By John Rice. Irish Independent. April 28, 2000
CUBAN President Fidel Castro yesterday sent nine more people, including four of his pals, to join Elian Gonzalez and his father in the United States, but complained bitterly that US officials were hindering the group and Cuban diplomats who tried to accompany them.
Cuban officials say they want to create a little bit of Elian's hometown, Cardenas, at Maryland's Wye River conference centre 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,'' said Castro at Havana's Jose Marti International Airport after bidding farewell to Elian's doctor, four of his schoolmates and four of their parents.
But he complained about the US 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,'' said Castro.
The group travelled to Washington and were headed for the secluded site where Elian is staying with his father, stepmother and baby brother, as well as a teacher and cousin who arrived on Wednesday.
In a programme broadcast last night, Cuban state television charged that US officials had given Cuban diplomats permission to only briefly visit Wye, which is outside the 40-kilometer (25-mile) limit normally imposed on Cuban officials in Washington.
It also complained that on arrival, US customs confiscated medicines for Elian from Dr Caridad Ponce de Leon, his doctor, and warned that she could not practice medicine in Maryland unless a licensed US doctor was present.
``It is unquestionable that the state department is doing everything possible to cut contact with (Elian's father) Juan Miguel and his family, betraying the good faith of Cuban officials in accepting the Wye site,'' said Castro.
A US federal appeals court yesterday denied a request by Miami relatives for visits with Elian or for an outside guardian. The court accepted instead the government's offer of regular reports from a psychiatrist and a social worker.
In a brief order, the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta denied a series of requests from the boy's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez, whose family cared for Elian for five months until federal agents returned him to his father on Saturday.
The court continued its order barring Elian from any site in the country that has diplomatic immunity a move designed to keep him out of the custody of Cuban diplomats.
On Tuesday, the Miami relatives asked that they, their attorneys and their doctors be given ``regular and reasonable access to him'' until the court rules on the political asylum appeal, or that the court name an outside guardian to look after him during that time.
The 11th Circuit denied all those requests but accepted an offer from the government for weekly reports from a psychiatrist and a social worker.
Justice Department officials, who had opposed the relatives' moves, were pleased but did not immediately comment.
Later, Justice officials said the case, including the raid, had cost more than $578,000 from the day Elian was found. |