NewsMax.com. Thursday, June 29, 2000
NewsMax.com. June 29, 2000
Elian Back in Cuba
UPI. Thursday, June 29, 2000
HAVANA – The private jet carrying 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez touched down in Havana at 7:46 p.m. Wednesday, CNN reported.
His plane left Virginia's Dulles Airport at 4:40 p.m., after months of legal wrangling.
At the airport in Havana a large crowd of classmates from Elian's school waved flags excitedly as the plane touched down.
Elian and his father exited the plane first, followed by the rest of their entourage. On the tarmac were Elian's grandparents and other relatives who quickly swarmed the child with hugs and kisses. Cameramen recorded the tearful reunion.
Elian and his family were quickly whisked into vehicles and driven to an undisclosed location.
Earlier Wednesday, there was no immediate reaction on Cuban television other than the announcement of the Supreme Court's decision not to block the boy's departure. It was reported the news brought cheering from people in a Havana hotel and in city gathering places.
Before boarding the aircraft at Dulles, Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, thanked the American people and the U.S. government for their support. He said he had met "very beautiful and intelligent people" during his stay and hoped in the future this type of friendship could happen "between
our two counties, Cuba and the United States."
Hours earlier the Supreme Court, in a short order, refused to block the family's departure.
In Miami Wednesday afternoon, people who fought to keep Elian in the country called the decision a family tragedy. Jose Basultu, of Brothers to the Rescue, said the decision should have been heard in family court.
"We are very disillusioned with the Supreme Court decision," said Ramon Saul Sanchez, the president of the anti-Castro Democracy Movement. "We must refocus back to the dissident movement inside of Cuba that is being repressed and crushed, and we must do everything possible to
raise awareness in the American community about our plight."
Sanchez said some sort of nonviolent protest would take place in the city.
A handful of protesters outside the Little Havana home of Elian's Miami relatives expressed disappointment with the Supreme Court ruling.
"Nothing nobody can do. They will send him back to Cuba," said Sacha Sanchez.
There were also protesters in front of the federal building in downtown Miami.
Elian's Miami relatives left their home in the morning and did not comment to a swarm of waiting reporters. After the ruling, they visited a church in Key Biscayne. Lazaro Gonzales, the boy's great-uncle, yelled at reporters in Spanish, upset that the family was being filmed by television news
crews.
The apparent end of Elian's saga came seven months after he was found floating in an inner tube off the coast of Florida, one of three survivors of a shipwreck that killed his mother and at least 10 others trying to flee from Cuba to the United States.
The Supreme Court's order marked the end of a contest of wills between Elian's anti-Castro Miami relatives on one side, and the Justice Department and the boy's Cuban father on the other.
Elian's saga to a large extent was a family drama, one that tested the bonds of a father's authority over a child. But it was also a political drama.
On one side, anti-Castro exiles in Miami's Little Havana saw him as a symbol of resistance against the island's communist regime. On the other, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro used images of the boy and his father to prop up his sometimes wheezing regime.
In the end, the U.S. courts made the final decision.
Tuesday, the Justice Department and Juan Miguel Gonzalez asked the Supreme Court not to prolong "this ordeal" by granting a request from Miami relatives that the boy be kept in the United States for further legal battles.
The Miami relatives were led by Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez.
The Justice Department filing told the justices that "Juan has a close and loving relationship with Elian ... he is expressing his true beliefs and wishes for his child's welfare and ... there is not in any event an objective basis for an asylum claim on behalf of Elian."
The department took the position that only his father could speak for 6-year-old Elian.
Elian had been staying with his father, his stepmother and infant half-brother in the Washington area since he was seized at gunpoint from the Miami relatives Easter weekend.
In an emergency application addressed to Justice Anthony Kennedy Monday afternoon, lawyers for Lazaro asked for an immediate stay of an appeals court order and Supreme Court agreement by July 10 to hear argument in the case next term. They were seeking a political asylum hearing for the child.
Kennedy oversees the 11th U.S. Circuit and could have acted on his own, but referred the emergency request to the entire Supreme Court Wednesday morning for a vote.
Five of the nine justices would have had to vote in favor for the Supreme Court to issue a stay.
Elian's New Home: the Land of Milk (Cup a Day) and Hunger
UPI. Thursday, June 29, 2000
NEW YORK – When Elian Gonzalez returned to Cuba Wednesday, his plane landed in a world of food rationing, power shortages, a lack of economic opportunity and even a lack of water.
When the 6-year-old reaches his next birthday, his ration of one glass of milk and one glass of mango juice a day will end.
Cuba's "boy hero," as he is called in Cuba, will return to a country that provides universal (poor) health care and education but monitors its citizen's mail and telephone conversations and prohibits media reports from the West.
"When I lived in Cuba in the 1950s, if you had a job you wanted for nothing, there was reasonable housing, people could buy cars, food was inexpensive, and people had some money," Joseph A. Gomez, an Albany, N.Y., electrical contractor and Cuban escapee told United Press International.
"Today, it is a disaster."
Gomez, 58, led a 29-member humanitarian delegation from New York on an eight-day visit to Cuba last January. The group advocates dropping the 40-year Cuban embargo.
As best the delegation could determine, a ration book allowed Cubans a monthly ration: Six eggs, 6 pounds of sugar, 6 pounds of rice, 2 pounds of soy mixture, 1.5 pounds of lentils and 1 pint of cooking oil. There is no milk for children over age 7. A small tube of toothpaste and one bar of soap
are rationed every three months.
Bread, meat and fish are not rationed because there is too little available. Meat, when found, can cost $20 U.S. a pound. According to a Cuban official, Cuba used to get 50 percent of its powdered milk from East Germany, but once the Berlin Wall fell East Germany severed its tied with Cuba, and
the milk supply was cut off.
Cuba provides compulsory education from pre-K through grade 9. Cuban officials claim that the country has a literacy rate of 98 percent, 60 percent graduate from high school, and 1 in 15 obtain a college education. Education is free in Cuba through the post-doctoral level, and "access to
education is limited to one's ability to master the work."
But while the country enjoys a high level of education, "Those who graduate and enter a profession face certain poverty."
"A college professor makes 400 pesos a month, which is about $20 U.S. a month. A person working in the tourist industry can make $30 U.S. a day just in tips, so they can make more in a day than what others make in a month," Gomez said.
"Doctors make 300 pesos a month, teachers about 120 pesos, and the exchange rate is 1 U.S. dollar for 20 pesos."
Cuba has a surplus of doctors. In fact, it has the highest number of doctors per capita in the world, 1 per 160 people, compared to the U.S., with 1 per 288.
The island country claims an infant mortality rate of 7.1 per 1,000 live births, down from 57 per 1,000 live births before the 1959 communist revolution.
But the "widespread lack of food has resulted in the serious widespread damage to physical health of the 11.2 million people, especially for the young, the elderly and the ill."
While the World Health Organization requires 6 vaccines for children, the Cuban regime told the delegation that Cuban children receive 13 vaccines, thus eradicating most communicable diseases.
But there is a shortage of medicines and medical supplies. There are no drugs to treat such diseases as epilepsy, diabetes and asthma, and there is a lack of antibiotics.
It was the lack of drugs for asthma that led Gomez to assemble the delegation.
"My cousin died in Santiago, Cuba, in 1997 for lack of medical supplies for his asthma," said Gomez. "He died in the hospital gasping for air. He could have been treated; it was unnecessary.
"The polyclinics we visited were in disrepair. Glass syringes were reused and common needles for injections were stone sharpened. Refrigerators were old and primitive. The equipment available we saw was scarce and old. Equipment for sterilization was old and in disrepair."
"Government officials told us that Cuba has developed a vaccine for Hepatitis B, meningitis and encephalitis," Gomez said. "Canada manufacturers the Hepatitis B vaccine, but it cannot sell it in the U.S. because of the embargo."
The delegation described housing as being in short supply and in disrepair.
"Money has generally not been expended on buildings or paint but on food, health care and education."
There is a two-year wait for housing. "Infrastructure is also in disrepair, water does not flow all day, and sometimes only a little at a time," said Gomez. "There doesn't seem to be a modern sewer system in Havana, and many toilets don't accommodate toilet paper."
New cars are not available to most in Cuba, although there are vintage cars from the 1940s and 1950s. Gas is rationed to 2 liters a month. Most commuters in Havana walk, use bicycles (1 million were bought from China) or use buses. There are also rigs called "camels" that pack 200
people and are pulled by tractor-trailers. Roads are in disrepair.
Economy in a Shambles
Cuba's economy since Fidel Castro's revolution has suffered, more greatly since the subsidies and markets of the former Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s.
Cuba's economy is driven by three major industries: tourism, $2.2 billion; sugar, $1.9 billion; and tobacco. Cigars, nickel, fishing and money sent by Cuban refugees to relatives makes up most of the rest.
Before the 1991 decline of trade with the Soviet Union, Cuba produced 8 million tons of sugar. However, Cuba exchanged sugar for fuel and beginning in 1992, Soviet fuel to Cuba dropped by 50 percent, resulting in a drop in Cuba's Gross Domestic Product of 35 percent.
One thing propping up the economy is the aid sent by Cuban refugees. U.S. law allows American residents to send $1,200 a year to Cuban relatives. Last year, that money amounted to $800 million being sent to Cuba from America, almost 10 percent of the GDP.
However, Cuba is banking its future on tourism. In 1999, almost 2 million tourists visited Cuba and 10 million tourists are forecast for 2010. Cuba has 36,000 hotel rooms, and it wants to build 85,000 more in the next 10 years. A week's vacation from Montreal can cost $850 U.S. for airfare,
hotel and food.
No Shortages for Tourists
There are no shortages in the tourist areas. There are five-star hotels providing every luxury, including rental cars and taxis. There are Spanish, Italian and German hotel chains operating hotels and resorts in Cuba. There is a 30 percent tax on net profits and a 25 percent payroll tax.
Forty-five percent of the profits can be transferred out of the country.
The top countries investing in Cuba are Canada, Spain, Germany, China and the European Union. There are no remaining investments from Russia.
Overtures From China
However, China is making strong overtures to Cuba with loans, credit, food and aid to rebuild Cuba.
"I find it hard to accept China as a friendly nation to the U.S.," said Gomez. "It seems eager to establish itself in Cuba."
Forty years ago, Castro promised to clean up gambling, prostitution and government corruption. Many of the hotels and businesses in Cuba had American investors, and Castro promised to retain profits on the island and "build a showplace" with the money no longer leaving Cuba.
"I believe Castro's failed, but most Cubans blame the American embargo," Gomez said. "They have been told this over and over, and they believe it. Personally, I value the freedom of America, and I deeply disagree with communism, but I feel the embargo should be lifted because it
causes suffering to the people, and it would eliminate the excuse Castro's government has used."
The delegation feels that if more Americans could visit Cuba they would influence Cuban thinking that might lead to democratic reforms.
Castro has tried to limit the Western influence by allowing only "elites" to take jobs in the tourism areas. They don't have to be Communist Party members – fewer than 10 percent of Cubans are party members – but they have to be "well-connected" and "trustworthy
to the government."
A U.S. congressional plan that would allow the sale of American food and medicine to Cuba for cash does not impress members of the New York delegation.
"Cuba is poor, it doesn't have hard currency, it needs the embargo lifted, and then Cuba would have access to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank loans which it needs to import goods from the U.S.," said New York Assemblyman Robert Prentiss, an Albany Republican.
The congressional deal reached Tuesday prohibits the U.S. government and U.S. banks from financing the sales of medicine and food to Cuba.
"Cuba currently trades with 135 countries, but it needs the U.S. because of its proximity of markets and tourists," said Gomez. "Dealing with China or Europe means expensive transportation costs being tacked on to products."
Miami Family Heartbroken at Elian's Loss of Freedom
UPI. Thursday, June 29, 2000
MIAMI – Relatives who cared for Elian Gonzalez and tried to keep him in the United States were hurt and "devastated" that he left for Cuba on Wednesday, attorneys and family representatives said.
The boy's Miami family regrets that Elian "is going back to live in a country where he will never be free," Armando Gutierrez, a spokesman for the relatives, said at a news conference.
He said the relatives were hurt by Elian's departure and did not wish to appear in public for several weeks. "Let them get their lives back together, and you'll probably hear from them again," he said.
Another attorney, Jose Garcia-Pedrosa, said the family was still praying for a miracle that would keep the boy from returning to Cuba. Elian stayed with the family for almost five months before the boy's father arrived in Washington in early April.
Kendall Coffey, who headed the legal team that represented Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez and other family members, said he and the family were "truly heartbroken at this moment, with a sense of sadness that an injustice has occurred."
"We remain as committed as ever to the cause of this child, to the cause of other refugee children like him whose legal rights are more imperiled than ever and more commited than ever to the cause of justice for the Cuban people here and on the island," Coffey said.
"Returning this child to the worst dictator in the history of this hemisphere without even a hearing, without even an interview, is a grave injustice. It was our duty to do everything we could within the law to fight that injustice.
"We are truly heartbroken at this moment with a sense of sadness that an injustice has occurred and especially a sense of sadness in our concern for this child," Coffey said.
Attorney Roger Bernstein said, "I've never seen a family go through so much in such a short period of time and yet still come away with their dignity intact."
He and attorney Manny Diaz blamed the return of the boy to Cuba on a Clinton administration goal of improving relations with Cuba.
"I am confident that some day soon, as it came to Europe, freedom will come to Cuba and Elian will grow up a free man," attorney Spencer Eig said. Garcia-Pedrosa, who had spoken with the Gonzalez family, said, "They have called upon the community to do as they have done, to accept
the legal ruling and remain calm." He said they did not attend the press conference because they were so pained by the court decision, but they had not given up hope.
The family is moving from the home where they lived with Elian to a house on the west side of Miami that was bought for them by a wealthy Cuban-American supporter.
Miami Protesters Subdued
Several dozen protesters outside the relatives' home expressed sadness and anger Wednesday over Elian's return to Cuba, but were peaceful. Several people were concerned about what would happen when the boy returns to the communist country, fearing he could be used as a propaganda tool.
One woman, disgusted with the court ruling that allowed Elian's father to take him, threw an American flag on the ground and spat on it.
Cuba Democracy Movement leader Ramon Saul Sanchez said: "They're frustrated. They're saddened. They feel that nobody cares about what the Cuban people [are] going through, so it's very hard."
A young Cuban-American woman said, "He's going back to a communist dictator, to a totalitarian regime, and to a country that violates human rights on a daily basis."
Reno's Remarks on Elian's Departure
UPI, Thursday, June 29, 2000
WASHINGTON – Attorney General Janet Reno said she is glad 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez is with his father but wishes both were in a "free country."
Reno and the Justice Department sided with Juan Miguel, saying only a parent could speak on immigration matters for a child that young, but the attorney general sounded a little wistful now that it is all over.
Despite the ups and downs of the case, "in the end he is with his father and I am glad of that," Reno said. "I just wish he were with his father in a democratic, free country."
She also said she is troubled by the continuing anger among Cuban exiles in her hometown of Miami. "I'm going to do everything I can to heal it. I don't know if I can," Reno said. "... This hurt may go too deep, which I will regret. But I still have to do what I think is right
under the law."
The attorney general said she has no second thoughts about the course she took during the controversy. "I don't know what else could have been done," she said. "I go over it frequently."
As she contended earlier this spring, Reno again said Juan Miguel had the chance to change his mind and stay in the United States instead of returning to Cuba. "The subject came up" during a private April meeting with Reno away from Cuban officials in her conference room at the Justice
Department. "He said he wanted to go home," the attorney general said.
(C) 2000 UPI. All Rights Reserved.
Congressional Response to Elian's Departure
NewsMax.com. Thursday, June 29, 2000
In searching the Web sites of the members of Congress (both houses, no less), there was astonishingly almost no mention at all of Elian Gonzalez.
Here are the only three NewsMax.com could find:
U.S. Senator Connie Mack, R-Fla., made the following statement in reaction to Elian Gonzalez's return to Cuba: "My heart breaks for the little boy. I had hoped he could live a life of freedom as his mother had wished. I will keep him in my prayers."
Tom DeLay, R-Texas, the House Majority Whip, voiced his deep disappointment with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision not to consider Elian Gonzalez’s right to an asylum hearing. Congressman DeLay’s statement follows:
"Today’s Supreme Court decision on Elian Gonzalez casts a long shadow over our tradition of freedom. Ignoring his mother’s dying wish to bring this boy safely to the United States is an affront to our guiding values and beliefs. It can never be in a child’s best interests to
live under communism.
"From the beginning, those of us who opposed returning the boy to Fidel Castro’s repressive dictatorship have called for a Florida family court to weigh the boy’s genuine best interests. This was the INS’ initial position before the Clinton Administration appeased Castro by
giving in to his threats.
"This is the direct result of the Clinton Administration’s foreign policy of appeasement. It is an appeasement that conveys weakness to the very kind of international thugs who only respect strength.
"We can never forget that the Cuban people are oppressed by their government. Under the current regime, parental rights begin and end with Fidel Castro, a despicable tyrant. Returning this innocent young life to Fidel Castro’s control means that Elian Gonzalez will endure the
consequences of communist reeducation and isolation in a state-run facility.
"This is a sad day for freedom. Elian Gonzalez deserves much better."
And Congressman Wayne Gilchrest,R-Md., said:
"This is a very emotional and controversial case that is pitting U.S. immigration policy against our strained relationship with Cuba. ... I am disturbed that the INS had to resort to using armed agents to reunite Elian with his father."
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