The Washington Post. June 29, 2000
7 Months Later, Elian Goes Home To Cuba
By Karen DeYoung. Washington Post Staff Writer. Thursday, June 29, 2000; Page A01
HAVANA, Cuba, June 28 –– Seven months after he was rescued from the Atlantic Ocean by passing fishermen, Elian Gonzalez returned home tonight to Cuba. In his wake, the 6-year-old boy left a stunned and angry Cuban American community in Miami and a relationship between this
Communist-ruled island and its massive neighbor to the north that seemed to be shifting in a new direction for the first time in decades.
Elian arrived here from Washington in a private plane hours after the Supreme Court rejected a final appeal from Miami relatives seeking to keep him in the United States. Hundreds of schoolchildren, bused to Jose Marti International Airport from the elementary school in his home town of
Cardenas, broke into wild applause as Elian was lifted from the plane by his father just before 8 p.m. They waved Cuban flags, loudly sang the Cuban national anthem and chanted, "Elian! Elian!"
Waiting relatives rushed to embrace Elian, his father, stepmother and baby half-brother, all wiping tears from their eyes. The schoolchildren sang as a band played the Cuban national anthem. Passed from the arms of grandparent to grandparent, Elian smiled faintly and seemed somewhat stunned.
Within minutes, the family climbed into a waiting van. Sitting on his father's lap, Elian waved wanly as they were driven away to a government guest house in Havana. An official statement said they would stay there for "a short while" until returning to Cardenas. President Fidel
Castro, who has presided over massive rallies demanding Elian's return to Cuba, did not attend the arrival, which officials said they intended to keep low-key.
The Supreme Court, in a sparse 26-word order issued at midday, ended a long legal battle that put the U.S. and Cuban governments on one side and, on the other, the Miami relatives who took care of the boy and fought furiously to prevent his return to what they contended would be a life of
deprivation and duress under Castro.
Elian, his father, Juan Miguel, the rest of his family, an entourage of Cuban classmates, a cousin and a teacher left their temporary home at a Cleveland Park estate owned by the Youth for Understanding International Exchange less than three hours after the Supreme Court order, heading for
Washington Dulles International Airport and the three-hour flight to Havana.
Juan Miguel Gonzalez gave YFU President Sally Grooms Cowal two Cuban flags, one large and one small, and a bottle of aged Cuban rum. "I am leaving you with two Cuban flags, one big one and a little one, as a token and the first step in the direction of a human and beautiful relationship
between our countries," Gonzalez wrote in Spanish in large rounded script in the visitor's book inside the 18th-century farmhouse where the entourage had lived for the past 34 days. "Many thanks for your kindness."
"I would like to thank the North American people for the support they have given us and the U.S. government," he said before departing from Dulles. "I think that this has allowed me to meet the very beautiful and intelligent people in this country, and I hope that in the future
this same friendship and this same impression that I have of the U.S. people, that the same thing can become true between both our countries, Cuba and the U.S."
In Miami, spokesmen, friends and attorneys of Elian's Miami relatives deplored the Supreme Court's refusal to take up the appeal and expressed dismay at the boy's future under Castro's Communist government. But Elian's great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, and other members of the Miami family that
cared for the boy until federal agents forcibly removed him in April, had no immediate comment.
"How many more women and children must die before the world hears the cries of the Cuban people?" asked Armando Gutierrez, a family spokesman, referring to the death at sea of Elian's mother, Elizabet, at the end of a tragic attempt to flee Cuba for Florida.
His anguish reflected one side of the deeply emotional debate over Elian's fate that raged in the United States, where the public imagination was captured by a little boy with an engaging smile and an uncertain future that was fought out in the courts and in a propaganda battle between Havana
and the Cuban American community.
President Clinton, asked at a Washington news conference about Elian's departure, said he wishes the struggle "had unfolded in a less dramatic, less traumatic way for all concerned."
"But I think," Clinton added, "that the most important thing is that his father was adjudged by people who made an honest effort to determine that he was a good father, a loving father, committed to the son's welfare. And we upheld here what I think is a quite important principle,
as well as what is clearly the law of the United States."
"I have replayed this in my mind many times," the president said. "I don't know that we had many different options than we perceived, given how the thing developed, but I think the fundamental principle is the right one, and I am glad we did."
Cuban state television interrupted its regular programming within minutes of the court's announcement in Washington. Calling on Cubans to remain "dignified, serene and disciplined," the government said there would be no public reception for the child whose "kidnapping" has
dominated life here since November.
Instead, the government said in a statement broadcast throughout the day, Cuba would keep its word and make Elian's reception here a private, family affair. His grandparents were brought to Havana several days ago to await his arrival, and reporters were told the boy would make no public
appearance. In his home town, Cardenas, dozens of buses appeared at his elementary school, loaded up and headed for Havana.
The government statement complimented Clinton for realizing "the kidnapping of the child was absolutely illegal and damaging to his country's interests." But it warned that the "struggle is far from over, and the fight for Elian is but the first step" in Cuba's battle against
U.S. policies--particularly the economic embargo--that it charges encourage illegal immigration of the kind that led to the death of Elian's mother and his arrival in the United States.
It told Cubans to respond with "a calm attitude in these emotional moments" and to avoid any action that "those filled with hatred" could use against Cuba in the U.S. electoral campaign. After Elian's arrival, the government advised citizens to "celebrate in their homes
and neighborhoods."
As Castro has repeatedly reminded Cubans in recent weeks, U.S. public opinion polls indicated that as many as 70 percent of Americans agreed that Elian should be returned to his father. Increasing numbers, now a majority in most polls, also question the usefulness of the 41-year-old U.S. embargo
of Cuba.
Over the past several months, members of Congress, backed by the powerful farm lobby and U.S. businesses, have gained increasing strength in their efforts to loosen the embargo. This week, the Republican leadership was pushed, largely by GOP members, to a compromise in which food and medical
goods can be sold to Cuba.
Clinton, at his news conference, said he will sign the compromise into law if it reaches his desk in the form of legislation, but he emphasized that he is not ready to make any broader changes in the embargo.
Although Cuban American members of Congress and their supporters claimed victory in the narrow scope of the agreement, which prevents the use of U.S. government or commercial credits to finance trade and strengthens restrictions on travel by Americans to the island, anti-sanctions activists said
they consider it the first step toward ultimate normalization of relations.
For its part, the Cuban government has denounced the agreement, noting that it actually fortifies the embargo in many ways. "There will be no truce in the struggle against the Helms-Burton and Torricelli laws [U.S. legislation that strengthened the embargo in 1992 and 1996], the dozens of
[congressional] amendments to strangle our country, the criminal blockade, the economic war, the incessant policy of subversion and destabilization against the revolution," Castro said at a rally Saturday. "We have pledged ourselves, and we will succeed."
For the Gonzalezes, a once close family divided only by the 90 miles between Florida and Havana, there may be no way to mend the breach. For the Cuban American community, which backed Elian's Miami relatives with emotional, political and financial support through their long and ultimately
unsuccessful legal struggle, the future is uncertain.
Cuban American leaders said they had expected the Supreme Court rejection but hope to use the struggle over Elian to renew their focus on the larger question of U.S. relations with Cuba.
"There is a lot of frustration and a lot of sadness," said Ramon Saul Sanchez, who led many of the massive street demonstrations in Miami last winter and spring. "But the fight for Elian continues. We must fight for the rest of the children in Cuba . . . [and] give people a sense
of objective, give them something to refocus on . . . to put aside this battle and continue the war."
American politicians opposed to Elian's return were bitter. "What Clinton has done, in effect, is to throw a 6-year-old boy over the Berlin Wall," said Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican who represents Miami.
Vice President Gore, who broke with the administration and earned widespread criticism within his own party for calling for the case to be decided in a Florida state court, said yesterday that that still would have been his preference. But, he said, "I think this decision is entitled to
respect and the law should be followed."
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) acknowledged that the case had "damaged--incorrectly so--the nature of Cuban Americans in Miami. It breaks my heart to see the national press depict people who have been lovers of freedom the way that this has all played out."
Staff writers Sylvia Moreno and Jennifer Lenhart in Washington contributed to this report.
In Miami, Elian's Return Elicits Resignation, Sadness, Anger
By Sue Anne Pressley. Washington Post Staff Writer. Thursday, June 29, 2000; Page A24
MIAMI, June 28 –– For seven months, Hector Montez and other Cuban Americans kept vigil here, even though, in their hearts, "we knew it was a lost cause." With anger and sadness, they gathered a final time today to watch their hopes fly away, as young Elian Gonzalez boarded a
plane in suburban Washington, D.C., and returned with his father to communist Cuba.
"Some of us were praying until the very end that perhaps the father would not get on the plane, that perhaps at the very last minute he would surprise everyone and ask for political asylum," said Montez, 48, an insurance investigator who left Cuba 21 years ago. "Our government
spends millions and millions of dollars fighting communism all over the world and yet, we calmly sent this little boy--this little miracle boy whose mother died bringing him to freedom--right back into the arms of Fidel Castro."
Because there was nowhere else to go, the faithful supporters of the Miami relatives who fought since Thanksgiving to keep the child in the United States were drawn once more to the modest white house in Little Havana where Elian lived for several months.
They milled about anxiously, some shouting protests until they were hoarse, others quiet and withdrawn, as the Supreme Court refused to intervene in the case, clearing the way for the boy and his entourage to go back to Cuba. A little after 4:30 p.m. EDT, they watched on television monitors as
Elian's plane took off, weeping and clutching each other for support.
Unlike in April, when federal agents arrived in the predawn darkness to seize the boy and reunite him with his father waiting in Washington, the streets of this often-tense city did not erupt in violence. There was no forced closing of main thoroughfares, no massive police presence, no
rock-throwing by angry protesters, no setting of fires--just disappointment at the ending of the saga and anger at the Clinton administration's role in supporting the boy's return.
"This is the most powerful nation in the world--Clinton is Caesar and Caesar has spoken," said Christian Rivas, 23, a college student. "I understand the American view--that the kid should be with his father. But the father relinquishes his rights when he allows the boy to live in
a country where there are no rights. The only difference we can make now as American citizens is to go out and vote."
Someone had placed a pail of yellow lilies in front of the house that became known throughout the world as Elian's Miami home, where he stayed with his great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez and family during the legal maneuvers to keep him here. Photographs of the boy and of his mother, who drowned with
10 others as they attempted to flee Cuba in a faulty boat in late November, still hung on the chain link fence, even though the Miami relatives are in the process of moving. Cuban and American flags waved in the humid breeze, and for probably the last time, vendors hawked "Freedom for Elian"
T-shirts.
In the early afternoon, before the Supreme Court's decision was announced, the boy's Miami relatives left the Little Havana home. They drove to a Catholic church, but left when some news media showed up, and then went to another church. The family members and some of their attorneys prayed in
the church basement.
Great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez was gazing at the ocean behind the church when he received word that the Supreme Court had refused to consider the case, according to the Associated Press. He turned angrily on members of a news crew trailing him, shouting at them to leave, while his daughter,
Marisleysis, tugged at his arm and held him back.
As Elian's plane taxied down the runway, Tony Ruiz drove slowly through the crowd in his specially decorated van--with a life-sized figure of a federal agent from the April raid, dressed in fatigues and toting a realistic-looking toy gun, plastered to the passenger side.
Despite the occasional skirmish, Miami police Lt. Bill Schwartz said that the city was calm and that police did not expect trouble. "This has been a long haul for everybody in this community," he said. "The passions are just as strong, but people are not expressing themselves the
same way. We're going to see more prayer vigils than protests."
As Elian's plane departed, Juan Gonzalez, 29, no relation, bowed his head and imagined what the boy's life will be like now. "He is going back to poverty and misery and no human rights," Gonzalez said. "He is not going to have a good life."
Special correspondent Catharine Skipp contributed to this report.
On Broadcast Television, It's Elian Who?
By Lisa de Moraes. Thursday, June 29, 2000; Page C01
During the five months Elian Gonzalez lived with his Miami relatives, broadcast network talent literally stood on their heads to cover the boy's story. Yesterday, when the 6-year-old Cuban castaway left the United States, they paid scant attention, largely leaving the story to the cable news
networks.
Compared with the cable networks, the broadcast networks' coverage of the day's saga seemed anticlimactic.
And for CNN, whose ratings have tumbled dramatically over past year, yesterday's Elian story was a chance to show its stuff. At one point the cable news network covered President Clinton's news conference and the Gonzalez story simultaneously by splitting its screen.
The broadcast networks cut into regular programming just after noon, briefly joining their cable news colleagues when the Supreme Court issued its simple 26-word statement declining to hear an appeal by the relatives who sought to keep Elian in America.
CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC all traced via helicopter the movements of Elian and his father during their final hours in the United States. The boy and some of his friends pointed and waved at a helicopter hovering above them at the Rosedale estate in Northwest Washington.
The cable networks also covered Elian's motorcade to Dulles from the air; pictures of the large white Suburban carrying the Gonzalez family and accompanied by official-looking vehicles looked disconcertingly similar to the slow-speed chase of O.J. Simpson in his white Ford Bronco in 1994.
Cameras also caught an angry outburst by one of Elian's Miami relatives, Lazaro Gonzalez, as he realized his fight to keep the boy in the United States had failed. He shouted at photographers, the Associated Press reported, but was pulled away by his daughter, Marisleysis, who had helped care
for Elian before the April raid by federal agents that took the boy from their house.
The local news stations were slightly more vigilant than the broadcast networks in their coverage. Channel 5 had a short update at 2:30; Channels 4, 5 and 7 broke into regular programming briefly at 3 for coverage of the entourage heading for Dulles; Channel 9 broke in with a update at about
3:25 p.m.
At 4 o'clock, Channels 4 and 9 began their regular newscasts and provided continuous coverage, from the arrival of the motorcade at Dulles to the departure of the chartered plane at 4:40. Channel 5 broke into children's programming just after 4; Channel 7 preempted "Oprah."
National broadcast networks didn't return to the story until shortly before Juan Miguel Gonzalez stopped in front of the plane to address America--in Spanish, which caught some of the networks off guard. According to an NBC News rep, Gonzalez's translator did not make it through security and
onto the runway, leaving the networks to fend for themselves--with varying degrees of success. ABC--whose Diane Sawyer once stood on her head during an exclusive visit with Elian--and CNN were quickest to translate the father's words into English.
About 40 news outlets covered Gonzalez's short speech, in which he said he hoped the friendships that had developed during his stay in the United States would lead to better relations between Washington and Havana. Then he grabbed his son's hand and boarded the plane bound for the country Elian
and his mother left last November in a 16-foot boat.
"It has been a long, emotional, political and dramatic odyssey for this young man," NBC's Tom Brokaw said shortly before the takeoff.
The broadcast networks returned to scheduled programming but cable networks continued their all-Elian day. CNN and MSNBC periodically displayed a map of the Eastern Seaboard on which a tiny plane could be seen moving south, tracking the little boy's flight back to Cuba.
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