Yahoo! April 27, 2000
Castro Backs Raid, Differs on Guns
By John Rice, Associated Press Writer .
HAVANA, 27 (AP) - President Fidel Castro on Wednesday praised the raid by U.S. agents that whisked Elian Gonzalez from his relatives, but said that in Cuba such an operation would have been conducted without guns.
``You can see obviously that the people were well-trained,'' Castro said Wednesday, referring to photos of the raid Saturday that took the 6-year-old child from the Miami home of his great-uncle. ``They did it well.''
But he said in Cuba, ``we do it with unarmed people.'' Castro said Cuba's coastal authorities are trained to board vessels unarmed.
Attorney General Janet Reno said agents were armed during Saturday's raid because of reports that there might be weapons in the Miami house where Elian was residing with his relatives.
Castro also lashed out at American officials for not allowing Cuban child specialists to visit the 6-year-old in preparation for his possible return to the island. He said that Washington's refusal to permit the full 31-member delegation proposed by Cuba ``cannot be explained.''
``Not a single specialist, not a single psychologist, not a single psychiatrist,'' have been approved by U.S. officials, Castro told reporters after visiting a special boarding school in Havana being prepared for Elian and his classmates to attend if the boy is returned.
Castro spent a few minutes touring the converted house where Cuban officials say Elian will stay if a federal court allows him to leave the United States, where he has been since being rescued after a shipwreck that killed his mother in late November.
Meanwhile, Elian's former kindergarten teacher Agueda Fleitas and cousin Yasmany Betancourt were flying to Washington, carrying school materials, gifts and mementos for the 6-year-old boy.
Four of Elian's schoolmates and four of their parents applied Wednesday for visas to visit the United States as well. U.S. officials have said the visas will be expedited.
``I am going to give him a kiss and a very strong hug,'' 10-year-old Yasmany said in an interview broadcast by Cuban state television Wednesday night.
Cuba had asked U.S. officials for permission to send a much larger delegation including 12 schoolchildren, three teachers, five psychologists or psychiatrists and six doctors.
University of Havana psychologist Aurora Garcia, a proposed member of the group, said the idea is to help the boy ``restore his historical memory,'' cure psychological wounds caused the stress of recent months and prepare him for return to his Cuban friends.
Texas Farmers Seek Cuba Embargo End
By John Rice, Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA, 27 (AP) - A delegation of Texas farmers, led by a congressman, ended a three-day visit to Cuba on Wednesday with a call for Congress to lift the embargo on food and medicine sales to the communist island.
``With regard to Cuba, we feel the embargo has failed in spectacular fashion,'' said Donald Patman, president of the Texas Farm Bureau, at a news conference. ``Texas farmers and ranchers could easily and profitably supply many of the products both used and needed here in Cuba.''
Rep. Charles Stenholm, the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, repeated his endorsement of the Ashcroft amendment - a measure in Congress to lift restrictions on food and medical sales to Cuba. The amendment has also won the support of Sen. Jesse Helms, R-NC, one of Cuba's
fiercest critics in the United States.
``Over 90 percent of our (U.S.) farmers and ranchers say that it is time to lift all unilaterally imposed sanctions on food and medicine,'' said Stenholm, a Texan.
``It is in the interest of American farmers and the consumers of the world, including Cuba, that we do not use food for any other purpose other than feeding people, and the same goes for medicine,'' he said.
While Stenholm said he did not think the issue should be linked with the case of Elian Gonzalez, he said the agreement between the U.S. and Cuban governments that the Cuban boy belongs with his father had helped conditions for talks.
``The atmosphere in both of our countries is very good now for conducting these discussions,'' Stenholm said.
He estimated that U.S. food sales to Cuba could reach $1 billion a year.
U.S. suppliers would have an advantage over Europeans currently supplying the Cuban market because of lower transportation costs, he said. But other aspects of the U.S. embargo on Cuba block official export credits, complicating any sales.
An increasing number of U.S. delegations have visited Cuba since the start of last year, when the Clinton administration modified restrictions on Cuba to encourage more direct contacts between the two countries.
After leading a delegation of Massachusetts scholars to the country last week, Democratic Reps. James McGovern and Joseph Moakley urged President Clinton to ease the embargo, and said the president should even lead a delegation to Cuba.
State Dept. Official Derides Castro
WASHINGTON, 26 (AP) - A top State Department official on Wednesday called Fidel Castro's actions in the Elian Gonzalez case ``absolutely deplorable'' and said the United States will persist in its attempts to isolate Cuba.
Assistant Secretary of State Peter Romero accused the Cuban leader of trying to use the boy's misfortune to create ``a diplomatic-political clash'' with the United States.
``He manipulated this for complete domestic purposes,'' Romero said.
The comments were the most strident by an administration official since Elian arrived in South Florida last November after being rescued at sea during an ill-fated boat trip that claimed the life of his mother.
In the five months since Elian's arrival on U.S. soil, Castro has organized a series of mass anti-American demonstrations demanding the boy's return to the island. He also ordered the construction of an anti-American monument near the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana.
Castro went on the offensive even though he and the Clinton administration shared the view that Elian should go back to Cuba rather than remain with relatives in South Florida. His fate will be decided by a court.
Romero, who heads the State Department's bureau of Western Hemisphere affairs, also said Castro engaged in ``a most cynical attempt'' to pass himself off as a family man during the Elian case.
He said the administration intends to retain economic sanctions and other kinds of instruments to isolate the Cuban regime, which he described as ``renegade'' and ``undemocratic.''
Doc: Elian Will Recover From Raid
By Michael J. Sniffen, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON, 27 (AP) - A child psychiatrist for the government who watched Elian Gonzalez play happily with toy soldiers says it's likely he suffered no lasting harm from the armed raid that removed him, screaming, from his Miami relatives' home.
The 6-year-old Cuban boy, who survived the drowning of his mother when their boat sank off Florida five months ago, displays a ``sense of well-being and happiness with his father,'' wrote Dr. Paulina F. Kernberg of Cornell University Medical College.
``Whenever he made eye contact with his father, his face brightened.''
Psychiatrists aligned with Elian's Miami relatives challenged Kernberg's conclusions and said the 21/2 hours she spent with him were not enough to judge his state of mind. They urged the government to permit Florida-based ``medical professionals trusted by Elian'' to evaluate him.
But for the moment, Elian was waiting to see his former kindergarten teacher and a 10-year-old cousin from Cuba. They arrived in Washington on Wednesday night and were expected to join him today at the wooded Maryland retreat where he is staying.
Also expected to join the family as early as today were four of Elian's Cuban classmates, along with three of their mothers and one father. ``A young 6-year-old ... needs to have someone to play with,'' State Department spokesman James Rubin said.
Although the Clinton administration and Cuba's communist regime have shown more cooperation than confrontation on Elian's circumstances, a top State Department official sharply criticized Cuban President Fidel Castro's actions in the case as ``absolutely deplorable.''
Peter Romero, assistant secretary of state, accused Castro on Wednesday of using the boy's misfortune to create ``a diplomatic-political clash'' with the United States. ``He manipulated this for complete domestic purposes,'' Romero said.
Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who wants to return to Cuba with his son, asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to allow him alone to speak for his son, rather than the Miami relatives. The relatives are appealing a district court's dismissal of the petition they filed to obtain political asylum
for Elian in the United States.
In a declaration filed Wednesday with the 11th Circuit by the Justice Department, Kernberg recommended against allowing the Miami relatives to visit Elian ``in their current angry state.''
``In that frame of mind, they would likely be disruptive for the child, who demands a quiet period of emotional healing from the last few weeks of stress.''
Fluent in Spanish, Kernberg visited the Gonzalez family at Andrews Air Force Base just before they went to their new retreat at the Wye River Plantation on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
To gauge whether the raid left lasting damage, Kernberg gave Elian plastic soldiers that looked like the heavily armed Border Patrol agents who removed him from the Miami home.
The boy played with the toy soldiers ``with pleasure and without anxiety,'' Kernberg wrote. The raid, ``although clearly startling and frightening, was in all likelihood not a traumatic experience producing lasting effects.''
In a separate filing with the 11th Circuit, Gregory Craig, attorney for Juan Miguel Gonzalez, asked the Atlanta court to let the father ``assert his rights as a father ... to speak on behalf of Elian, who has no other suitable representative.''
The father asked the court to reject a bid by the boy's great-uncle and former temporary guardian, Lazaro Gonzalez, to have his lawyers and doctors see Elian and speak for him before the court.
The Justice Department also opposed Lazaro's motion for a court-appointed guardian to examine and speak for Elian. It pledged to provide regular reports from a psychiatrist and a social worker hired to monitor Elian.
On Capitol Hill, Lazaro Gonzalez, his daughter, Marisleysis, and other Miami relatives campaigned to keep the boy in this country, before returning to Miami later Wednesday. Republicans plan hearings next Wednesday on the raid.
``Obviously they are very sad and we share their sadness at this point,'' said Sylvia Iriondo, president of the anti-Castro group Mothers Against Repression, who flew home to Miami with the relatives. ``Castro and his regime are calling the shots here, and it is very sad for all of us that this
child has not been able to see this family with whom he has shared the most difficult and trying times.''
Although Marisleysis Gonzalez has characterized her relationship to Elian as that of a surrogate mother, Kernberg said Elian may have a schoolboy crush on her. Elian confided to his stepmother that he has a secret love, Mary, Kernberg wrote.
``His feelings for Marisleysis are similar to the romantic feelings of a school boy for his teacher or a wished-for girlfriend.''
Dr. Lidya Usategui, a Miami child psychiatrist supporting the view of the American Gonzalez family, said Kernberg spent too little time with Elian for a proper evaluation.
Dr. Jose Carro, president of the Cuban Pediatric Society in Exile, said that in the group's view, Elian "continues to suffer. ... Elian should have access to his family from Miami.''
Elian Doc: No Miami Visitors Yet
By Michael J. Sniffen, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON (AP) - A child psychiatrist who interviewed Elian Gonzalez for the government recommended Wednesday against a visit by his Miami relatives ``in their current angry state.'' And the 6-year-old Cuban boy's father asked a federal court to allow him alone to speak for his son.
As Elian remained secluded in rural Maryland with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, stepmother and half brother, Dr. Paulina F. Kernberg of Cornell University Medical College reported that Elian has had ``a positive reunion with his father'' and displays a ``sense of well-being and happiness
with his father.''
Noting the anger expressed by the Miami relatives over the raid that took Elian from them Saturday, Kernberg said, ``In that frame of mind, they would likely be disruptive for the child, who demands a quiet period of emotional healing from the last few weeks of stress.''
She recommended the Miami relatives seek counseling ``to aid them in accepting and supporting Elian's reunion with his father.'' The boy would benefit for now from receiving letters, photos and taped messages from them, Kernberg said.
Meantime, Gregory Craig, attorney for Juan Miguel Gonzalez, asked in an emergency petition for the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ``to assert his rights as a father ... to speak on behalf of Elian, who has no other suitable representative.''
The father asked the court to reject a bid by the boy's great-uncle and former temporary guardian, Lazaro Gonzalez, to have his lawyers and doctors see Elian and speak for him before the court.
``Lawyers for Lazaro Gonzalez - and they are Lazaro's lawyers, not Elian's - seek to use machination and legal sleight of hand to turn this court into the arbiter of an intra-family dispute,'' the Craig brief said. ``This case cries out for this father's personal intervention to save his son
from further manipulation.''
The Justice Department also filed its opposition to Lazaro's motion for a court-appointed guardian to examine and speak for Elian. It pledged to provide the court with regular reports from a psychiatrist and a social worker it has hired to monitor Elian.
The 11th Circuit is considering the Miami relatives' appeal of a U.S. district court decision that threw out the political asylum petition they filed on Elian's behalf.
On Capitol Hill, Lazaro Gonzalez and his daughter, Marisleysis, and other Miami relatives campaigned to keep the boy in this country despite his father's desire to take him home to Cuba.
The great-uncle, his daughter and other Miami relatives who came to Washington Saturday flew back to Miami on Wednesday night, said Emilio Vasquez of the Cuban American National Foundation.
Kernberg, fluent in Spanish, spent 21/2 hours Tuesday with the Gonzalez family at Andrews Air Force Base just before they went to their new retreat at the Wye River Plantation on Maryland's Eastern Shore. She spent time alone with the father and with the entire family.
Although Marisleysis Gonzalez has characterized her relationship to Elian as that of a surrogate mother, Kernberg said Elian may have a schoolboy crush on her. Elian confided to his stepmother that he has a secret love, Mary, Kernberg said in a declaration the Justice Department supplied the
11th Circuit.
``His feelings for Marisleysis are similar to the romantic feelings of a school boy for his teacher or a wished-for girlfriend,'' Kernberg wrote.
The child psychiatrist gave Elian plastic soldiers, similar in appearance to the Border Patrol agents who removed him in from the Miami home, to gauge whether the raid left lasting damage.
The boy played with the toy soldiers ``with pleasure and without anxiety,'' Kernberg wrote. ``His removal from his Miami relatives' home, although clearly startling and frightening, was in all likelihood not a traumatic experience producing lasting effects.''
On Capitol Hill, where Republicans planned hearings next Wednesday on the pre-dawn Saturday raid that removed Elian from Lazaro's home, the Florida relatives presented rival doctors who challenged Kernberg's conclusions. They called on President Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno to permit
Florida-based ``medical professionals trusted by Elian'' to evaluate him.
Kernberg spent too little time with Elian for a proper evaluation, said Dr. Lidya Usategui, a Miami child psychiatrist. Dr. Jose Carro, president of the Cuban Pediatric Society in Exile, said, ``In our view, he (Elian) continues to suffer.... Elian should have access to his family from Miami.''
At the wooded Maryland retreat, Elian awaited visits by his former kindergarten teacher and a 10-year-old cousin who traveled to the United States on Wednesday from Cuba. The teacher and cousin flew into Washington's Reagan National Airport on Wednesday night and were driven to an undisclosed
location.
In addition, four of Elian's Cuban classmates, along with three of their mothers and one father, are expected to receive visas from the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana and fly to the United States on Thursday. ``A young 6-year-old ... needs to have someone to play with,'' State Department
spokesman James Rubin said.
Kernberg described Elian as playful and at ease with his family.
``Elian has a relationship with his father that is characterized by admiration and pride,'' she wrote. The boy ``drew a picture of a man on a mountaintop and told me that the image was his `daddy looking around'.''
``Elian enjoyed hanging from his father's shoulders or in an upside-down position or simply cuddling with him. Whenever he made eye contact with his father, his face brightened,'' Kernberg wrote.
Meantime, the INS revealed the Border Patrol agents' view of the raid they conducted to seize Elian.
One of the eight reported he ``had never encountered this much resistance,'' said INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona.
``The agents said the crowd around the house was extremely aggressive and hostile,'' Cardona said. ``The female agent, Betty Mills, was pushed to the ground on the way in.'' Several people formed a human chain at the door.
The agents identified themselves and asked for cooperation, ``but they did not get it despite the family's promise to just open the door peacefully if we came to get Elian,'' Cardona said.
``There was a couch pushed against the door, so the agents had to breach the door. Inside all the while, family members and supporters were screaming at the agents.''
The agent photographed holding an automatic weapon as he encountered a terrified Elian "made a specific decision to keep the safety lock on because he feared he would encounter a physical struggle and didn't want the gun to go off accidentally,'' Cardona said.
Castro Lashes Out at U.S. Officials
By John Rice, Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA, 26 (AP) - President Fidel Castro on Wednesday lashed out at U.S. officials for not authorizing Cuban child specialists to visit the 6-year-old in preparation for his possible return to the island.
Castro said that Washington's refusal to permit the full 31-member delegation proposed by Cuba ``cannot be explained.''
``Not a single specialist, not a single psychologist, not a single psychiatrist,'' have been approved by U.S. officials, Castro told reporters after visiting a special boarding school in Havana being prepared for Elian and his classmates to attend if the boy is returned.
Castro also repeated his praise of the raid that removed Elian from the house of Miami relatives, but he said that in Cuba such an action would have been handled without weapons.
``We do it with unarmed people,'' Castro said.
Attorney General Janet Reno said weapons were used to safeguard the lives of agents due to reports of possible arms at the Miami house.
Castro spent a few minutes touring the converted house where Cuban officials say Elian will stay if a federal court allows him to leave the United States, where he has been since being rescued after a shipwreck that killed his mother in late November.
Meanwhile, Elian's former kindergarten teacher Agueda Fleitas and cousin Yasmany Betancourt were flying to Washington, carrying school materials, gifts and mementos for the 6-year-old boy.
Four of Elian's schoolmates and four of their parents applied Wednesday for visas to visit the United States as well. U.S. officials have said the visas will be expedited.
``I am going to give him a kiss and a very strong hug,'' 10-year-old Yasmany said in an interview broadcast by Cuban state television Wednesday night.
Cuba had asked U.S. officials for permission to send a much larger delegation including 12 schoolchildren, three teachers, five psychologists or psychiatrists and six doctors.
University of Havana psychologist Aurora Garcia, a proposed member of the group, said the idea is to help the boy ``restore his historical memory,'' cure psychological wounds caused the stress of recent months and prepare him for return to his Cuban friends.
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