Compiled By Madeline Baro Diaz. Online News Reporter. mbaro@herald.com. Miami Herald. June 28, 2000
Elián González left the United States for Cuba this afternoon with his father, seven months after his rescue off the Florida coast kicked off an international custody battle that made worldwide headlines.
Elián, his father, stepmother, half brother, schoolmates and others left aboard a private plane from Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. around 4:30 p.m. this afternoon. Elián waved goodbye as he boarded the plane.
The Supreme Court cleared the way for his departure today when it rejected a last-ditch effort by Elián González's Miami relatives to keep the boy in the country.
In a brief statement, Juan Miguel González said he was leaving with good impressions of the United States and its people and hoped those feelings would continue between Cuba and the United States.
"In reality I am very happy right now that I am going back to my country, and really I don't have the words,'' he said in Spanish.
The Supreme Court rejected a formal appeal filed by the boy's Miami relatives and a separate emergency request aimed at postponing his departure. Its action was announced in a brief order.
The emergency request had been filed with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, but he referred it to the full court.
Today's order, in its entirety, read: "The application for stay presented to Justice Kennedy and by him referred to the court is denied. The petition for a writ of certiorari (the appeal) is denied."
In a brief statement, Gregory Craig, attorney for Juan Miguel, said the González family "is gratified by the Supreme Court's swift action today. Juan Miguel is happy that his family is together, safe and now free to go home."
The Miami Gonzálezes left the Little Havana home two hours before the decision just as a crowd of supporters and members of the press gathered. They drove to St. John Bosco Church, but left when members of the media followed.
They then drove to La Ermita de la Caridad, a seaside Catholic church popular among exiles because it faces the direction of Cuba. As churchgoers gathered for the High Noon mass, the González family, a clan of about a dozen including children, and most of the members of their legal team,
sat in the basement of the church where they prayed.
Attorney Kendall Coffey then received a phone call from his office with the court's decision. Coffey told family spokesman Armando Gutierrez, who told the family: "We lost."
A few of them cried and then they spoke about asking the community to remain calm.
In a statement released this afternoon, the family said the fight for Elian is not over.
''Of course, the family is disappointed,'' family spokesman Armando Gutierrez said. ''But they believe in God and in the rule of law.''
Dozens of demonstrators gathered today outside the Little Havana home where Elián spent about five months. When they learned of today's decision, they cried, screamed, jeered and consoled each other.
Attorney General Janet Reno said she was "very pleased that the Supreme Court declined to review the case."
"This little boy now knows that he can remain with his father," Reno added. "All involved have had an opportunity to make their case - all the way to the highest court in the land. I hope that everyone will accept the Supreme Court's decision and join me in wishing this family,
and this special little boy, well."
President Clinton repeated that the administration upheld the rule of law in the Elián González case.
"Do I wish it had unfolded in less dramatic less traumatic ways for all concerned," he said of the seven-month case. "Of course I do."
In Cuba, the government urged people there to remain calm.
"Now more than ever, our population must behave with the most dignity, serenity and discipline," the government said on Cuban state television.
Earlier this month, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta upheld the Immigration and Naturalization Service's rejection of the asylum petition filed on Elián's behalf.
Last week, the full panel of the appeals court refused a rehearing request by the Miami relatives.
Attorneys for Lázaro González, the boy's great uncle, then petitioned the Supreme Court, saying Elián has a constitutional right to appeal for asylum, and asked for an injunction. On Tuesday, Craig formally opposed the injunction request.
"Each passing day in this country causes Juan Miguel González and his family -- including Elián -- immense and irreparable harm," Craig wrote the justices. Solicitor General Seth Waxman of the Justice Department, the government's chief appellate lawyer, also asked the
court to let Elián return home.
In its written response, the Department of Justice claimed that immigration law provides no constitutional right for Elián to apply for political asylum. Moreover, the agency asserted that it did extensive research on his case before concluding that the boy's father was the only person
who could speak for him.
Meanwhile, Judicial Watch, a conservative organization opposed to the Clinton administration, formally joined the Miami relatives' legal team. Through a lawsuit filed on behalf of one of Elián's rescuers, it has obtained thousands of pages of internal federal documents on the case.
Elián was found off the Florida coast last November and turned over to his Miami relatives, who waged a custody battle with his father in Cuba. In April, the boy was removed from his relatives' Little Havana home by federal agents in an early morning raid and reunited with his father, who
had traveled to Washington, D.C. by that time in hopes of retrieving his son and returning to Cuba.
Herald staff writers Ana Acle and Jay Weaver and Herald wire services contributed to this report.
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