the suggestion.
MESSAGE RELAYED
When Reno insisted the meeting occur in the Washington, D.C., area, negotiators -- including Podhurst and civic leaders de la Cruz and Carlos Saladrigas -- say they believe they could have persuaded the Miami parties to agree. They relayed the message to the legal team huddled in the Little
Havana home.
``I told them you cannot oppose the attorney general of the United States,'' Podhurst said Monday. ``If she says Washington, it's Washington. If you don't do it, I'm gone.''
The negotiators say they worked hard and ultimately convinced Lazaro Gonzalez's Miami lawyers to go along with Washington.
But at the time of the 5:15 a.m. raid, the key family member -- Lazaro Gonzalez -- had not yet signed off on the new site, Podhurst said Monday.
``It was true that Lazaro Gonzalez had not yet agreed to that change,'' he said.
But no one suspected a raid was afoot. ``I took the 4 o'clock demand from Reno to mean that she was getting impatient with us,'' Podhurst said. ``We had moved the ball tremendously.''
University of Miami President Edward T. Foote II, who helped bring the last minute negotiations together, also believed force could have been avoided. ``We were so close to an agreement.''
Herald staff writer Joseph Tanfani contributed to this report.
INS Documentation for the removal of Elian Gonzalez
Polls show Americans split on using force
Most backed reunion of father and son
BY MIREIDY FERNANDEZ, ANABELLE de GALE AND CURTIS MORGAN cmorgan@herald.com
With Elian Gonzalez back in the arms of his father, the commando-style raid on his relatives' Little Havana home has erupted into the latest, hottest flash point in the five-month custody battle.
Three new national polls show the American public deeply divided about the federal government's gunpoint grab of the 6-year-old. In Washington, Republican lawmakers were urging a congressional investigation. In South Florida, the reaction was predictably emotional.
''I thought it was the most unbelievable thing that I've seen in my life in the United States done to a poor family with a poor house,'' said a sobbing Bertha Garcia, who has lived in Kendall for 38 years since coming from Cuba.
Homestead resident Cheryl Lynn Conrad said the defiance of the Gonzalez family forced the hand of authorities: ''Janet Reno did what she had to do -- uphold the law. The raid was very well executed. They were in and out very quickly with minimal risk to the child.''
The latest polls -- taken Saturday and Sunday by CBS News, NBC News and CNN-Gallup -- show the majority agreed the boy should be with his father and supported government action. But the tactics employed proved far more polarizing.
NBC News found a sharp split on force -- 49 percent disapproved, 48 percent approved. CNN-Gallup's poll showed a similar difference, 40 disapproved, 36 percent approved. The CBS survey showed opinions tilting the other way -- 56 percent called it necessary, 38 percent called it excessive.
REACTION TO PHOTO
The seizure, captured in dramatic photos shown around the world, sparked a wide range of reactions. It was deemed either a liberation or an assault on liberty.
Alan Storn, a bus driver from the Bronx, N.Y., said when he saw federal agents carrying the boy to a waiting van, he stood up and cheered over his breakfast, a bowl of Cheerios. ''This was like the cops saving him from kidnappers. After all the threats and the crazy ranting, it would have crazy
for them to go in without guns.''
Tonda Robbecke, a nursing student from Paris, Texas, was appalled. Though she supports the return of Elian to his father, she considered the method heavy-handed and under-handed:
''To me, it was something I would see if he were in Cuba. It just was not right, not in a family home, not in America. These people have done nothing, no aggression, no violence.''
Sergio P. Dalmau, a Miami resident for 39 years originally from Cardenas, Elian's hometown, said he found the national polls upsetting and uninformed.
''How does an American man in Vermont know what it is like to live in Cuba?'' said Dalmau, who planned to close his construction supply office today in support of the work stoppage aimed at protesting Elian's forced removal.
''That was way, way excessive,'' he said. ''It's unforgivable what the government did. That's something you'd expect in communist Cuba or Hitler's Germany but not in the United States.''
Overall, the three television polls showed Americans tended to support the government's efforts to reunite Elian with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
In the NBC poll, a survey of 680 registered voters with a margin of error of about 4 percent, almost three of four people said Elian belonged with his father. More than 58 percent said the government did all it could before using force. And nearly two-thirds said the raid did not merit a
congressional poll.
The NBC poll, conducted by Zogby International, also showed the issues split along gender and ethnic lines. More men than women thought Elian should be with his father, 78 percent to 59 percent, and backed the raid, 55 percent to 40 percent).
Only 26 percent of Hispanics polled approved of the raid, compared to 50 percent of non-Hispanic whites and blacks.
In other findings, the CBS poll of 577 people with a 4 percent margin of error also showed that two-thirds of those surveyed believed the family would not have turned over Elian voluntarily.
A similar split in opinion was reflected in newspaper editorials here and internationally. The New York Times said the Justice Department had employed force prematurely and ''has yet to offer a good reason why it did not seek a court order instructing Lazaro Gonzalez to produce Elian.''
The Chicago Tribune wrote, ''Well done, Ms. Reno'' and said the action ''ended one of the most bizarre, arrogant floutings of the law in recent memory.''
Security denies gun was at Gonzalezes'
By David Kidwell. dkidwell@herald.com
A private investigator who, police reported, was frequently seen with a weapon near the home of Elian Gonzalez's Miami family said Monday those reports are untrue.
''I have never had a weapon inside the house, outside the house or anywhere near the house,'' said Mario Blas Miranda, 48, the security chief for the Cuban American National Foundation who was assigned to the security detail for the family.
''And I tell you now that anyone who says I did have a weapon there is a liar.''
Federal authorities have said they chose a tactical use of force in part because they had ''credible reports of weapons inside that house.''
Miami Police Chief William O'Brien and Immigration and Naturalization Service spokeswoman Maria Cardona on Sunday confirmed information from other federal sources that those ''credible reports'' centered on Miranda wearing a weapon at his ankle.
In addition, a Herald reporter at the Gonzalez house on Thursday reported seeing the butt of a semiautomatic handgun on Miranda's ankle.
Miranda did not return repeated telephone calls for comment on Sunday. His ex-wife, called several times at home, told The Herald she had contacted Miranda and he did not wish to be interviewed.
On Monday, after a Herald story detailed the police reports of his weapon, Miranda called to say the story was inaccurate.
''I have never owned an ankle holster,'' said Miranda, a former Miami Police officer. ''I know the laws that say you cannot carry a weapon into a demonstration, and there have been demonstrations out there 24 hours a day. What do I need to carry a weapon for when there are seven million police
officers around?
''It's a lie.''
U.S. responds to appeal; raid faces challenge
By Andres Viglucci. aviglucci@herald.com
Amid political wrangling in Washington over Elian Gonzalez's seizure, government lawyers on Monday filed a long response to a federal court appeal by his Miami relatives, while the family hired a prominent Miami criminal defense attorney to challenge the legality of the raid.
In an 83-page legal brief, the government defended U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno's decision to reject political asylum applications filed by Elian's relatives on his behalf, arguing that a 6-year-old lacks the capacity to apply over the objections of his surviving parent, Juan Miguel
Gonzalez.
''This case is . . . about which of two adults will be allowed to speak about asylum for him: his father, with whom he has had a close relationship all his life . . . or a distant relative,'' the brief says.
Miami defense attorney Richard Sharpstein, meanwhile, newly hired by the relatives here, said he was exploring ways to challenge the warrants used by the government to seize Elian on Saturday.
On Friday, the government obtained warrants for Elian's arrest as an undocumented immigrant -- a routine approach by the Immigration and Naturalization Service -- and used that to obtain a search warrant of the relatives' Little Havana home.
It was unclear, however, what Sharpstein hopes to accomplish. In criminal cases, illegal searches can lead to suppression of evidence, such as seized drugs, against a defendant. No one has been charged with crimes in the Elian case.
Sharpstein, however, said the relatives may ask the court to appoint an independent legal guardian to represent Elian, arguing that the tactics used by the government during the armed raid would prove ''offensive'' to the appellate judges.
Last week, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the boy to remain in the country during the case, but allowed the government to decide with whom the boy should live.
The relatives' lawyers fear that Elian's father, having regained custody of his son, will try to have the appeal dismissed by saying the child has no interest in applying for asylum. A guardian, in theory, could apply on Elian's behalf.
''Hopefully, we can at least slow down the freight train to Cuba,'' Sharpstein said.
But in its response, the government said Reno properly rejected three other asylum applications filed by Elian's great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez. The relatives have argued that asylum law allows ''any alien,'' no matter the age, to apply.
That literal reading, which the appeals judges in their order last week seemed to find persuasive, is mistaken, the government contends: The law allows the attorney general wide latitude in determining who can get asylum. The attorney general can override a parent's objections, the brief argues,
only when the child has the intellectual capacity to understand what he or she is applying for -- and Elian as a 6-year-old does not.
''The question here is not whether Elian will be allowed to apply for some minor benefit against his father's wishes,'' the brief reads. ''This is a question of whether a 6-year-old will live in another country apart from his father's.''
Crisis shook exile lobby
Embargo foes scored points
By Juan O. Tamayo. jtamayo@herald.com
Elian Gonzalez's return to his father was a rare flicker of congruence between Washington and Havana, but predictions of a major improvement in a landscape marred by 41 years of animosity are too optimistic, experts say.
The dispute has clearly widened the gap between the small but powerful Cuban exile lobby that has long dominated the debate on U.S.-Cuba relations and U.S. lobbies pushing to ease or lift the economic embargo on Havana.
Embargo critics have portrayed exiles during the tug of war over Elian as radical and ungrateful immigrants willing to defy U.S. laws to play politics with a boy who lost his mother during a fatal attempt to flee Cuba.
``The more isolated Cuban exiles become, the easier it is for the anti-embargo lobby to operate in Washington, said Pamela Falk, a City University of New York professor who is writing a book on Cuba.
Cuban leaders in the Democratic Party noted that, for the first time in their memory, President Clinton failed to consult them before a major decision affecting their community -- the weekend raid to snatch Elian from the home of his Miami relatives and return him to his father.
``That sends a strong signal that he doesn't give a damn about us. We feel betrayed, said one of the Cuban exiles and Democratic Party activists who has advised Clinton on Cuban issues in the past.
The first hint of any changes may come later this week, when the Senate Foreign Relations Committee could vote on a bill lifting all restrictions on food and medical sales to Havana. Although committee Chairman Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., has already said he will support the bill as a
``humanitarian gesture, congressional aides said a wide margin of victory could be perceived as an Elian-induced boost to the anti-embargo forces.
GROWING POWER
Fidel Castro's critics say, however, that the vote will reflect only the already growing power of U.S. agricultural and business lobbies pushing to ease sanctions on several nations, including Cuba, and open new markets.
``You would be writing this story even if Elian had not happened, said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Miami. ``Traditionally, it's been the liberal left and church groups pushing to relax sanctions on Cuba. But now we've got Wall Street and, unfortunately, Main Street, trying to lift sanctions on
all dictatorships.
Analysts of U.S.-Cuba relations say Castro has also scored points with the U.S. government and public opinion during the Elian confrontation by keeping relations with Washington on an even keel even as the crisis raged on.
``It's remarkable that throughout this whole situation the Cuban government and the Clinton administration have maintained policies in place, said John Kavulich, head of the New York-based U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council.
But U.S. officials and analysts say that in the long run the Elian case may have little impact on four decades of sour relations between Washington and Castro's communist government.
The Clinton administration does not believe the Elian case will mean any change in U.S.-Cuba relations, State Department spokesman Jamie Rubin said Monday. ``We consider this issue a family problem . . . and nothing more,'' Rubin said.
Other U.S. officials also cautioned that it's unlikely there will be any changes soon in the root causes of the bilateral hostility -- Cuba's lack of democracy and repression of dissidents.
``They just built a permanent protest arena in front of our Interests Section in Havana and we bashed them in Geneva on a U.N. resolution attacking Cuba's human rights abuses, said one U.S. official in Washington. ``Gee, I don't think this signals major changes, the official added.
A `TRUCE'
Castro himself said over the weekend that Elian's return to his father represented only a ``truce. The future, he told journalists in Havana, is likely to bring ``the normal life of 41 years -- attacks against us.
The brief sparkle of U.S.-Cuba cooperation may also dim if the State Department decides to expel several Cuban diplomats who allegedly attacked exile protesters outside the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington April 14.
District of Columbia police are still investigating the incident, but if their report makes serious allegations the State Department's Office of Protocol could expel the Cubans.
Analysts also note that Cuban exiles have united as never before in reaction to what they view as Clinton's ``betrayal.
``The Cuba issue is like Israel, dominated by single-issue voters, the congressional aide said. ``The agro-lobby may have been gaining ground, but now that this Elian thing has stirred the hornets' nest on the Cuban-American side they will fight harder than ever.
Herald staff writer Andres Oppenheimer contributed to this report.
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