Articles from Elian's Saga. Published Friday, April 28, 2000, in the Miami Herald.
Elian's relatives' request to visit rejected by court
By Jay Weaver. jweaver@herald.com
A federal appeals court Thursday dealt a major setback to Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives, ruling that they and their lawyers have no right to visit the 6-year-old boy who is now in his father's custody in Maryland.
The three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also denied the relatives' request for an independent guardian to look after the child's interests during the legal battle over whether he is entitled to a political asylum hearing. And the panel refused a request that the court
allow Elian to be seen by the psychologist who had been treating him in Miami.
``Certainly, we would have preferred the federal court's assistance with visitation, but unfortunately they did not do it,'' said Kendall Coffey, one of the Miami relatives' attorney. He said their legal team was considering challenging the constitutionality of preventing Elian's lawyers from
seeing him.
In another blow to the relatives, the panel agreed to allow Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, to participate in his son's immigration case by filing briefs before oral arguments on May 11. But the judges did not answer Juan Miguel's request seeking to have Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez
removed from the case -- a tactic that would have effectively ended the boy's appeal.
``Their strategy was to move in for an early knockout, and that strategy has been rejected [for now],'' Coffey said.
The three judges, James Edmondson, Joel Dubina and Charles Wilson, asked the government and Lazaro Gonzalez's attorneys to file court papers in response to the father's request to replace the great-uncle in the suit by May 16.
The only judge who opposed the father's intervention in the case was Dubina. In his dissenting opinion, Dubina wrote: ``Although I recognize as plaintiff's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez has interests in this case, I believe his motion should fail because it is untimely filed, and the INS
adequately represents his interests.''
The other two judges also expressed their doubts about the timing of the father's move to intervene. They noted that Lazaro Gonzalez sued the Immigration and Naturalization Service in January after the agency shelved the boy's asylum application because it found he was too young and his father
wanted the request withdrawn.
They said Juan Miguel Gonzalez did not intervene in the suit when it was before U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore, who ruled on March 21 that the government acted properly in denying Elian's asylum request. Lazaro Gonzalez filed a notice of appeal that same day in the 11th Circuit.
``We especially are hesitant to permit intervention in an appeal where, as here, the date of oral argument has long been set and is near,'' Edmondson and Wilson wrote for the majority. ``Nonetheless, we grant Juan Miguel Gonzalez's motion to intervene: he is [Elian's] father.''
At the same time, all three judges endorsed Edmondson's earlier ruling that stops anyone from taking Elian to a Cuban mission or to a Cuban official's home with diplomatic immunity because it would be outside the control of the U.S. courts. Earlier this month, they issued an order blocking
Elian's return to Cuba until his appeal is concluded.
The three judges acknowledged the government's effort to keep the boy within the court's jurisdiction. ``The government represents that they have faithfully taken steps to see that [Elian] does not pass out of the jurisdiction of this Court. We fully credit these representations.''
The boy's legal team contends that now that the boy is with his father, he will be brainwashed by Fidel Castro's government agents to say that he wants to return to Cuba instead of remaining in the United States. Elian is staying with his father's family at the Wye Plantation, a privately owned
compound on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
The three judges also accepted the government's offer ``to supply the court with biweekly reports'' from a psychiatrist and social worker retained by the INS to monitor and examine Elian's well-being, health and condition during his stay.
Castro says U.S. hindering access to Cuban boy
HAVANA -- (AP) -- Cuban President Fidel Castro is accusing U.S. officials of limiting access to Elian Gonzalez by Cuban diplomats and of hindering efforts by Cuban friends to help him.
``There have been nothing but obstacles and difficulties of all kinds,'' Castro complained Thursday at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport after four children, four of their parents and Elian's doctor flew to the United States.
He complained that the U.S. State Department was limiting Cuban diplomatic access to the 6-year-old shipwreck survivor, who is staying at the Wye River conference center 70 miles outside Washington, D.C. -- well beyond the 25 miles Cuban diplomats are allowed to travel from the capital without
special permission.
``The result is they are kidnapped there,'' Castro said, adding that the Cubans could have chosen another site closer to Washington but relied on the good faith of U.S. officials.
Castro also complained that U.S. officials had told Cuba that Elian's physician, Dr. Caridad Ponce de Leon, cannot practice medicine at the Maryland site under state law.
Cuban state television later reported that on her arrival, U.S. Customs confiscated medicines for Elian from the doctor.
Cuban officials are trying to create a little bit of Elian's hometown, Cardenas, at Wye River, where the boy is staying while a court considers efforts by his Miami relatives to seek political asylum against his father's wishes.
``They have said that we want to move Cardenas to the United States,'' Castro said, complaining about U.S. refusal to grant visas to all 31 people Cuba had proposed to help Elian recover from trauma, catch up with schoolwork and renew relations with his friends.
Castro said that if the family had to wait a month or more for a court ruling allowing Elian to return, ``it would be better if he were with people that he knew.''
He complained that the U.S. limited the Cubans to 15-day visas so that the children who visit Elian would have to be rotated, preventing a stable, school-like environment.
``They are crazy things, absurd, ridiculous, which cannot contribute anything to helping the boy,'' Castro said.
Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon, who has overseen much of Cuba's campaign for Elian's return, said sending the children ``is the only way that you can have an idea of a school for a little boy that has the right to return a life as normal as possible.''
``I really prefer to believe that the American public would not tolerate having this issue dragging on and on,'' he told The Associated Press, adding that it ``sends a terrible message'' to U.S. families trying to recover children being held abroad.
He ridiculed a proposal by Republican presidential candidate Gov. George W. Bush that U.S. officials should convince the father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, to remain in the United States.
``I don't think it is the job of any government to interfere in what is a fundamental human right ... that everybody has a right to live in his own country or to choose his own nationality,'' Alarcon said.
Elian's relatives back in Miami; 'We feel humiliated,' they say
By Ana Acle. aacle@herald.com
A disheartened Lazaro Gonzalez returned home Thursday for the first time since his nephew Elian was taken away last weekend. His wife, Angela, and daughter, Marisleysis, couldn't bear to accompany him.
"We feel humiliated,'' he said after returning from Washington, D.C., where the Gonzalezes had failed to see Elian. He stood in his Little Havana yard. Out front, a makeshift crucifix had been attached to the chain-link fence, bearing a toy doll, arms extended and nailed, a black cloth
wrapped around the doll's mouth.
``They violated my castle,'' he said of the federal agents who raided the home. ``The world needs to pay attention to this case so that there are no more families like the Gonzalezes.''
His home remains just as it was after the raid. The front door is still broken and the home's contents are in disarray. The swing set behind the Little Havana home named El Parque de Elian sits empty.
But the yard has become a memorial, festooned with more than 30 bouquets. On Thursday, florists kept delivering more. The fence holds numerous flags of different nationalities and signs expressing both sorrow (Elian will stay in our hearts) and anger (Federal child abuse: Would you let this
happen to your child?).
Marisleysis, who had shared her room with Elian, is keeping away. She is staying with relatives at an undisclosed location. And so is her mother, Angela.
``She feels well, but she's stressed,'' Gonzalez said. ``This has traumatized her, and she doesn't want to return to the house,'' Gonzalez said.
A family friend, Robert Curbelo Jr., picked up some of Marisleysis' belongings from the home Thursday to take to her. Curbelo didn't speak much, but expressed his disappointment at the court's ruling earlier in the day not to appoint a temporary guardian.
The family fears Elian will return to Cuba, he said.
ELIAN'S COUSIN
Elian's playmate and cousin, 5-year-old Lazarito Martell, has taken Elian's seeming disappearance the hardest. The boy was in the home during the time of the raid. His father, Alfredo Martell, says a psychologist is treating his son.
``He cannot sleep at night,'' Martell said. ``And the tear gas has worsened his asthma.''
The boy has outbursts, often yelling ``Donde esta Elian? (Where is Elian?)''
Gonzalez said he would like to see Elian, at the very least on television, so he can be assured that Elian is being taken care of by his father and not mistreated by Cuban agents.
While the family reduces the number of public appearances, the Hispanic community pours out expressions of support. A protest is planned for 3 p.m. Saturday at Southwest Eighth Street and 13th Avenue. A stream of people visited the Little Havana home on Thursday.
``We're here to express our disappointment in the government and for the actions it took against a boy,'' said Mayra Estevez, an assistant office manager with Dr. Rafael Solernou. Wearing light violet uniforms, she and four colleagues brought a bouquet of white lilies to the Gonzalez home and
hung it on the fence, next to white balloons already placed there.
``My hope is for the community to stay together, and to find freedom for Elian and all the millions of Eliancitos in Cuba,'' Estevez said.
FROM NEW JERSEY
Liliana Diaz of New Jersey and 12 relatives stopped by the home to show their support. She got a glimpse of Lazaro Gonzalez on his cellular phone in the backyard.
``We arrived Friday night from New Jersey and we felt sorry that we did not see Elian at his home here,'' Diaz said. ``We want to show our support for the family and for all they have struggled for.
``We're not against the boy being with his father, as many people have misinterpreted, we just don't want him to return to Cuba,'' Diaz said.
As he stood in the yard, Lazaro Gonzalez said he hasn't given up.
``As long as I'm alive, I have hope,'' Gonzalez said. ``We want justice before the world's eyes, not in a hidden back room.''
Castro sends 4 schoolchildren, parents to Maryland to visit Elian
From Herald Wire Services
HAVANA -- President Fidel Castro on Thursday sent nine more people to join Elian Gonzalez and his father in the United States, but complained that U.S. officials were hindering the group and Cuban diplomats trying to visit Elian.
Cuban officials say they want to create a little bit of Elian's hometown, Cardenas, at Maryland's Wye River conference center where the boy is staying while a court considers efforts by his Miami relatives to seek political asylum for him against his father's wishes.
Castro went to Havana's Jose Marti International Airport to bid farewell to Elian's physician, four of his schoolmates and four of their parents. If the family had to wait a month or more for a court ruling allowing Elian to return, ``it would be better if he were with people that he knew,''
Castro said.
But he complained about the U.S. refusal to grant visas to all 31 people Cuba had proposed to help the 6-year-old shipwreck survivor recover from trauma, catch up with schoolwork and renew relations with his friends.
``There have been nothing but obstacles and difficulties of all kinds,'' Castro said.
Castro complained that the United States had limited the Cubans to 15-day visas so that children who visit Elian would have to be rotated, preventing a stable environment.
``They are crazy things, absurd, ridiculous, which cannot contribute anything to helping the boy,'' Castro said.
The group flew to Washington and planned to go the secluded site where Elian is staying with his father, stepmother and baby brother, as well as a teacher and cousin who arrived Wednesday.
In a program broadcast Thursday night, Cuban state television charged that U.S. officials had given Cuban diplomats permission for only brief visits to Wye.
It also complained that on arrival, U.S. Customs confiscated medicines for Elian from Dr. Caridad Ponce de Leon, his physician, and warned that she could not practice medicine in Maryland unless a licensed U.S. physician is present.
The confiscated medicines were listed as amikacin sulfate, used for treatment of bacterial and staph infections; aminophyllinem, a bronchodilator for treatment of asthma, bronchitis and emphysema; cefazoline, for treatment of respiratory, urinary, skin and other infections; and meprobamate,
better known by the trade name Miltown, for treatment of anxiety.
Reno wondered how boy would feel during raid, reunion with dad
By Frank Davies. fdavies@herald.com
WASHINGTON -- Stoic but reflective, Attorney General Janet Reno Thursday defended her decision to seize Elian Gonzalez by force, discussed new details of the raid and described her thoughts at the moment she gave the go-ahead to send in federal agents.
``How would he feel, suddenly being put in the arms of a stranger?'' Reno recalled thinking early Saturday morning. ``What would he think? How frightened would he be?''
The attorney general paused and continued: ``And I kept thinking, I wish I could see him when his daddy gets on the plane.''
Reno, at her regular weekly briefing, said ``a show of force, not a use of force, to show we were in control'' was necessary to conduct the operation quickly and safely. And she said the predawn hours of Saturday were ``the most appropriate time with the least crowd, the safest time possible to
effect the transfer.''
Justice officials later said that a preliminary cost estimate in the Elian case totaled $578,000. That includes the costs during the final week before the raid of deploying 151 agents and using two marshals planes. The total does not include the agents salaries.
DEAL NOT CLOSE
Reno, whose department faces a Senate hearing on the case Wednesday, reiterated that the raid was necessary because negotiations were not close to a deal for a voluntary transfer, and said that the Miami familys rhetoric had hardened in the days before the raid:
``They had at one point said, `If you come, we will just stand aside and let you take the child. That was easier said than done, because you had a situation where a crowd was gathering regularly that would have been very difficult for people to move through.
``But the family then started talking in the last days about `youre going to have to use force to take the child.' ''
As for the timing, Reno said: ``I think one never knows what the appropriate timing is . . . One never knows when the best time was, because you only choose one time.''
Reno said agents entering the home in Little Havana did encounter some resistance, and that some people ``tried to throw ropes around the agents'' by the front door, and pushed a couch against the door. Immigration and Naturalization Service agent Betty Mills was grabbed as she carried Elian to
a waiting van.
After the briefing, a Justice official said that what appeared to be ropes may have been cable belonging to a television cameraman who had raced into the house, with his cable stuck in the doorway.
LASTING IMAGE
``The American people dont like the picture any more than I do,'' she said, referring to a news photo of an armed agent facing Elian. ``They dont like the thought of having to take a little boy to his father in this way. But they had a chance to see it and understand that in a situation like
that, it may not be the prettiest thing in the world, but it is effective and it proved to be effective here.''
That image fueled the anger of several hundred demonstrators who marched in front of the White House Thursday afternoon, chanting slogans denouncing Reno and President Clinton. Many were Cuban Americans who came by bus from South Florida, New Jersey and New York.
``Human rights for Elian,'' they shouted. One protester carried a sign with Reno depicted as a tyrannosaurus rex -- a ``Renosaur'' clutching a boy in her claws.
On Capitol Hill, several Republicans complained that Cuban officials in Washington were being allowed liberal access to Elian and his father, who are staying at a residence at Wye River Plantation on Marylands Eastern Shore about 70 miles east of the capital.
The House International Relations Committee staff said it has been notified that as many as 10 Cuban diplomats and spouses were authorized by the State Department to visit Wye. Cuban diplomats travel is normally restricted to within 25 miles of Washington.
Send a message to Reno, Hialeah mayor urges
Mireidy Fernandez . mfernandez@herald.com
Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez on Thursday urged the Cuban exile community to ship cans of mango juice to U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno as proof of the ``continued lies'' from Cuban leader Fidel Castro about the Elian Gonzalez case.
The 6-year-old boy, who on various occasions has said he likes mango juice, was sent shipments of the juice and clothes by the Cuban government earlier this week when he and his family were staying at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington.
``Elian loves mango juice,'' Cuban Interests Section spokesman Luis Fernandez said on Tuesday when the delivery was made.
In response, Mayor Raul Martinez promised to ``unmask Fidel and Reno'' for what he called ``a bunch of lies.''
``This is an act of complicity when Janet Reno allows a tyrant like Castro to send mango juice to Elian while his own people suffer hunger and scarcity,'' his statement said.
Martinez asked that Cuban Americans buy mango juice produced in South Florida and send the cans directly to Reno's office in Washington.
Businessman criticizes fellow Cubans
By Don Finefrock. dfinefrock@herald.com
A prominent Miami businessman criticized his fellow Cuban Americans on Thursday, saying the community had mishandled the custody battle over Elian Gonzalez and alienated other Americans who might have supported the cause.
Developer Armando Codina shared his views with Gov. Jeb Bush, his former partner, and other business leaders during a meeting at the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce. Bush was in town to urge the community to remain calm.
Although Codina said he supports the Miami family's effort to keep the boy in the United States, he said missteps in that campaign had cost the Cuban-American community the support of others in Miami and elsewhere.
``We have not handled it very well, he said. ``This family has been very ill-advised.
Codina did not mention anyone by name. But the family has been advised throughout the custody battle by Miami political consultant Armando Gutierrez. Gutierrez, reached at home, deflected the criticism, saying it is easy to be a Monday morning quarterback.
``It's damned if you do and damned if you don't, he said.
'HIDEOUS' VIDEOTAPE
Codina pointed to the videotape of Elian, released to the media by Gutierrez, that showed the 6-year-old boy wagging his finger at his father and saying he did not want to go back to Cuba.
The chairman and chief executive of the Codina Group called the videotape ``hideous. The performance may have played well among Cuban Americans but it alienated others, Codina said.
Gutierrez said the family made the decision to release the tape.
Codina also criticized the government for seizing the boy, saying he disagreed with the armed raid on the Gonzalez family home.
But he said the tactics adopted by the Miami family and its advisors left Attorney General Janet Reno with no choice. Lazaro Gonzalez had said the government would have to take his great-nephew by force.
``You do not defy the attorney general of this United States, Codina said in an interview after the meeting. ``That is not acceptable.
Codina said he does not blame the family for the mistakes, but rather the family's advisors, who are more schooled in such things.
``I am distraught about what this has done to this community, he said.
BUSH SPEAKS OUT
The governor also expressed concern.
Bush spent the morning meeting with police officials and exile leaders before arriving at the chamber of commerce. He called for calm on Saturday, when protesters plan to march down Southwest Eighth Street in Little Havana to register their discontent.
Bush said protesters need to keep the demonstration peaceful for the sake of the community, and to counteract negative images of Miami that are being fueled by Washington officials who want to justify the surprise raid.
``The picture that is being painted is an unstable Miami, the governor said, ``a Miami that cannot control itself.
The governor also appealed to community leaders to end the rancor that has characterized the tug of war over Elian.
``We need to begin the healing process, he said.
But one business leader said it is too soon to start mending fences.
``What we have seen in this community is enormous hatred, said Carlos Saladrigas of ADP Totalsource, who was inside the Gonzalez house at the time of the raid trying to negotiate a resolution to the standoff.
Community leaders can speculate about the causes of that hatred -- Saladrigas said there is plenty of blame to go around -- but the businessman said things won't improve until that hatred is fully aired.
``No one is showing the courage to dig deep into the wound, he said. ``The only way to deal with this is very openly. It is going to hurt like hell.
HAITIAN CONCERNS
Bush also heard Thursday from Haitian Americans who said their concerns about federal immigration law had been ignored by the larger community.
Marie Bell of the Society of Haitian American Professionals said she was sad that ``it took one little boy to put a face on immigration. Bell attended the meeting at the chamber of commerce.
Haitian Americans feel disenfranchised, she said, but if they dared to call a work stoppage, as Cuban Americans did this week, they would lose their jobs.
``We don't have the power structure to do that, she said.
Pedro Freyre, chairman of Facts About Cuban Exiles, said Cuban Americans learned a lesson in humility on Saturday that should make them more sensitive to other minorities.
``We don't have anywhere near the power we thought we had, Freyre said. ``We are feeling disenfranchised.
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