In Cuba, Castro celebrates—but knows the war isn't over
By Yuval Rosenberg. Newsweek, May 1, 2000
Just minutes after federal agents swept Elián González from the home of his Miami relatives, Juan Miguel González picked up the phone to call his mother in Cuba with the news. Elián's grandmother threw open the door of her modest house, shouting to neighbors. Soon
relatives crammed the family home; jubilant friends danced in the streets. Cubans elsewhere, many exasperated by the five-month-long standoff, got the news when a state-television announcer broke into a broadcast of Saturday-morning cartoons. Some burst into tears as they watched the boy's "rescue,"
as it's being called in Cuba.
Fidel Castro himself couldn't resist a little celebrating. On Saturday evening the Cuban president joined Elián's grandmothers and other family members at a rally near the González home—an event originally scheduled to celebrate the anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion.
With a massive crowd waving the Cuban flag and chanting, "Fidel, seguro a los yanquis da le duro" ("Fidel, beat the Yankees hard"), Castro criticized the González family in Florida and attacked the "Miami Mafia," his term for activists in Little Havana. Still,
Castro managed a slight tip of the hat to U.S. officials who had delivered Elián to his father. Today is "a day of truce—perhaps the only one in these 41 years—with the United States," Castro said.
But for the Cuban government, the reunion of Elián with his dad was merely one battle—not the war. "The need to fight for Elián has not ended," officials warned in statements on Saturday. And Castro also told his supporters that "we will do anything, short of
going to war," to ensure Elián's return.
Nearly four decades after directing his troops at the Bay of Pigs, Castro's long struggle with the United States is alive and well. The Cuban president continues to insist that Washington lift the economic embargo against his island nation and repeal the Cuban Adjustment Act, a law that allows
defecting Cubans to remain in the United States if they reach its shores. Otto Rivero, head of the Union of Communist Youth, which had helped organize the Cuban movement for Elián's return, says that protests against U.S. policies have only just begun. "The struggle we have unleashed is
not only for Elián," says Rivero.
On the streets, Cubans simply expressed hope that the saga—and the nonstop coverage—were nearing an end. "I'm very happy," said 21-year-old Raiza Rodriguez. "Maybe now there will be no more demonstrations and television discussions." Unlikely. Elián, after
all, remains a long way from home.
With Michael Easterbrook in Havana
© 2000 Newsweek, Inc. |