Yahoo! April 25, 2000
Justice Dept: Elian Case Handled OK
By Pete Yost, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON, 24 (AP) - Trying to keep a federal court decision intact that would return Elian Gonzalez to Cuba, the Justice Department said Monday that U.S. officials have properly weighed the wishes of the 6-year-old boy's father against the asylum request from family relatives in Miami.
``It would be a substantial intrusion into the realm of parental authority for a distant relative to be able to trigger government procedures concerning the parent's 6-year-old son that could seriously disrupt the parent-child relationship and family stability,'' the department said in an
83-page appeals court filing in Atlanta.
Relatives in the United States have gone to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, challenging a district court decision that upholds immigration officials' handling of the asylum application made on Elian Gonzalez' behalf.
The relatives went to court after Attorney General Janet Reno decided to respect the father's determination not to pursue an asylum claim on Elian's behalf.
The Justice Department said U.S. Immigration Commissioner Doris Meissner ``strikes an appropriate balance by respecting the father's right to speak for his son, unless there is an objective basis for asylum indicating a divergence of interests between father and son.
``The question here is not whether Elian will be allowed to apply for some minor benefit against his father's wishes,'' said the Justice Department. ``This is a question of whether a 6-year-old will live in another country apart from his father's.''
The department noted that there is an "absence of evidence that Elian will suffer persecution if he returns home.''
Reno on Capitol Hill To Defend Self
By Tom Raum, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON, 25 (AP) - Attorney General Janet Reno, voicing ``no regrets whatsoever'' for the raid that helped return Elian Gonzalez to his Cuban father, is facing tough questioning today from skeptical Republican lawmakers.
The attorney general was to meet on Capitol Hill with a bipartisan group of 11 senators selected by Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss. The session came as preliminary inquiries into Saturday's pre-dawn raid have started in both the House and the Senate.
Republicans, and a handful of Democrats aligned with those seeking to block Elian's return to Cuba, stepped up their criticism for what they see as the Justice Department's strong-arm tactics.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., decried ``the grotesque image'' of the seizure at gunpoint. And Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, called Reno's decision ``reckless.''
The administration in turn accused Republicans of playing politics, with White House spokesman Joe Lockhart denouncing ``wild statements'' by House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and others.
``The top Republican leadership with one voice and very loudly condemned the operation and now they are saying, 'Let's find out about it,''' Lockhart said today on ABC's ``Good Morning America.'' ``That's backwards. I think most average Americans outside the Beltway will understand normal people
get information first and then make a judgment.''
DeLay, speaking in Montana on Monday, referred to the agents who raided the house as ``jackbooted thugs.''
Interviewed on NBC's ``Today,'' Lockhart said that despite an assertion by Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., President Clinton had not promised that the boy would not be seized from the Miami relatives.
Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., who has bitterly criticized the operation asked on CBS' ``The Early Show'': ``How can anyone justify using a gun to rip this boy away from his Miami family?''
Reno on Monday defended her actions anew in several television interviews.
``It was time he was returned to his daddy,'' Reno said of the 6-year-old shipwreck survivor. Interviewed on PBS's ``News Hour with Jim Lehrer,'' Reno said she struggled with different options before giving the go-ahead for the seizure - including ``going up there myself'' to claim the boy.
But she said it was clear that the crowds outside the house ``were going to intervene in any attempt to extract Elian from the house.''
In the end, she said, she believed she had no realistic choice but to proceed with the armed seizure. ``What you saw was a law enforcement operation that went the right way,'' she said.
If necessary, Reno said, she would enforce the federal order that the boy not be removed from the United States until a federal court rules on the issue of whether he can be granted political asylum over the objections of his father.
Elian was removed Saturday from his great-uncle's home in Miami, where he has been staying since his rescue from the Atlantic last November.
He is in seclusion with his father at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Florida family members, rebuffed twice in weekend attempts to see the boy, waited until late afternoon Monday to try again. Again they were not allowed on the base.
Lott invited 10 other senators to today's meeting. Most of them have been critical of the administration's handling of the case. However, two on the list - Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. - have previously been supportive of the administration.
Meanwhile, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., announced his panel's staff would begin ``a preliminary inquiry'' into the tactics used to seize the boy. ``The inquiry will focus on whether the use of such force was necessary or appropriate under all of the
circumstances,'' Hyde said.
Hyde said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., asked for the investigation.
The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Sen. Orrin Hatch (news - web sites), R-Utah, meanwhile, asked Reno in a letter to provide his panel with ``all documents'' related to the raid. ``There is a lot of emotion on both sides of the issue'' and he wants his committee and the American people to
``have all the facts,'' Hatch wrote.
Also on Monday, the Justice Department released previously sealed court papers saying U.S. immigration officials had probable cause to believe that the boy was ``being unlawfully restrained'' at the Gonzalez family residence in Miami.
The affidavit - supporting the request for a search warrant - asks permission from a federal magistrate to execute the search warrant at night ``in order to meet the least amount of resistance from any crowd gathered outside the home, ensure the safety of Elian Gonzalez and protect the officers
executing the warrant.''
The Justice Department also told a federal appeals court that U.S. officials have properly weighed the wishes of the 6-year-old boy's father against the asylum request from family relatives in Miami.
The immigration commissioner has to respect the father's right to speak for his son, ``unless there is an objective basis for asylum indicating a divergence of interests between father and son.''
Bush: Persuade Elian's Dad To Stay
LAREDO, Texas, 25 (AP) - The Clinton administration should try to persuade Elian Gonzalez's father to stay and raise the boy in the United States, Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush (news - web sites) says.
``I would hope that the administration would explain to the father that if he so chooses he can raise his son in freedom, that the father can stay here in the United States of America,'' Bush said.
``It's important for our administration to remember that the mom was fleeing for freedom, to bring the son to freedom,'' he said.
Bush made his comments in answer to a reporter's questions Monday in Texas.
Asked about the operation in which Elian was taken by federal authorities, he said, ``Certainly the picture that most of America saw - that I saw - of the boy being seized by a marshal who had an automatic weapon is not what America is about. ... A lot of very goodhearted people were working on
a solution through mediation, but nevertheless the administration made the decision it made, and now it's time to figure out what next.
``I would hope the administration would convince the dad to raise his boy in the United States of America.''
The Immigration and Naturalization Service has ruled that the 6-year-old boy belongs with his father, who wants to take him home to Cuba. Miami relatives with whom Elian had been staying are fighting that decision in federal court, and the court has ordered the father not to leave the country
with the boy until the matter is decided.
The father is staying with the boy at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington and has agreed to abide by that order.
Meanwhile, several polls suggest voters are not pleased with Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites)'s stance on the boy's situation.
A CNN-Gallup poll taken Saturday showed a nearly 2-to-1 margin of disapproval of Gore's statements in the custody case. In an NBC News poll Sunday, almost one-fourth of those surveyed said his handling of the matter made them less likely to vote for him.
Gore, the likely Democratic presidential nominee, says the case should be settled in family court. He broke with the administration on that issue and also in his support of legislation to grant permanent resident status to Elian, his father and other relatives.
Neither survey asked about Bush.
Cuba, Buoyant Over Elian, Takes on Foreign Critics
By Pascal Fletcher
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's government, boosted by the blow to its Miami-based foes in the Elian Gonzalez case over the weekend, is hitting back at overseas critics of its one-party communist rule.
Amid national jubilation at the reunion between 6-year-old Elian and his father in the United States, state commentators and journalists issued trenchant rejections of foreign calls for political change on the Caribbean island.
They focused their wrath on a resolution approved last week at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva, which censured President Fidel Castro's Communist Party government for repressing political dissidents and religious groups.
The official trade union weekly Trabajadores, looking ahead to Cuba's annual Labor Day celebrations next week, said in an editorial the island's traditional massive government-organized May Day marches would carry a message for the world.
``Cuba is proud of its history and its work in human rights, and it has a people who do not accept threats, sanctions, insults or blackmail which seek to diminish its sovereignty and tarnish the image of (the) Revolution,'' Trabajadores said.
The declaration followed television programs Friday and Sunday night in which Cuban journalists and analysts aimed charges of ``hypocrisy'' and rights abuses at European Union (EU) states and other nations which had joined Washington in criticizing Cuba in the U.N. rights vote.
``This is the infamy of Europe, a mafia attitude,'' journalist and National Assembly deputy Lazaro Barredo said.
The propaganda counter-offensive followed popular rejoicing in Cuba at the news that after five months of separation following the death of his mother in a shipwreck, Elian Gonzalez was finally reunited with his Cuban father Saturday in the United States.
Although Castro warned against excessive triumphalism, citing a pending decision by a U.S. appeals court on Elian's future, he made clear he considered the reunion to be a political victory over Havana's Cuban exile foes.
Miami's fiercely anti-Castro exiles had fought to keep Elian with his relatives there, while the 73-year-old Cuban leader has waged a national crusade to bring him back to Cuba.
On the island, Elian has been transformed by the government and state media into a symbol of Cuba's revolutionary independence from its ``imperialist'' superpower neighbor.
But while Castro declared a one-day ``truce'' with the U.S. government Saturday in recognition of the Elian reunion, he showed no such restraint with Cuba's European critics in Geneva, slamming them as a ``European mafia subordinated to the United States''.
State TV commentators in Sunday's program pilloried the 15 EU states, accusing them of caving in to U.S. pressure and joining Washington's campaign to try to force Cuba into abandoning one-party communism.
``Europe's policy toward our country does not originate any more in European capitals but from the State Department in Washington,'' Barredo said.
Another panelist, Rogelio Polanco, attacked the EU's position which links the possibility of enhanced trade and aid with calls for improvements in Cuba's human rights record.
``How far can Europe's arrogance go? What right do they have to bargain with cooperation?'' Polanco said.
Last week, Cuba called off a planned visit to Havana this week by a ``troika'' of senior EU officials. Cuban officials cited the ``unfriendly'' attitude of the seven EU members -- France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain and Britain -- who had voted against Cuba in Geneva.
Some Havana-based EU diplomats said the row could jeopardize Cuba's bid to join a revamped trade and aid accord between the EU and the 71-nation African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, which is due to be signed in early June.
Elian Case Affects U.S. Jurors
MIAMI, 25 (AP) - The Elian Gonzalez saga almost derailed a federal money laundering trial after four jurors said the seizure of the 6-year-old boy made it difficult for them to trust the U.S. government.
Alternate juror Carlos Perez and three others hearing a trial Monday said they might not be able to impartially judge the evidence presented by federal prosecutors.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz even stepped down from the bench to put her arms around a weeping Perez.
``Some of us really didn't want to be here because we felt a miscarriage of justice was done'' when Elian was taken from his Miami relatives' home, said Perez. ``I'm sorry. This cannot happen in this country. It's not Cuba.''
Perez and the other jurors are in the second week of the trial of two men who were caught on tape allegedly claiming they could channel drug money through the Seminole Indian tribe's casinos. The prosecution's case depends largely on an undercover sting by federal agents.
After Perez apologized for his tearful outburst, Seitz told him it is important to be honest.
``Once it is released, we can take that energy and use it to achieve the justice and peace you're talking about,'' she said.
After getting the jurors' pledge that they will remain impartial, Seitz kept the four on the jury and the trial continued.
Excitement That Cuban Boy May Return
By John Rice, Associated Press Writer.
CARDENAS, Cuba 24(AP) - In Elian Gonzalez's hometown, excitement is building at the boy's possible return, but neighbors said Monday his welcome will be subdued, if joyful.
``We are going to treat him like any other child in this country,'' said Reynaldo Sardinia, who lives around the corner from the home where the 6-year-old grew up.
At the Marcelo Salado school, where Elian's empty desk has been turned into a sort of national shrine, director Maribel Reyes Casas gathered the 900 students on Monday to tell them about the child's reunion with his father, Juan Miguel, on Saturday.
She displayed a new photo of the child smiling with his father in Washington, D.C., saying he seemed happier than when he was in Miami with the great-uncle fighting to keep the child in the United States.
``These are not the eyes we have seen during these five months,'' she said, speaking in the schoolyard decorated with a painted portrait of the boy. ``I have always paid attention to the eyes of Elian.''
About 10 blocks away, neighbors chatting on the sidewalk near the Gonzalez home were still excited about Saturday's federal raid on the Miami house and said they were eager for his return.
``The U.S. government took a big step forward that was very beautiful,'' said Giralda Diaz Milian, 71, who lives a few houses away from Elian's family.
``And Reno,'' added Milta Estevez, 65, one of a half dozen neighbors who appeared on the streetcorner to talk excitedly about the boy, referring to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.
When news of the raid was broadcast Saturday morning, neighors said they rushed into the street to tell their friends.
``One comrade was so excited she went out in her underwear,'' said Diaz, grinning at her friend Lilia Rosa Ojeda, who covered her head with an arm in mock embarassment.
``I was so happy I ran from the bed,'' Ojeda said, grinning.
Estevez said she was among several neighbors who ran to the two-story concrete house of Elian's grandfather for one of Juan Miguel's calls home.
``The boy sent kisses to the whole neighborhood,'' she said.
The boy seemed happy, said Gustavo Fernandez, who was staying in the house during the family's trips to Havana, 70 miles to the west, and who spoke with the child and his father on Saturday. ``This is our Elian.''
President Fidel Castro has urged Cubans to take a low-key approach to the boy's return, saying he does not want to continue the five-month media frenzy of his time in Miami or give ammunition to those who claim he is exploiting the child.
Neighbors say they will go along. ``There won't be festivities,'' Diaz said. ``But we are going to welcome him.''
They also expressed anger at claims by anti-Castro activists in Miami that the boy should not return because children are allegedly brainwashed and mistreated in Cuba.
``There is no misery in Miami?'' asked Estevez.
``I feel happy living here in Cuba,'' insisted Ojeda. ``Here! Here! Here there is freedom.''
``I don't have any fears that if my children are in the streets, they will be pushed into drug addiction,'' said Migdalini Curbelo, a 28-year-old mother of three.
Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon, who has coordinated Cuba's efforts for return of the shipwreck victim, said Saturday he has offered Juan Miguel - a cashier at a recreation park - a job in Havana as adviser to parliament.
But neighbors said they were sure the father and son would come home to Cardenas.
"They will return here with the family,'' Diaz insisted.
AT & T Becomes Major Opponent To The Families In The Brothers To The Rescue Proceedings, According To Law Firm
MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 24, 2000--The American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT & T) has turned out to be a major opponent to the families of the victims shot down and murdered by Cuban Air Force MiGs, as a result of the Cuban Government's withdrawal permanently from court
proceedings in Miami Federal Court, according to the law firm of Colson Hicks Eidson.
After extensive efforts, the families of the victims have been able to locate--at Chase Manhattan Bank--monies amounting to over $100 million owed to the Cuban Government.
The Cuban Government's decision to withdraw last month from court proceedings resulted in an additional multi-million dollar fine against the government of Cuba. The fine was ordered by U. S. District Judge James Lawrence King on Wednesday, April 19th allowing the families to collect an
additional $38 million from the frozen U. S. bank accounts belonging to the Cuban Government held at Chase Manhattan Bank.
The $38 million sum is in addition to the original $188 million judgment against the Cuban Government in 1997.
After Cuba's withdrawal, AT & T has turned out to be a major opponent to the families, according to the law firm of Colson Hicks Eidson. Although AT & T local spokesperson Gustavo Alfonso recently stated publicly, on the Spanish radio program hosted by Matias Farias, that AT & T does
not object to the collection of the judgment and supports the families' pursuit of justice, AT & T has entered a strong objection to the families' efforts to receive compensation, also according to Colson Hicks Eidson.
In fact, AT & T has gone further and argued that Judge King's underlying judgment in 1997, against the Cuban Government and the Cuban Air Force for the terrorist murders, is invalid and should be voided, according to Francisco R. Angones, partner at Angones, Hunter McClure, Lynch &
Williams and a co-counsel for the families.
``I can not believe AT & T's callousness,'' stated Francisco R. Angones. ``We are offended by AT & T's duplicitous acts.''
Contact:
Colson Hicks Eidson, Miami
Karen M. Guggenheim
Director of Communications
305/373-5400 x228
or
Angones, Hunter McClure
Francisco R. Angones, 305/371-5000
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