Yahoo! April 26, 2000
U.S. OKs Visit by Elian's Playmates
By Christopher Thorne, Associated Press Writer.
QUEENSTOWN, Md. 26 (AP) - He still can't go home, so little pieces of Elian Gonzalez's life in Cuba are being brought to him in America as his family, the courts and the U.S. Senate consider the 6-year-old's fate.
In the latest stop on his five-month odyssey, the young boat wreck survivor was moved to a secluded and wooded Maryland retreat where there's lots of room to play. There, he awaits visits by his former kindergarten teacher and a 10-year-old cousin, perhaps as early as today.
``There's an understanding that he's going to be here for quite some time,'' said State Department spokesman James Rubin - also announcing visas would be expedited for four of Elian's playmates to come from Cuba.
``A young 6-year-old ... needs to have someone to play with.''
Rubin said that at the request of Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, four friends of Elian will be allowed visas to visit him for about two weeks. Each will be accompanied by one adult family member.
Visas for the former teacher and a cousin who Elian is said to be very close to had been approved nearly a month ago but not used.
The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, a supporter of the family, said the visits are important to create ``a sense of normalcy for him about the life he has lead and will lead.''
``It's probably as close as we can do, given the fact that normal for him would be to be back in his own town, in his own home, own bed, own school, own neighborhood,'' she said in a telephone interview.
U.S. marshals on Tuesday moved Elian, his father, stepmother and half brother from housing at Andrews Air Force Base, outside Washington, D.C., where they had stayed since Saturday. They moved about 70 miles east of Washington to a house on the 1,100-acre Aspen Institute's Wye River estate known
as the site of seminars, Mideast peace talks and retreats.
At about the same time Tuesday, Attorney General Janet Reno met with a group of senators at the Capitol to defend her decision to send armed agents to seize the boy early Saturday from the home of Miami relatives who've been trying for five months to permanently keep the boy in the United
States.
Also, the Miami relatives, who came to Washington hours after the boy was seized, made their fourth unsuccessful attempt in as many days to visit Elian. They were turned from the gate of the air force base at about the same time the family was being moved to Wye.
And Justice officials were awaiting word from a doctor who had scheduled a meeting with the father to assess when might be the best time for Elian to see the Miami relatives again.
A senior Justice Department official, speaking on condition of not being identified, said, at Reno's request, one of the three doctors who previously interviewed Juan Miguel Gonzalez and Lazaro Gonzalez - Dr. Paulina F. Kernberg, a professor of psychiatry at Cornell University Medical College -
interviewed the father again and Elian for 21/2 hours Tuesday.
The doctor also was to assess whether and how the Florida relatives might visit Elian, but did not immediately make a recommendation, the official said.
In a closed-door meeting lasting about 1 hour and 45 minutes, Reno told 13 senators that the possibility that there were firearms in the house of Elian's Florida relatives was a key consideration for the military-style raid, participants said.
They apparently were dissatisfied with the explanation. While several Democrats praised her performance, Republican senators emerged from the session with fresh criticism of Reno and the pre-dawn raid in Miami.
``Many of the questions were not adequately answered,'' said Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., who had arranged the session.
Lott announced hearings into the raid next week by the Senate Judiciary Committee - and suggested that Elian's father would be among those sought for testimony.
``This use of force was totally unnecessary,'' said Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., after the meeting.
Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., an opponent of the raid, accused Clinton of breaking a personal promise that Elian would not be seized at night. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart, asked about such a promise on NBC's ``Today Show,'' denied that the president made such a commitment. But Graham retorted:
``Joe Lockhart was not in the room when the statement was made.''
But Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, one of only three senators invited by Lott to the session who supported the administration's handling of the case, told reporters afterward, ``they chose to show force so they wouldn't have to use force.'' He said, however, that he would
not oppose hearings.
With the drama now moved squarely to the Washington area, Cuban-Americans in Miami upset over Elian's seizure called a general strike. Workers stayed home, students skipped school and businesses closed, bringing honking cars and Cuban flags to the streets of Little Havana.
Attorneys for the Miami family filed a motion Tuesday in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, asking that a guardian be appointed who could check on Elian's well-being and make sure he stays in the country - at least until his asylum hearing.
The court directed attorneys for Juan Miguel Gonzalez to file a response by this afternoon, stating any reasons why this shouldn't happen.
Armando Gutierrez, a spokesman for the Miami family, said they hoped this could clear the way for the family's attorneys - and even the family - to see Elian.
``That's the whole thing; they would love to see the little boy,'' Gutierrez said. ``We're concerned about how Elian is doing.''
Cuban-American Women Plan April 26 Protests in Nation's Capital
Company Press Release. Tuesday April 25, 11:09 pm Eastern Time
SOURCE: Mothers & Women Against Repression
MIAMI, April 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Mothers & Women Against Repression for Cuba (MAR Por Cuba), a Miami-based women's group, which advocates for human rights in the communist island, will march on the nation's capital tomorrow (April 26) in demand of a speedy family reunion between Elian
Gonzalez and his Little Havana relatives. An airplane, chartered by prominent Cuban-American businessman Carlos de la Cruz, will fly some 170 South Florida-area women to Washington, D.C. for the protests.
``Last Saturday's storm-trooper-style raid of the Gonzalez residence was reminiscent of the tactics used by police states, such as Castro's Cuba, and not of democracies like the United States,'' said MAR por Cuba President Sylvia Iriondo. ``We are deeply concerned about the psychological damage
done to Elian by that traumatic action, which can only be described as federal child abuse.''
Mrs. Iriondo said her group's primary concern is Elian's welfare, which, she insisted, ``must include a visit with the relatives with whom he bonded over five months after his tragic ordeal.''
Following a 7 a.m. press conference at Dulles Airport, the Miami women, along with several Washington-area Cuban-exile groups, will demonstrate in front of the U.S. Justice Department Building, on the corner of 10th St. and Constitution Ave., N.W., from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. They will be dressed in
black to symbolize the pain and suffering of the Cuban people under Fidel Castro. Following their protests, they will visit Capitol Hill to deliver an urgent plea to Congress to ensure Elian's emotional and physical well-being.
Heavily armed INS agents broke into Elian's relatives' Miami home in the early-morning hours of April 22 and seized the six-year-old Cuban boy at gunpoint before flying him to Washington's Andrews Air Force Base for a forced reunion with his father. The action has incensed this city's vast
Cuban-exile community, which sees the action as the result of a political deal between the Clinton-Gore Administration and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, who personally has orchestrated a five-month-long campaign to return Elian to Cuba.
Elian arrived in Miami last Thanksgiving Day after being rescued by two South Florida fishermen off the coast of Ft. Lauderdale. The boy barely survived after spending more than 60 hours alone in shark-infested waters aboard a floating inner tube without food or water. His mother, who fled
Cuba's totalitarian regime with several other persons aboard a fragile boat, lost her life to bring her child to freedom.
SOURCE: Mothers & Women Against Repression
Elian Strike Closes Little Havana
By Martha Irvine, Associated Press Writer.
MIAMI, 26 (AP) - It is the protest that refuses to die, at least in Little Havana.
Cuban Americans angry over the Elian Gonzalez case plotted their next moves Tuesday in the midst of a strike that shut down much of the neighborhood and other parts of Miami. It affected even baseball, America's pastime and a Cuban passion.
``I will buy nothing today,'' 70-year-old Angelo Gutierrez said. ``And on Saturday I will march in protest.''
Talk of a mass protest has been circulating since federal agents seized the 6-year-old boy over the weekend. Others said they would ride in bus caravans to protest in the Washington area.
On Tuesday - called ``Martes Muerte'' or ``Dead Tuesday'' - businesses kept iron gates closed, workers stayed home and thousands of students skipped school. Police said there were four arrests for disorderly conduct and other charges, a far cry from the violence last Saturday.
Larger corporations closed some operations - seven supermarkets shut their doors and a McDonald's in Little Havana closed, its flag at half-staff.
Sony canceled its ``Evening of Showcases,'' which featured such Latin stars as singer Gloria Estefan, who supported Elian's Miami relatives. The event was part of the festivities surrounding the Billboard Latin Music Conference and Awards that began Tuesday.
The strike also affected professional baseball games across the country. Tampa Bay's Jose Canseco was the most prominent player to sit out, joining six Florida Marlins, two San Francisco Giants, Mets shortstop Rey Ordonez and Yankees pitcher Orlando Hernandez. Several coaches also missed games.
Marlins third baseman Mike Lowell, whose wife is Cuban and parents are Cuban exiles, missed Tuesday night's home game against the Giants.
``I think a lot of Americans and Latins feel this way. You don't have to be Cuban to support this,'' said Lowell, who was born in Puerto Rico.
The Giants won the game, 6-4, and the boycott hurt the Marlins. With only 19 players available, their starting pitcher was forced to pinch hit in the 11th inning.
Giants manager Dusty Baker advised pitcher Livan Hernandez - the half-brother of the Yankees ace - and catcher Bobby Estalella not to come to the ballpark, fearing for the safety of their family members who live in south Florida.
``You're talking about life and death situations that supersedes baseball,'' Baker said. ``It's sad that politics have to go into baseball, but baseball is part of the world.''
Nearly one-third of Miami-Dade County's public school students - or 115,000 of them - were absent Tuesday. Bank teller Dora Irizarry brought her two boys to the home of Elian's Miami relatives, who have battled in court to keep the boy from being returned to Cuba.
``This is horrible, horrible,'' Irizarry said. ``It's important for them to see this. It's important for them to know what freedom is about.''
Down the street at the closed Zagami's Market, a Cuban flag hung over the store sign. Below was a handwritten sign that read: ``Clinton a traitor. Shame on you.''
While 2,581 employees of Miami-Dade County took the day off, much of the metropolitan area - home to some 800,000 Cubans - was unaffected. The bustling airport and Port of Miami had no difficulties.
``I'm Cuban,'' said Ileana Casasola, a supervisor at the airport where only two employees honored the strike. ``I'd love to go support my people, but the problem is the airport is a busy place.''
At The Miami Herald, no reporters took the day off. Several support staff took vacation days at the Herald and its Spanish-language daily, El Nuevo Herald, said Robin Reiter, vice president of human resources.
One impromptu street protest several miles southwest of Little Havana grew to more than 300 by nightfall, and Spanish-language radio announced the names of businesses that closed and those that stayed open.
In the early evening, about 130 protesters gathered outside the Freedom Tower, a former customs building where many Cubans entered the United States in the 1960s. They waved flags and signs and chanted ``Libertad'' as basketball fans streamed into the American Airlines Arena for a Miami Heat
playoff game.
``The American public thinks we are angry at them, but what we are is angry at their government,'' said 21-year-old Alberto Baez, who held an American flag upside down and garnished with black material.
Across Biscayne Bay in Miami Beach, tourists lined up with cameras as about a thousand people - many of them wearing black clothing and electrical tape over their mouths - quietly walked 30 blocks from trendy South Beach to the city's Holocaust museum and back.
``We want international tourists to see what we are feeling,'' said John Suarez, a Florida International University student who helped organize the procession.
Some tourists were indifferent, if not annoyed.
``Frankly, I'm a little tired of hearing about it,'' said Jackie Miller, a tourist from Cleveland.
Players, Coaches Join Cuba Strike
By MARK LONG, AP Sports Writer
MIAMI, 26 (AP) - There were few signs inside Pro Player Stadium that broached the Cuban-American community's work stoppage. There were even fewer protesters outside Florida's game against San Francisco.
So the Marlins didn't truly feel the effects of Tuesday's protest until the 11th inning of their 6-4 loss to San Francisco.
That's when manager John Boles, out of position players, was forced to pinch hit for a pitcher with another pitcher.
In a first for baseball, players and coaches around the majors skipped games, joining a work stoppage by Miami's Cuban-American community to protest Elian Gonzalez's removal from the home of his relatives.
``You've got to go with what you have,'' Marlins outfielder Cliff Floyd said. ``You can't cry about it.''
Tampa Bay's Jose Canseco was the most prominent player to sit out, joining six Florida Marlins, two San Francisco Giants, Mets shortstop Rey Ordonez and Yankees pitcher Orlando Hernandez. Several coaches also missed games.
Florida third baseman Mike Lowell, pitchers Alex Fernandez and Vladimir Nunez - all of Cuban descent - decided to sit out. Dominican teammates Antonio Alfonseca, Jesus Sanchez and Danny Bautista joined them in a show of support.
It significantly hurt the Marlins, who started the game with 19 players, including just four on the bench.
Florida ran out of bench options in the 11th, having to pinch hit Brad Penny for Dan Miceli, essentially giving up an out when it needed a rally.
``It was a tough loss,'' Boles said. ``These guys fought their hearts out. Those guys were spent. We had guys cramping up. We gave them everything we had.
``But there's no excuses.''
Armando Rios doubled home Doug Mirabelli in the top of the inning, leading the Giants to their fourth straight win. Mirabelli, the only Giants catcher in uniform, snapped an 0-for-18 streak with a single off Miceli (2-1) in the 11th.
Mark Gardner (2-1) pitched the final two innings for the win.
But much of the focus was on the boycott.
``It affected us big time, but it affected them more,'' Giants manager Dusty Baker said.
Baker advised right-hander Livan Hernandez and catcher Bobby Estalella not to come to the ballpark, fearing for the safety of their family members who live in South Florida. Administrative coach Carlos Alfonso, another Cuban-American, also took the day off.
``You're talking about life and death situations that supersedes baseball,'' Baker said. ``A lot of us don't know the situation unless you live in Miami or you're from Miami. It's sad that politics have to go into baseball, but baseball is part of the world.''
The Giants were merely following the Marlins' lead.
Florida general manager Dave Dombrowski said any of the club's front-office personnel, players and coaches wanting to support the protest would be excused with pay for the day.
In addition to the players, third base coach Fredi Gonzalez, infield coach Tony Taylor, bullpen catcher Luis Perez and assistant equipment manager Javier Castro accepted the offer. So did Cuban-American Hall of Famer Tony Perez, an assistant to Dombrowski.
``I'm not saying what's right and wrong,'' Boles said. ``The organization is not making a value judgment; the organization is merely being sensitive to its employees. If I didn't have to be here, I wouldn't. I've got a lot of Cuban friends and I know how deeply they feel about this.''
Fernandez, Nunez, Sanchez, Alfonseca and the Hernandez brothers all were not scheduled to play Tuesday regardless of the work stoppage because it was not their turn to pitch.
The Mets, meanwhile, had to replace Ordonez and third base coach Cookie Rojas. They arrived at Shea Stadium about 31/2 hours before gametime, met with general manager Steve Phillips and Bobby Valentine and left the park shortly thereafter, having decided to sit out.
The Mets backed the decision, and Phillips said both team members would be paid.
``Baseball should not be a political forum, but they felt they needed to support the community in which they live, and I support their decision,'' Phillips said.
Ordonez and Rojas were both born in Cuba and live in Florida during the offseason.
Rangers first baseman Rafael Palmeiro, who is Cuban, and Reds outfielder Alex Ochoa, whose parents were born there, were among the Cuban-Americans who played.
``The team needs me,'' Palmeiro said Monday. ``Unless I get a call from somebody really big, I'm playing. My responsibilities are to my family and my teammates. So as of right now, I'm in the lineup.''
Ochoa, who had only 28 at-bats this season, spent the day thinking about the situation. And while he fully supports the cause, Ochoa did not want to miss an opportunity to be in the starting lineup.
``It's an easier decision for an everyday player,'' Ochoa said. ``I didn't want to let the team down.''
The protest over Elian Gonzalez brought honking cars and waving Cuban flags to the streets of Miami's Little Havana, the same streets where fires and violence broke out Saturday after armed federal agents grabbed the 6-year-old Cuban boy in a pre-dawn raid.
Protesters were hard to find at Tuesday's Marlins game, although at least one was in the dugout.
``I'm here, but it doesn't mean I feel any different than the other guys,'' pitcher Ricky Bones said. ``People express themselves differently.''
Cuban Media: Reunion Photos Legit
By John Rice, Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA, 26 (AP) - Hoping to buttress their case that Elian Gonzalez belongs with his father, Cuban officials have described the child romping with dogs and playing with his little brother while in seclusion with his father and stepmother.
``The boy was loving, above all with his father and little brother,'' said the report from the Cuban Interests Section in Washington read Tuesday night over Cuban state television.
``On several occasions he carried Hianny (his brother) and put him down, repeating with affection, 'I love you very much','' said the report by Cuban diplomats who were with the family Sunday and Monday at Andrews Air Force Base in the Maryland suburbs.
After three days at Andrews, the family was moved on Tuesday to the Wye River conference center in Maryland in an effort to shield them from the sort of intense media attention focused on Elian during his stay with his great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez in Miami.
Cuban President Fidel Castro was in the audience but did not speak during the 21/2-hour broadcast dedicated to the boy at the center of a custody battle since being rescued in late November after a shipwreck that killed his mother.
The Interests Section report portrayed Elian as a happy child playing soccer and dominoes with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, and playing with dogs at a grassy area of the base.
``Several people at the base brought gifts for Elian and Hianny for Easter,'' it said, and praised law enforcement officials guarding the family for ``their position of cooperation and great assistance.''
Cuban psychologist Patricia Ares said the Interests Section report, along with photos released earlier of a smiling Elian hugging his father, removed any doubt that ``there exists an intense bond'' between the boy and his father ``that never was interrupted,'' despite five months in Miami.
The program also showed clips of a U.S. television broadcast in which psychiatrists discussed the emotional stability of Marisleysis Gonzalez, who had cared for the boy in Miami and who had been hospitalized several times for stress.
Ares said the young woman was ``disturbed'' and claimed she could cause emotional harm to Elian.
Cuban officials have strongly supported the U.S. government's raid Saturday that removed Elian from the house of Lazaro Gonzalez, who is fighting to keep the child in the United States against his father's expressed wish to return the boy to Cuba.
A federal appeals court in Atlanta has ordered the boy kept in the United States until the Miami family's attempt to win political asylum for him is resolved.
The Tuesday night program quoted journalists in Miami as saying a strike there Tuesday to protest the raid had failed to shut down the city. One called it a ``management lockout'' by Cuban-American businessmen. Program moderator Randy Alonso termed the strike ``a farce.''
The Miami relatives had balked at giving the father unrestricted custody of the child despite an Immigration and Naturalization Service order stripping them of custody.
The program was one of scores that Cuban television has broadcast over the past four months, in addition to mass rallies organized by the Communist youth organizations to demand Elian's return.
The television on Tuesday night repeated a call to make the traditional May Day celebrations a massive rally for Elian's return.
Congressional Republicans Outraged
By Tom Raum, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON, 26 (AP) - It's a familiar sight: Republicans in Congress marching in near unison to express outrage over acts committed by the Clinton administration, even as polls suggest the drumbeat may not be heard by most Americans.
This time, the subject is the pre-dawn weekend raid that reunited Elian Gonzalez with his Cuban father.
Polls show that a majority of Americans approved of the tactics and believe the 6-year-old shipwreck victim belongs with his father. But that hasn't stopped Republicans from vowing full-court election-year investigations into Attorney General Janet Reno's decision to use force.
``I think everyone knows the spin that the White House is going to put on this. ... You know, there go the Republicans again,'' said Sen. Connie Mack, R-Fla., poking fun at the inevitable criticism even as he sought to deny it.
Other times Republicans have lined up in such a fashion - including the 1995-96 government shutdowns, the 1998 probes of Democratic fund-raising practices and the 1998-99 impeachment proceedings - it largely backfired on them.
Their poll numbers went down instead of up.
``The learning curve for the Republican majority in Congress is flat,'' suggested University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato. ``If the Republicans keep this up (on Elian Gonzalez), they may turn this into an issue that works in favor of the Democrats.''
Republicans were divided earlier this year over whether to bestow on Elian U.S. citizenship, or permanent residency, in an effort to block his return to Cuba. That's why leaders were unable to schedule vote on such legislation.
``There clearly was division about the best way to proceed at that particular time,'' conceded Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.
But with the weekend raid, the target shifted to a more familiar one - Reno and President Clinton.
``There's a lot more unity in feeling that the actions that were taken were excessive, and the force that was used, the way this was done at night,'' Lott said.
Polls taken since Saturday's military-style raid show that a majority of Americans feel the government had done all it could to settle the impasse without resorting to force, and have little interest in congressional hearings into the matter.
Asked about such polls - and the apparent support Reno enjoys - Lott told reporters, ``I don't believe that the American people approved of the kind of action they saw Saturday morning.''
Reno's office, meanwhile, is bedecked with a growing number of bouquets of flowers she has gotten from well wishers. When she emerged from an elevator in the Capitol after discussing the raid on Tuesday in a grueling 1 hour-45 minute session with Senate leaders, many tourists in the area burst
into spontaneous applause.
And President Clinton - not always a big fan - praised her warmly in a White House speech on Tuesday. He also praised the federal agents who participated in the Miami raid for a ``very, very difficult job to do with no easy choices.''
But those same agents were denounced by House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, as ``jackbooted thugs.''
And blunt-speaking Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., who has conducted several past investigations of alleged Clinton administration misdeeds as chairman of the Government Reform Committee, asserted that Americans ``shouldn't have to worry about federal agents breaking down their door when there is no
illegal activity going on.''
That prompted Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the panel's senior Democrat, to muse playfully that he hoped Burton would investigate the Elian Gonzalez matter, too - so congressional Democrats could see their poll numbers rise again.
Pollster Andy Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, said he sees little gain for Republicans in continuing to pursue the Elian Gonzalez matter.
``The public hasn't liked the politics of the Elian Gonzalez case, in the sense of political motives getting involved with what happens to this young boy,'' Kohut said. ``I can't image that further political charges against the administration are going to be very effective.''
But Mack, one of the most outspoken Senate critics of administration's actions, tries to be philosophical about the criticism.
``The key issue now is where do we go from here?'' the Florida Republican asked. ``History is history. Historians will write it and legislators will investigate it. But we can't change it.''
EDITOR'S NOTE: Tom Raum covers national and international affairs for The Associated Press.
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