Yahoo! December 4, 2000
Castro: exile won't be put to death
By Vivian Sequera, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA, 4 (AP) - Cuban President Fidel Castro (news - web sites) said that
the arrested exile he wants to extradite from Panama for trial on terrorism
charges would not be put to death if convicted.
Castro, who accused Luis Posada Carriles of plotting to kill him last month
in Panama, said Sunday that Posada would face a maximum sentence of 20 years in
prison in his home country.
The declaration was intended to assuage concerns in Panama and elsewhere
that Cuba would execute Posada. Castro said there is "not the smallest
excuse'' for Panama to deny extradition.
"Revenge is not what moves us,'' said Castro, who shook up a summit of
Latin American and Iberian leaders in Panama by announcing that Posada was in
the country and planned to kill him.
Cuba blames Posada, 72, for a series of attacks and plots against the
communist country and its leader, including the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner
off the coast of Barbados that killed 73 people.
Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso has said that rather than extradite
Posada immediately, the country would probably first try him and three other
Cuban exiles arrested hours after Castro's Nov. 17 announcement.
Police are investigating whether a cache of plastic explosives found near
the Panama City airport the same day belonged to the men. Their lawyer has said
they knew nothing about the explosives.
Elian Gonzalez to have two guests
By Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, 2 (AP) - Elian Gonzalez will have two guests from the United
States at his seventh birthday party next week - one who helped save his life
and another who helped return him to Cuba.
The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, the American minister who fought to send the
little shipwreck survivor back home earlier this year, says she'll be going to
Wednesday's party in Elian's hometown of Cardenas.
Sam Ciancio, one of two cousins who found Elian adrift off the coast of
Florida, is visiting the family now and is expected to stay for the celebration,
Campbell said Friday.
It will be her first visit with the family since Elian left the United
States in late June, ending a tumultuous seven-month battle by his Miami
relatives to keep him from returning to the communist-ruled country.
In frequent phone calls since Elian went home, his father, Juan Miguel, has
reported that the family's life is returning to normal, Campbell said.
In his latest call two weeks ago, he said he and Elian's stepmother, Nersy,
are expecting another child.
"They're adding on to their house because they're going to have a new
baby,'' said Campbell, former head of the National Council of Churches, who is
writing a book about Elian's international custody saga and other foreign work
she's done.
"The baby is due in April. Juan Miguel is back in his job,'' she said. "These
are the ordinary things that people do.''
It's a far cry from the boy's extraordinary past.
On Thanksgiving 1999, Elian was found adrift and lashed to an inner tube
after his mother, Elisabeth Brotons, and 10 others died in the crossing from
Cuba. He spent the next five months in the spotlight, cheered and adulated by
Cuban exiles in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood as relatives there refused to
return him and fought to get him U.S. asylum against his father's wishes.
"He still has some fears from being lost, from being adrift for two
days,'' Campbell said. "And they are still trying to get him to talk about
that.
"But now that he's back in Cuba with his mother's mother, being back in
that house with her has helped him with his memories about his mother.''
The 41-year-old Ciancio, a roofer and avid fisherman, supported Elian's
reunion with his father, while his cousin Donato Dalrymple sided with Miami
relatives.
While in the United States, Elian was showered with toys and gifts and
photographed day and night. He regained his privacy April 22, after federal
agents snatched him from Miami in a raid and whisked him to Washington, where
his father, stepmother and infant half brother, Hianny, waited for him.
Campbell traveled to Cuba several times during the battle after being asked
by Cuban church officials to help. She also was host to Elian's grandmothers
when they came to the United States and unsuccessfully sought his return.
Campbell visited the family in the Washington area during the two months in
which they waited for the court ruling that eventually allowed Elian to go home.
It was supposed to be a surprise, but Campbell told Friday what she's taking
the boy for a birthday gift: a Polaroid camera and film.
"So many pictures were taken of him,'' she said, "I want him to be
able to take some, too.''
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