Yahoo! June 28, 2000
Supreme Court Allows Elian to Go Back to Cuba
WASHINGTON, 28 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way on Wednesday for shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez to return to Cuba, a crushing defeat for his Miami relatives in the international custody fight over the child.
The high court rejected without any comment or dissent an emergency last-ditch request by the relatives seeking to keep the 6-year-old boy in the United States and also turned down their appeal seeking a political asylum hearing for him.
The court's action, which came on the last day of its term, brought to an end the long legal battle over the boy's fate in the politically-charged case that has pitted Cuban exiles in Miami against their nemesis, Cuban president Fidel Castro.
With the high court siding with the U.S. Justice Department and Elian's Cuban father, an earlier order by a U.S. appeals court in Atlanta requiring that Elian stay in the United States will expire at 4 p.m. EDT Wednesday. Elian then will be free to go back to Cuba.
Cuban-Bound Jet Awaits Elian
By GEORGE GEDDA, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, 28 (AP) - As the Supreme Court weighed whether to block Elian Gonzalez from returning to Cuba, a chartered jet stood by waiting to take the 6-year-old, his family and his friends back to their native soil.
The boy's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, approved the arrangements, waiting for permission from the high court to leave U.S. soil after 4 p.m. EDT Wednesday. Tentative plans called for a nighttime arrival in Havana after a flight from Washington Dulles International Airport in suburban Virginia.
Elian, who has not seen his homeland in seven months, had an entourage of Cuban compatriots, including classmates who joined him here in April.
The plans were uncertain because the Supreme Court could agree to hear an appeal by Elian's Miami relatives seeking a political asylum hearing for the boy.
Cuban officials said the departure plans were being coordinated by Gregory Craig, the lawyer for Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
Elian, just another Cuban boy last November, has since become an international celebrity, and his prospective departure from the United States is generating a lot more attention than his arrival.
He barely survived a perilous boat journey from Cuba that claimed the life of his mother, and since his rescue from the Atlantic Ocean on Thanksgiving Day he has been at the center of a bitter custody battle between his father in Cuba and his Cuban-American relatives in Miami.
For President Fidel Castro, getting Elian out of the clutches of his powerful adversary has been a No. 1 priority.
Elian has become a rallying point for anti-Castro sentiments in the United States, particularly in Miami's Cuban exile neighborhoods. He stayed with his Miami relatives until federal agents seized him on April 22 and turned him over to his father in Washington pending the court appeals.
About 20 protesters prayed for Elian Wednesday morning in front of the now-abandoned house where he lived with his Miami relatives for five months. The have kept a vigil in front of the home for many weeks.
Some of the protesters later joined a similar-sized gathering in front of the federal courthouse in downtown Miami.
Elian appeared to be in the dark about the fate that awaited him Wednesday.
The Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, former general secretary of the National Council of Churches and a staunch supporter of Juan Miguel Gonzalez, said Tuesday she believed the father has been careful not to promise his son when he might be returning home.
``My overwhelming impression is that no one is talking to him about going home'' yet, she said. ``I don't think his father is going to talk about this until they're sure they're going.''
On Monday, attorneys for the relatives asked Justice Anthony M. Kennedy to block Elian's departure so the full Supreme Court could address the issue. Kennedy is responsible for dealing with cases from the 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta, which ruled last week that Elian should be allowed to leave
on Wednesday.
Lawyers for the Miami relatives have argued that a few weeks' delay in the long legal fight over the boy is a small cost in a case with stakes of such magnitude.
All along, the Miami relatives have said the immigration service erred in not granting Elian the right to apply for political asylum.
Immigration officials have consistently maintained that the desire of Elian's father to repatriate the boy to Cuba must be respected, a position backed by a succession of court rulings.
Cubans Welcome Trade Ban Lift
By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA, 27 (AP) - A senior Cuban official on Tuesday criticized a U.S. congressional plan that would allow the sale of American food to Cuba, saying the conditions it appears to impose could worsen a trade embargo against his island.
Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban National Assembly, said news reports of the agreement indicated it would impose conditions on the sale of food, such as refusing U.S. financing for the purchases, and contained nothing about exports of Cuban goods to the United States.
``This here not only doesn't modify the blockade but in some parts makes it worse,'' Alarcon told a forum on state television Tuesday evening.
Lawmakers from American farm states and foes of Cuban President Fidel Castro reached an agreement early Tuesday on a deal to allow direct sales of U.S. food to the Cuban government for the first time in nearly four decades.
While farm-state lawmakers hailed the move as a milestone for American farmers, others said the agreement was more symbolic particularly since the deal prohibits the U.S. government or U.S. banks from financing the sales.
According to government statistics, Cuba imports more than 300,000 tons of rice each year, half of it from Asia. In addition, Cuba imports about 950,000 tons of wheat a year - mainly from Europe. U.S. farm groups say they could provide it all.
However, Cuban shoppers and vendors welcomed word of the agreement, although they questioned whether it would have any effect on their everyday lives.
``The more products there are, the more sales there are,'' said Yasny Perez Osorio as she presided over piles of cucumbers, eggplants and garlic for sale at a farmers' market in Havana's Vedado neighborhood.
But Aurelio Naranjo, a 74-year-old retiree, questioned whether the agreement would have much of an impact because it bars both the American government and U.S. banks from financing such sales.
``It's a big problem,'' he said as he bought 4 pounds of rice - what he needs to get through the month before he receives a new rice quota for July. ``We can buy it, but how?''
Word of the agreement in Cuba was almost overshadowed by an announcement Tuesday in the official daily Granma that Cuba's government plans to limit consumption of fuel across the country.
The high cost of oil coupled with the low price that sugar - Cuba's main export - is fetching on world markets left the government no choice but to order a 5 percent reduction in consumption of gasoline, the announcement said.
Granma didn't say what sectors might be affected but reported that the government had suffered net losses of dlrs 80 million to dlrs 85 million in the first three months of 2000 because of the price fluctuations.
Bush Rejects Cuba Food Proposal
By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer
WAYNE, Mich. 27 (AP) - George W. Bush (news - web sites) rejected an effort by House Republicans to allow American food into Cuba for the first time since the economic embargo nearly 40 years ago, saying Tuesday that President Fidel Castro might block it from reaching those who need it.
``I have opposed lifting the sanctions and I still continue to do so,'' Bush said at a news conference after a welfare reform event. ``I am very skeptical as to whether or not Fidel Castro will let food get to his people.''
Bush said he appreciated the ``good intentions'' of the sponsors, but added that ``I believe we ought to keep the sanctions'' until Castro institutes free elections, a free press and releases political prisoners.
His comments came after House Republicans cut a deal Tuesday to allow direct sales of U.S. food to Cuba as hard-line anti-communists yielded to pressure from the farm and business lobbies to ease the embargo on Castro's government.
The agreement may be largely symbolic: It would bar both the federal government and U.S. banks from financing food sales. The House is expected to attach the agreement to pending legislation this week. It still must be approved by the Senate.
It was not the first time Bush has split with fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill, who are struggling to defend their majority in the House as the Texas governor tries to reclaim the White House for the GOP.
Riding his theme that the GOP may have alienated minority and other potential supporters over the years, Bush has traveled the country touting himself as ``a different kind of Republican.''
He continued that theme Tuesday in Michigan, which voted for rival John McCain (news - web sites) during the primaries, stopping at a private firm that uses public money to help people get off welfare.
Seated amid former welfare recipients at Employment & Training Designs Inc., Bush said the federal government should give states more flexibility to fund such programs.
ETD, for example, provides ``one-stop'' help for people looking to get off welfare by providing everything from job training to placement.
``When we talk about compassionate conservatism, that is what this means,'' Bush said. ``It's conservative to help people find work. It's conservative to fight dependency upon government. It's compassionate to help people help themselves.''
At the news conference afterward, Bush also was more cautious than even his fellow Texan, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, about suspending the 18.4-cent per gallon federal gasoline tax because of increasing pump prices.
Hutchison said Sunday that such a move would give motorists relief from soaring prices. Bush recalled his opposition to suspending the tax the last time Congress considered it.
``I think it's important before we do that to fully understand what it's going to mean to the transportation budgets of the states, their infrastructure plans and infrastructure development,'' Bush said. He said he favors convincing foreign oil producers to increase production.
Bush also left open the possibility of expanding his proposal for a $1.3 trillion, 10-year tax cut due to new economic forecasts of a vastly expanded federal budget surplus.
``I'm pleased with where my plan now sits,'' he said, but added: ``Things may change over time.''
Cuban Exiles Say Food And Medicine Deal Is Flawed
By Jane Sutton
MIAMI, 27 (Reuters) - Cuban exile groups with opposing views on the U.S. embargo against their homeland were in rare agreement on Tuesday's House of Representatives proposal to ease restrictions on food and medicine sales to Cuba: Both said it was flawed.
The Cuban American National Foundation, which staunchly supports the embargo and opposes any sale of U.S. goods to Cuba while communist President Fidel Castro holds power, said there was no guarantee the proposal would benefit the hungry and the ill.
``The language leaves no assurances that the people who need those commodities the most are going to get them,'' CANF spokesman Jose Cardenas said.
``We can't rely on the supposed beneficence of Fidel Castro. He has shown historically that he is incapable of responsibly distributing food and medicine to the Cuban people.''
Cardenas also questioned whether any president would accept a provision requiring congressional approval for any unilateral embargo of food and medicine. That provision would cripple presidential authority over foreign policy, he said.
``It is really a naked power grab on the part of Congress,'' he said.
Conversely, the Miami-based Cuban Committee for Democracy, which advocates dialogue with the Cuban government and an easing of the embargo, supported the House proposal.
But it found fault with the measure for not going far enough, citing a provision in the plan that would ban U.S. government and private financing to help Cuba buy U.S. grain, livestock, animal feed or medicine.
Official Sees Contradiction
``The objective here is to assist the Cuban people to obtain food and medicine more easily and less expensively. Making it more difficult for them to obtain financing -- there is a contradiction there,'' committee President Raul de Velasco said.
``What is the sense in doing that? It's a wrong message we're sending to the Cuban people. That's benefiting the hard-liners, the fundamentalists in Cuba.''
"The only thing that has done is to eliminate the American bankers' benefit from that,'' de Velasco said.
He also criticized a provision that would strengthen the ban on U.S. tourist travel to Cuba, putting into law a prohibition that is now merely policy. The provision would limit the kind of person-to-person contact that could benefit U.S.-Cuban relations, he said.
``Our objective is to allow any American that wants to go to Cuba to be able to do so. It will be good for the Cuban people. It will be good for the American people. You will enhance the relationship,'' de Velasco said.
Cuban Americans are a powerful political force in Florida, but the clout of the hard-liners waned this year with the high-profile case of shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez. The boy's relatives in Miami refused for months to turn Elian over to his Cuban father. In the end, the federal government
forcibly removed the child.
Barring last-minute action by the U.S. Supreme Court, Elian could return home with his father to Cuba as early as Wednesday as the Miami relatives' legal options for keeping him in the United States run out.
Elian's Dad Asks U.S. High Court to Let Them Leave
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON, 27 (Reuters) - Elian Gonzalez's father urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to allow them to return to Cuba by rejecting an emergency request by their Miami relatives to keep the little boy in the United States.
If the high court turns down that request, the 6-year-old shipwreck survivor who has been at the center of a long and bitter international custody battle could leave the United States as early as Wednesday.
The Cuban father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, opposes the request by the Miami relatives asking Justice Anthony Kennedy to keep Elian in the United States until the high court acts on their appeal seeking a political asylum hearing for the boy.
Lawyer Gregory Craig, arguing on behalf of the father, said, ``Each passing day in this country causes Juan Miguel and his family -- including Elian -- immense and irreparable harm.''
The legal maneuvering comes ahead of a deadline of 4 p.m. EDT (2000 GMT) on Wednesday, when an earlier order by a U.S. appeals court in Atlanta requiring Juan Miguel to keep Elian in the United States will expire.
Elian was rescued off the Florida coast on Thanksgiving Day in November. His mother and 10 other people drowned after their boat sank en route from communist Cuba to the United States.
The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) decided Elian should be returned to his father in Cuba, but the Miami relatives who cared for Elian after his rescue refused to relinquish him.
Federal agents then seized the boy on April 22, and reunited him with his father, his stepmother and stepbrother, in the Washington, D.C., area, where they have been staying until the legal appeals are exhausted.
The Miami relatives sued to win Elian political asylum in the United States, arguing that he should not grow up in a communist-ruled country. But a federal judge in Miami and then a U.S. appeals court in Atlanta ruled against the relatives.
In going to the highest court in the land on Monday, lawyers for the relatives said only the Supreme Court ``has the constitutional stature and moral authority to render the final word that will stand the test of time in this divisive, difficult and nationally significant case.''
The international custody battle has pitted Cuban exiles in Miami against their nemesis, Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Craig said the ultimate goal of the lawsuit was to prevent Elian's return to Cuba, and predicted the boy's great-uncle in Miami, Lazaro Gonzalez, will simply give up the case once Elian goes home.
Craig added that Elian's father and his family ``should now be free to make their own decisions without further interference from distant relatives.''
Copyright © 2000 Reuters Limited.
Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press.
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