How Cubans really view Elián.
By John R. Thomson. National Review. 6/05/00 12:00 p.m.
Aldo is a 30-year-old Cuban-American who lives in Miami, an up-and-coming business executive who emigrated to the United States with his parents when he was ten, during the notorious Mariel boatlifts of 1979-80. One journalist at the time called it the "freedom flotilla;" sadly, Fidel
Castro duped Jimmy Carter into accepting, among the horde of legitimate refugees, thousands of convicts and psychopaths. ("Not us," Aldo protests.)
Aldo and his parents, long U.S. citizens, return to Cuba at least once a year, to be with less fortunate family and friends, and to give them a financial boost. The three went back two weeks ago, and stayed for nine eye-opening days, in Havana and in their town some 30 miles away.
"Elian and his story were on everybody’s mind and lips," reports Aldo. "Everywhere we went, people were venting about it."
It seems, however, they were not venting the way CNN would like us to believe. Behind the carefully orchestrated demonstrations lay an underlying, fundamental disbelief and disgust.
"At least 75% of the people we spoke with thought Elian should be with his Dad," Aldo notes. "That’s very true, but nearly everyone thought they should stay in the States! They know that if he comes back to Cuba not only will he and his father not be together, they will not
be free."
Just a minute. Is that everyone …or everyone in your family? "You know, I’m not a journalist, but I made a point of asking nearly everybody I met, in my countryside barrio and in downtown Havana. Everyone: They all agreed. And that really surprised me, because the people mostly
get their ‘news’ from Cuban radio and television. "But they see beyond it, and they’re angry. They can’t believe how much Fidel has spent on this campaign in the past six months. They say, ‘We are starving and he’s printing color photos of Elian and Juan Miguel,
and distributing them to every school kid in the country.’ "In Cuba," Aldo observes dryly, "Things like making millions of color photos and busing thousands of ‘volunteer’ demonstrators into Havana from all over the country cost real money, and there is not that much of
it to go around.
"It seemed to me that the people there know the truth better than CNN or ABC. They know that a reported 500,000 demonstration of mothers was less than 100,000, closer to 50,000. They know that 90% of the demonstrators are students and government workers bused in from all over the country.
They know that if you don’t demonstrate, you will lose your job or your place in university or technical school. Why doesn’t [CNN Havana Bureau Chief] Lucia Newman know these things? Why doesn’t she report that the entire school system has effectively stopped functioning during this
manufactured crisis?"
According to Aldo, many Cubans see other things that disturb them, in Miami and Washington, things that somehow were missed by President Clinton, Janet Reno, Greg Craig, and the mainstream media. "My cousins couldn’t accept that there was any need for the traumatizing use of force used
to seize Elian from his Miami relatives. They saw it as tragic for Elian, and evidence of the United States using the kind of police-state tactics employed in Cuba.
"Another friend and his wife spoke for many at a gathering in Havana when they said, ‘Why didn’t Juan Miguel come on his own and claim Elian immediately? If he were our child, we would have done anything necessary to go, immediately … not four months later.’"
There was also fatigue — and disgust. People Aldo met in Havana, just as in Miami, wanted to see the tragedy end. "No one can believe it should take more than six months to resolve this … and hardly anyone can believe Juan Miguel and Elian don’t or won’t make a break for
freedom. They know all too well how controlled their movements are, however, and this makes them guess that both father and son are, effectively, prisoners.
"But I was frankly amazed at the disbelief and outright scorn for Clinton. No one I spoke with in nine days could understand or explain why he has done this, why he has let Fidel make a mockery of him, of the United States and the very concept of freedom."
Aldo’s friends in Cuba still have hope for Elian Gonzalez, however. They still believe that somehow, some way, Elian and Juan Miguel will stay in the States. Perhaps more accurately, they want to believe it: "It would turn off the light of hope in thousands of hearts if Elian comes
home. His mother died. He was free. Castro would win."
Listen up, America. The acts of the U.S. government are close not only to dooming a young child, but also to granting the perfidious Fidel a huge victory over the beleaguered, battered Cuban people.
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