Who won and who lost in the seven-month saga that turned a Cold War clash into a soap opera
Tony Karon. TIME Magazine. July 3, 2000
WINNERS
Elian Gonzalez
Happily reunited with Dad and going home to family, friends and an adoring nation, the worst of his ordeal is over. Of course he's lost a lot too — his mother, and his innocence — and his traumatic sojourn in Miami may have left deep emotional scars. He's also lost the constitutional
freedoms guaranteed in the U.S., but those aren't likely to mean much to a six-year-old. And by the time he's old enough to tell the difference, Castro is unlikely to still be in power.
Juan Miguel Gonzalez
Gets to take his reunited family home, to a hero's welcome. He took a great gamble coming to Washington without guarantees over the outcome, but he might have lost his son had he stayed away. His dignified determination, warmth and patriotism made a more powerful impression in the U.S. than any
ambassador Havana could have sent. And if he was doing pretty well by Cuban standards in the tourism industry, his triumphant role in this greatest of national dramas will have left him a made man.
Fidel Castro
Played it like an old pro, once again confounding his foes in Miami who inadvertently handed him an massive bump in domestic popularity. From the outset, he couldn't lose (except if Juan Miguel had defected). He surfed a wave of Cuban anger over efforts to keep Elian from his father, and
parlayed that into street demonstrations involving millions of people denouncing the yanquis and the Miami leadership. Even if the Miami relatives had won the court battle, the aging dictator would have come out ahead. Instead, he gets to play the benign strongman at a national victory celebration.
The Clinton Administration (Minus the Veep)
Initially paralyzed by fear of Miami protests, the government dithered for months over implementing its decision to send Elian home. Juan Miguel's arrival forced their hand, and Attorney General Reno sent in the SWAT team to reclaim Elian, risking the backlash. There was very little, once the
boy was obviously happily reunited with his father. After that, the strategy of letting the courts making the final decision neutralized any protests, and left mainstream America satisfied with the result.
LOSERS
The Miami Relatives
Lazaro Gonzalez and his daughter Marisleysis lost a child for whom they obviously cared deeply. It was over for them once Elian's father came to the U.S. — the rest has been simply delaying the inevitable. With Juan Miguel here and demanding his child, they lost the battle for America's
hearts and minds, and once Elian had been removed from their home their position became untenable. But the political logic of the battle they'd begun demanded a vain fight to the finish, and now they're left to rebuild lives permanently changed by their choices — and heal an epic family rift.
The Cuban-American Leadership
The campaign to keep Elian in the U.S. was organized and directed by Miami's anti-Castro exile leadership in the hope that it would reinvigorate U.S. support for the embargo and other hard-line positions against Cuba. Instead, it blew up in their faces, alienating family-values-oriented Middle
America and eroding their support on Capitol Hill, leaving the embargo looking weaker than ever and Castro, improbably, a lot stronger than when the campaign began.
GOP Conservatives
Republicans such as Dan Burton and Bob Smith, as well as a plethora of anti-Castro boosters on both sides of the aisle, had rallied to the Cuban-American leadership in the early stages of the campaign, even mooting schemes to outwit the government and the courts by making Elian a citizen. But
they failed to convince their colleagues, and by the time the boy was snatched from Miami by a SWAT team, the GOP leadership knew better than to risk the wrath of the electorate by launching congressional inquiries.
Al Gore
Ouch. Perhaps the writing was on the wall for former Gore campaign manager Tony Coelho after he reportedly took the lead in advising his man to adopt the Republican stance that the matter should be settled in Family Court. It came across as a craven bid for the votes of a section of the
electorate all but owned by the GOP, and hurt Gore among Democratic core constituencies and in the character stakes.
Janet Reno
As ever, the administration hung her out to catch the flak, and even though she finally did what had to be done and toughed out the consequences, she took the blame — fairly or unfairly — for allowing the explosive situation to evolve. Of course, on the merits of the case, she's a
winner, but her handling of the case is unlikely to have boosted her approval ratings.
The U.S. Media
Elian got more network coverage than either Princess Di or John Kennedy Jr. That may simply be a case of catering to public tastes. But new depths of depravity were plumbed in the constant rebroadcasting of a disturbing, exploitative home video made by the Miami relatives for propaganda
purposes, as well as in some of the invasive, voyeuristic coverage the major networks seemed to regard as their birthright.
Copyright © 2000 Time Inc. |