Yahoo! June 2, 2000
Elian's Dad Makes Plea To Relatives
By Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON, 2 (AP) - After two months in America and three court rulings in his favor, Juan Miguel Gonzalez again asked Miami relatives to stop the legal dueling that has kept his 6-year-old son Elian from going home to Cuba.
There was little indication the family would oblige. It appeared Elian was going to spend at least another three weeks in the United States.
Speaking Thursday just hours after a three-judge federal appeals court panel in Atlanta sided with him in the lengthy custody battle, Gonzalez said, ``A child simply should be with his parents, always with his parents.
``As the father, I should be speaking on behalf of my son,'' he said through an interpreter.
His lawyer, Gregory Craig, said that after Thursday's ruling, there was ``no longer any doubt'' that Gonzalez would eventually win the case in which the relatives are seeking asylum for Elian.
``It is now time to end this chapter of Elian's life and let this family go in peace,'' he told reporters while standing with Gonzalez in front of his Washington law office.
Craig noted that Miami relatives who took Elian into their home after he was rescued from the Atlantic Ocean have said they are concerned about Elian and that they love him.
``Their love and their concern are best expressed today by calling a halt to this legal battle,'' he said.
Craig said today that Gonzalez would allow the Miami relatives to see Elian ``under certain circumstances.''
``The way they should go about trying to see Elian is just approach the father. They have even yet to approach the father,'' Craig said on NBC's ``Today.''
Family lawyer Spencer Eig, also on NBC, said, ``I'd be very happy to discuss it with Mr. Craig right now.'' But, he added, ``The demand that the family drop its appeal - that the family not do what it thinks is right to protect Elian's future as a precondition for a visit - well, that's just
inhumane.''
Another attorney for the relatives, Kendall Coffey, said they hadn't decided their next move. But he asked Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who handles emergency matters for Florida in the Supreme Court, ``to assure that Elian will remain in the United States'' until the full Supreme Court can
consider a formal appeal he said he would file within 10 days. Later Thursday, the lawyer asked Kennedy to disregard, at least temporarily, the emergency request while the family considered its options.
Marisleysis Gonzalez, Elian's cousin who cared for him during his Miami stay, said she still believes Elian won't be returned to Cuba.
``I hope the laws of this country favor him and give him the opportunity to seek asylum,'' she said. She also hopes the courts will order Elian's father to allow her and her family to visit the boy.
About 100 protesters expressed their anguish over the court ruling while gathered outside the small home in Miami's Little Havana section where Elian stayed with his relatives.
``The Constitution is dead,'' said Roxana Rodriguez, a secretary. ``There is no justice. Democracy and freedom have been thrown to the trash.''
In its ruling, the three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Immigration and Naturalization Service's decision that only a parent can act for a 6-year-old child in immigration matters was reasonable. The court gave the Miami relatives 14 days to appeal.
President Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno welcomed the ruling.
Reno said that if Miami relatives don't appeal during that time, the earliest Elian could leave the United States would be seven days later - or 21 days in all.
And Clinton, speaking in Berlin, said he supported the Justice Department's position that the father was the person ``best suited'' to speak for Elian.
On Capitol Hill, several member of Congress restated their stand on the drawn-out international custody case, begun after Elian survived a November shipwreck that killed his mother and 10 others attempting to come to the United States.
``It can never be in a child's best interests to live under communist tyranny,'' said Rep. Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican who is the House majority whip. ``And I hope that the appeals process will ultimately result in providing Elian Gonzalez with a life of liberty.''
``I am deeply disappointed in the court's decision,'' said Florida Republican Sen. Connie Mack, adding that denying Elian an asylum hearing ``leaves a black mark on our democracy.''
The father arrived in the states with Elian's stepmother and half brother on April 6 in hopes of taking Elian home. Miami relatives refused to relinquish the boy, so federal agents seized him April 22 and reunited him with his dad in the Washington area.
Gonzalez said Thursday that in the time since he was reunited with Elian, ``We have been very happy together.
``I love him very much. And I would hope that this would come to an end, and we can finally go back home together with my whole family and that this delay will not continue unnecessarily.''
Cuba Calls For Elian Protest
By Vivian Sequera, Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA, 1 (AP) - Cuba on Thursday called a demonstration of a half-million women for Friday morning to protest a U.S. court decision that would keep Elian Gonzalez from returning to his homeland for at least another two weeks.
The march of Cuban mothers and grandmothers would be the largest single rally since the beginning of the international custody dispute began after Elian was rescued at sea in late November.
A U.S. appellate court panel sided Thursday with Elian's father in the 6-month-old international custody battle, saying that immigration officials had been entitled to deny an asylum hearing for the boy.
But under the ruling, Elian must remain in the United States for 14 days to give his Miami relatives a chance to appeal.
``We will not cross our arms in the face of this prolonging of the injustice and the crime,'' the government said in a statement read Thursday on state television.
The statement decried Elian's ``cruel and interminable wait to return to the bosom of his family.''
Even members of a visiting American congressional delegation found the additional delay frustrating.
``It seems like the family in Miami will just want to drag this on,'' said U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat in Havana this week with members of the congressional Black Caucus. ``I don't understand it. It's clear that the child should be in the custody of his father.''
The Miami relatives have fought to keep Elian with them in the United States, arguing that they can give him a better life off the communist island. Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, has demanded his parental rights as the child's sole surviving parent.
Elian's mother and 10 others perished in late November when their boat sank during a journey from Cuba to the United States. Two men on a fishing trip rescued Elian off the Florida coast after finding him floating on an innertube.
The boy's Miami relatives were given temporary custody of Elian, who immediately became the subject of an international tug-of-war.
The elder Gonzalez traveled to the United States on April 6 in hopes of reclaiming his son and returning with him to the island, but the Miami relatives refused to turn the child over to his father.
Father and son were reunited on April 22 after Elian was taken forcibly from the Miami relatives' home during an armed federal raid. Elian has since lived with his father in the Washington area while awaiting the decision.
Elian Kin Still Seeking Asylum
By Richard Carelli, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON, 1 (AP) - Working under what may be a tight deadline, the Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez are pursuing their uphill fight of seeking asylum for the boy and foiling his father's plan to take him home to Cuba.
A unanimous, three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that immigration officials lawfully denied an asylum hearing for the boy.
Kendall Coffey, the Miami relatives' lawyer, confronted three basic options: Seek reconsideration from the three-judge panel, ask the entire 11th Circuit court to hear the case or turn to the Supreme Court.
Within minutes of Thursday's ruling, Coffey filed an emergency request that was submitted to Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who handles emergency matters from Florida for the Supreme Court.
The request urged Kennedy's help ``to assure that Elian will remain in the United States'' until the full Supreme Court can consider a formal appeal he said he would file within 10 days.
``No child, whatever may be his immigration status, deserves fewer judicial rights than hardened criminals. Surely, this traumatized and innocent child deserves the court's consideration and protection,'' the request said.
Then Coffey and his legal team switched gears and asked Kennedy to disregard the emergency request.
In a three-paragraph note, the lawyers said: ``Because (the Miami relatives) will weigh carefully the advantages of the reconsideration option and (are) at least temporarily shielded from the injury which prompted the application, no action on the application is required or now requested.''
There was no immediate reaction from Kennedy, who still had the emergency request before him. It is possible he will do nothing with it until hearing from the Miami relatives' lawyers again.
Two aspects of the case remained murky - Coffey's overall strategy and, if he fails, how soon Elian could return to Cuba.
Coffey told reporters ``we have made no decision'' on which legal avenue to pursue, including ``what further relief we might seek from the United States Supreme Court.''
A court order requiring Elian to stay in the United States still is in effect and could last up to 21 days more unless some court extends it to hear new appeals from the Miami relatives. But depending on where the case lands, a totally new timetable might be imposed by Kennedy, the Supreme Court
or the full 11th Circuit court.
Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, wants to take the boy back to Cuba and end the six-month odyssey that began when fishermen found the boy clinging to an inner tube off Florida's coast on Thanksgiving Day. A boat headed to the United States from Cuba had capsized, resulting in the deaths of
Elian's mother and 10 other people.
Elian lived with his great uncle and other relatives in Miami until he was seized by government agents April 22.
Cubans See Change Ahead
By Paul Shepard, Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA, 1 (AP) - From cab stands to the halls of power, an increase in Americans coming to see Cuba for themselves - both officials and tourists - is making Cubans optimistic that the U.S. effort to isolate this country doesn't have long to last.
Meeting with three members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Cuban Economics Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez estimated more than 65,000 Americans visited Cuba last year, part of an annual 20 percent increase in tourism.
Another 100,000 naturalized Americans who were born in Cuba and are still considered by this government to be Cuban citizens visited in 1999, he said.
Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Felipe Perez Roque noted he had met with leaders of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday and that members of the Arkansas congressional delegation were just finishing a visit with Cuban officials.
Some officials say they are viewing the growing relationship as the best chance in years to ease tensions between the countries and a prelude to renewed trade and normalized relations.
``Any change will take some time,'' Perez Roque told caucus members, Reps. James Cleburne, D-S.C., Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.
Perez Roque said Cuba wouldn't be the only beneficiary if trade were opened.
``It would create for the American population a lot more job opportunities. What I'm saying would have to be proved out but it makes sense,'' Perez Roque said.
The Black Caucus members said they welcomed the possibility of a first step - relaxing the U.S. embargo to allow food and medicine shipments.
They expressed concerns, however, that blacks in both countries could end up with a sliver of the economic rewards if large American firms dictate terms of trade between the United States and Cuba.
The House will vote later this month on a provision in an agricultural bill to license U.S. sales of food and medicine to Cuba as long as they aren't subsidized by U.S. taxpayers.
``You have to encourage the companies to be diverse in their structure, otherwise the most supportive groups of trade to Cuba (in America) will be left out of the trade business. Many companies will come to make money without caring about black people in America,'' Thompson told the foreign
minister.
Perez Roque said his worries were unfounded, recounting Cuba's history of aiding poor black nations like Haiti with massive exports of Cuban doctors and Cuba's deployment of troops to Southern African nations like Angola during liberation struggles there.
Perez Roque said 2,000 Cubans died in the fighting. ``We weren't there for mines or diamonds,'' he said. ``We didn't do it out of economic interest, but we did it because of our convictions.''
The foreign minister then gave the congressmen a personal testament he said reflected his country's commitment to racial equity.
Perez Roque rubbed his forearm for emphasis and said: ``This white Cuban has a black wife. We are proud of our mixed condition in this country. Our revolution was made so that all people of all color are treated the same.''
The embargo, creating a barrier between Cuba and the United States, was imposed on Cuba 38 years ago by John F. Kennedy after Fidel Castro won the revolution and revealed his communist leanings.
Through fatter tips and growing numbers of American passengers, a cab driver who works outside the posh Hotel Nacional measures the change sweeping his country.
``I personally have driven for seven members of your Congress in the last few weeks alone - seven - and many more tourists as well. I did not know our beaches had grown so popular to Americans,'' beamed Raul, the 31-year-old native of Old Havana. He spoke in halting English and didn't want his
last name used.
Mari, 23, who drives the yellow, egg-shaped cabs called ``coco taxis'' that run along Havana's Malecon seawall, shares Raul's view. Taking a short respite from running tourists to a local arts fair, she joked in fractured English, ``Soon, I'll be talking more English that Spanish here. I need
lessons.''
Elian Ruling Prompts Screams, Tears
By Mildrade Cherfils, Associated Press Writer.
MIAMI, 1 (AP) - Protesters outside Elian Gonzalez's former home yelled and cried today but remained peaceful after a court issued a ruling that could lead to the boy's return to Cuba.
Some in the crowd of about 100 fell to the ground sobbing after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision was announced in Atlanta. One woman vomited. Another fainted and had to be treated by paramedics.
``The constitution is dead,'' said Roxana Rodriguez, a secretary. ``There is no justice. Democracy and freedom have been thrown to the trash.''
But many in the Little Havana crowd called for calm, noting that the decision could be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
``It is not over yet - God is with us,'' said Sandra Linar, a 40-year-old homemaker. She held a sign adorned with a photo of Elian and his mother, who died while trying to bring him to the United States, as she consoled other demonstrators.
A small number promised violence if the 6-year-old boy is sent back to the communist nation.
``To hell with being peaceful - we have been peaceful long enough,'' said Daniel Jimenez, a 23-year-old unemployed dishwasher. But by early afternoon, the crowd had dwindled to only about half what it was at the time of the ruling.
That was in contrast to April 22, then thousands in Miami's large Cuban-American community took to the streets, some of them burning debris, in the hours after the raid that took the boy away from his Miami relatives. More than 350 people were arrested.
The family moved to another home after the raid.
Attorneys for the relatives said today that they have not decided whether they will request a rehearing. Attorney Kendall Coffey called the decision ``very painful,'' but he said the 11th Circuit judges ``have been very fair.''
Marisleysis Gonzalez, Elian's cousin who acted as his mother during his Miami stay, said that she still has hope that he won't be returned to Cuba, and also hopes to be able to see him.
``I hope the laws of this country favor him and give him the opportunity to seek asylum,'' she said.
Elian was rescued by two fishermen off the Florida coast in November. He was found clinging to an inner tube after his mother and 10 others drowned when their boat sank on the way to the United States from Cuba.
Donato Dalrymple, one of the fishermen who found Elian and who was photographed holding Elian as he was seized by an armed federal agent in April, said today that he was not surprised by the ruling.
``I knew there was no turning back after that raid,'' Dalrymple said. ``I'm sorry he didn't get a true day in court. I'm heartbroken. There was no due process.''
Dalrymple is suing federal authorities over the raid, and his attorneys filed a motion today seeking to keep the boy and his father in the United States until they gave depositions in that suit.
``It's so due process can be taken care of,'' Dalrymple said. ``They're supposed to stay here until the process is over with.''
The issue of the boy's fate has sparked dozens of rallies in Cuba, many of them led by Castro.
The aftermath also included a City Hall shake-up in which the police chief resigned and Mayor Joe Carollo fired the city manager.
Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin, a nun who was host of a meeting between Elian and his Cuban grandmothers in January and then said she thought he should stay in the United States, said that she feels sad for the boy's family.
``It is my sincere hope that this child will continue to experience love from all sides of the family, and that, in time, relationships will be healed,'' she said in a statement.
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