Yahoo! March 28, 2000
Elian Tells TV Network He Wants to Stay
WASHINGTON - Six-year-old shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez does not want to return to Cuba but would like his father to move to Miami, a U.S. television journalist said on Tuesday after meeting the boy last week.
Elian, who is at the center of an international custody dispute between his Miami relatives and his Cuban father, told ABC's Diane Sawyer in his first television interview that he did not want to go back to his homeland, she said.
Elian's reported wish to stay in Miami coincides with growing pressure from the U.S. government for him to be handed back to his Cuban father. The U.S. government told the Miami family through their lawyer on Monday that Elian would be removed from their temporary care on Thursday.
``The relatives in Miami say Elian repeatedly insists he does not want to go back to Cuba. He told us that too, but in this inflamed climate, on this inflamed subject we thought it best not to broadcast the exact words of a 6-year-old child,'' Sawyer said in the second part of a report on a
two-day meeting with the child.
Sawyer said Elian told her it would "make him very happy'' if his father came to live in Miami.
In Havana, President Fidel Castro slammed Elian's appearance on ABC as ``propaganda rubbish'' mounted by the boy's Miami relatives.
``All that propaganda rubbish doesn't hurt us in the slightest,'' he said late on Monday in a televised round-table on the Elian affair.
``It's disgraceful that they are using the boy like this.''
New Orleans psychiatrist Dr Gunther Perdiago who accompanied Sawyer, said it did not appear that the child had been coached to say that he wanted to stay in Miami.
``He did not have a canned speech. His comments were very spontaneous. When he did not want to talk about something or address an issue, there was no way to get him to talk about it,'' Perdiago said.
Sawyer has come under fire for interviewing Elian, who is seen by many as a pawn in the war between Miami-based Cuban exiles and the government of Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Elian has been living with his Miami relatives since he was found floating on an inner tube off Florida's coast in November. His mother died when the boat they were traveling in from Cuba capsized.
An attorney for the child's father, Greg Craig, was strongly critical of Sawyer's two-day meeting with Elian and told her on Tuesday she should have asked for the permission of the boy's father before talking to the child.
``The relatives in Miami do not speak for this child,'' he said, adding that there was no one on this earth who cared more for Elian than his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
``Is it politics for a father to want to be reunited with his son? I don't think so. Is it politics to say this boy should not go back to Cuba because of the politics of Cuba? I think that is a political judgement that should not be substituted for a parent's right to decide,'' Craig said.
The boy has forged a close bond with his cousin, Marisleysis Gonzalez, who told ABC that if Elian was forced to return to Cuba she would not fly back with him to ease the transition from America to Cuba.
``I am not going to be the person to betray him. That would be the worst thing that could happen to him at this point,'' she said.
She stressed she did not want to take the child away from his father but that Elian should be allowed to stay in Miami. ''He overcame everything and he deserves to be free,'' she said.
The Justice Department issued a statement to ABC saying it had been mindful from the beginning that at the center of the custody battle was a 6-year-old boy who had been through a terrible ordeal.
``We are concerned for him and will continue to try to resolve this matter in a way that avoids additional trauma to him,'' the Justice Department said.
ABC Defends Elian Gonzalez Interview
By DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer
NEW YORK, 28 (AP) - ABC defended its three-part interview with Elian Gonzalez as "very tasteful'' despite criticism about questioning a 6-year-old boy. In today's installment, ABC said the boy indicated he doesn't want to return to Cuba but decided not to have him say it on the air.
"Good Morning America'' broadcast the second part of Diane Sawyer's talk with the youngster today. He was made available by his Miami relatives as they run short of legal options to avoid sending him back to his father in Cuba.
In today's installment, ABC said the boy told Sawyer he doesn't want to return, but because of the sensitive nature of the boy's situation it decided not to broadcast his exact words.
The child has been the subject of an international custody dispute between Cuba and the boy's U.S. relatives since November, when he was rescued by fishermen who found him lashed to an inner tube off the Florida coast. His mother and 10 other people died when their boat sank during the journey
from Cuba to the United States.
The boy's Cuban father, who was divorced from the mother, is seeking his return and the U.S. government has backed his parental rights.
Sawyer brought along a child psychiatrist who speaks Spanish, and Elian's cousin also translated. In Monday's installment, Elian told Sawyer that he doesn't really believe that his mother died.
Elian drew crayon pictures of the voyage, including the waves and a leaping dolphin - he has told people that dolphins protected him from sharks. He drew himself as a stick figure on the inner tube, and then sketched a boat with people inside. He told of the boat having engine trouble and slowly
sinking after ``Water came in.''
But Elian suggested his mother survived.
``My mother is not in heaven, not lost,'' he said in Spanish through his cousin Marisleysis Gonzalez. ``She must have been picked up here in Miami somewhere. She must have lost her memory, and just doesn't know I'm here.''
Sawyer said ABC thought long and hard about how to do the interview. She said by ABC's calculation, there have been 11,984 articles written about the case and ``not one of us has sat down and looked into his eyes.''
Sawyer did that, leaning next to Elian as he made his drawings and allowing him to shoot Silly String into her hair. She called him bubbly, very bright and ``infinitely curious.''
In today's installment, Sawyer asked Marisleysis Gonzalez, who has become a mother figure to the boy, if she would take Elian back to Cuba to help him adjust.
``That would be the worst thing that could happen to this kid,'' she said. ``The person that he is so close to him, the person he most loves ... I feel I would betray him if I do that, and I will not betray him.''
She told Sawyer that she has told the boy he should return to Cuba and that his father loves him, doing so to lessen the trauma if he is forced back.
Not all journalists believe it is proper to interview young children. NBC's competing "Today'' show, for example, did not pursue an interview because it did not believe it was appropriate to talk to a 6-year-old.
The family ``wanted to do it right'' and have a child psychologist present for the interview, said Armando Gutierrez, spokesman for Elian's Miami relatives.
``Every channel wanted him,'' he said, ``so we didn't see anything wrong with it.''
Bob Steele, director of the ethics program at the Poynter Institute, a journalism education center, said he believed Elian should not have been interviewed on TV, given his age and the recent experiences of losing his mother and becoming a subject of a political battle.
``I don't think it's fair to him to once more shine the bright light of scrutiny on him with this type of interview,'' Steele said. ``I don't think what he might offer, given his age, given his vulnerability, given his trauma, has enough benefit to outweigh the potential significant harm in
revictimization.''
ABC News President David Westin said the network understood the need to handle the interview with sensitivity. ``What we put on the air was very tasteful, very appropriate, very low-key, nonintrusive to Elian,'' Westin said.
In a speech Sunday in Havana, Cuban President Fidel Castro said subjecting Elian to the interview without the father's permission was ``monstrous and sickening.''
The network received a Cuban protest letter late Monday, said ABC spokeswoman Eileen Murphy. She said the network may address the complaint in an upcoming program.
Murphy said Sawyer's meeting with Elian wasn't an interview. ``It was a supervised visit,'' Murphy said. ``We did have the permission of his custodial guardian and his attorney, which is what we thought was necessary.''
Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
INS Moves to Take Elian From Miami Relatives
By Jim Loney
MIAMI, 28 - The attorney for the Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez Tuesday was expected to attend a U.S. government-ordered meeting on Washington's plans to take the 6-year-old shipwreck survivor from the care of his great-uncle in Florida and return him to his father in Cuba.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) called for the meeting in an effort to bring the international custody battle to a swift end after four months of bitter debate and legal maneuvers that could drag on into May.
In a letter to family attorney Spencer Eig Monday, a top INS official said the meeting would focus on plans for the government to remove the boy from the care of his Miami relatives Thursday and Elian's ``orderly return'' to Cuba.
The letter warned Eig that the government was being forced to terminate the 6-year-old boy's parole into the care of his great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, because Elian's Miami relatives have failed to promise to give up the boy if they lose the battle to keep him.
INS Executive Associate Commissioner Michael Pearson told Eig it had been nearly 12 weeks and the government was still waiting for a ``simple, clear statement that your client is willing to produce the child when requested to do so.''
``Without a specific written commitment as described in the Department of Justice's letter of March 23, 2000, we have no choice but to move forward with the termination of Elian's parole as of Thursday, March 30, 2000 at 9 a.m.,'' he wrote.
Spirit Of Demands Said Met
The Justice Department had given the Miami relatives until midday Monday to agree to expedite the appeals process in the impassioned international custody battle, and to promise to surrender the boy if they ultimately lost the appeal.
While the relatives agreed to most of what the government required for how the case would be handled at a U.S. appeals court, they failed to give the required assurances on turning over the 6-year-old boy if they lose, Pearson wrote.
Eig could not be reached for immediate comment on the letter, but earlier said the family had met the spirit of the government's demands.
``They are nit-picking to try to find an excuse to forcibly deport Elian and I don't think that's fair,'' he said.
In his letter to Eig, Pearson encouraged him to bring Lazaro Gonzalez to Tuesday's meeting, but said a meeting with the great-uncle could be postponed until Wednesday if Eig wanted only the lawyers to meet initially.
``We intend to discuss the ramifications of the parole termination and the orderly return of Elian to his father, including, most importantly, measure to ensure that the transfer occur in a manner that is sensitive to the needs of Elian,'' he wrote.
Atlanta Court Accepts Appeals Schedule
Earlier Monday, Miami Fox television affiliate WSVN reported that the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta had accepted the relatives' request for a schedule for their appeal, filed earlier in the day, that would run into May.
The relatives' written arguments should be presented by April 10, the government's replies by April 24, the family's response by May 1 and the oral arguments would be held in the week of May 8, WSVN reported.
It was not clear how this development would affect the government's efforts to resolve the case pitting members of an extended family against each other and firing up old enmity between communist Cuba's President Fidel Castro and the large Cuban community in Miami.
Elian was handed into the temporary care of his great-uncle after he was brought ashore in Miami on Nov. 25 after the boat carrying him and his mother sank as it smuggled migrants from Cuba to Florida. Elian's mother and 10 others drowned.
Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, a tourism worker who was divorced from the mother, repeatedly has asked for his son to be sent home to him.
EU Wants End to U.S. Embargo of Cuba
LISBON, Portugal, 27 (AP) - A U.S. Senate panel's decision to allow the sale of food and medicine to Cuba doesn't go far enough, Portugal's Foreign Minister said Monday.
``It's a small step in the right direction,'' said Jaime Gama, whose country currently holds the European Union presidency. ``The government's and the European Union's position is that the right solution would be an end to the embargo on Cuba.''
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, headed by Sen. Jesse Helms, voted Thursday to license sales of food and medicine so long as they are not subsidized by the Agriculture Department. The committee's action could prompt a new debate in the Senate on whether to ease the 40-year-old
embargo.
Gama's comments came after talks with Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage over boosting trade ties between the 15-nation EU and Cuba - an issue to be further discussed in April when an EU delegation travels to Havana.
Lage also discussed his country's human rights record with Gama, saying the EU and Cuba had differing views because of ``a campaign of misinformation and slander by other countries.''
Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
US Pushes Forward With Cuban Boy's Return
WASHINGTON, 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department said on Monday it would remove Cuban boat wreck survivor Elian Gonzalez from the temporary care of his Miami relatives on Thursday after the relatives failed to promise to turn over the boy if they lost their appeal in the bitter custody
case.
A top official in the department's Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) said the government had no choice but to terminate the boy's parole in the care of his great uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, in Miami.
The government had ordered the family's lawyer to a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the ramifications of the decision and ''the orderly return of Elian to his father,'' said the INS official.
In a letter to the family's lawyer Spencer Eig, Executive Associate Commissioner Michael Pearson said it had been nearly 12 weeks and the government was still waiting for a ``simple, clear statement that your client is willing to produce the child when requested to do so by the INS.''
"Without a specific written commitment as described in the Department of Justice's letter of March 23, 2000, we have no choice but to move forward with the termination of Elian's parole as of Thursday, March 30, 2000 at 9 a.m.,'' he wrote.
The Justice Department had given the boy's Miami relatives until midday on Monday to agree to expedite the appeals process in the impassioned international custody battle, and to promise to surrender the boy if they ultimately lost the appeal.
While the relatives agreed to most of what the government required for how the case would be handled at a U.S. appeals court, they did not give the required assurances on turning over the 6-year-old boy if they lose, Pearson wrote.
He told Eig it would be advisable to bring Lazaro Gonzalez to Tuesday's meeting, but a meeting with the great-uncle could be postponed until Wednesday if Eig preferred for only the lawyers to meet initially.
``We intend to discuss the ramifications of the parole termination and the orderly return of Elian to his father, including, most importantly, (the) measure to ensure that the transfer occur in a manner that is sensitive to the needs of Elian,'' Pearson wrote.
It was not immediately clear if Elian would be brought to his father in Cuba on Thursday, or if he would be removed to the care of some third party.
Pearson did not address reports that an Atlanta appeals court had issued a timetable for hearing an appeal by the Miami relatives against a federal judge's ruling that he should go back to Cuba -- culminating with oral arguments in early May.
Miami Fox television affiliate WSVN said on Monday evening that the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta had accepted the relatives' request for a schedule for their appeal, filed earlier in the day.
The relatives' written arguments should be presented by April 10, the government's replies by April 24, the family's response by May 1 and the oral arguments would be held in the week of May 8, WSVN reported.
INS officials were not immediately available to comment on the timetable, or how it would affect the government's efforts to return the boy to his father in Cuba.
Elian's father and the boy's Miami relatives have been fighting over him since he was brought to Miami on Nov. 25, a survivor of the sinking of a boat smuggling migrants from Cuba to Florida. His mother and 10 others drowned.
Lazaro Gonzalez was given temporary custody of the boy but his father, Cuban tourism worker Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who was divorced from the mother, has demanded his son be sent home.
The Miami relatives, supported by anti-Communist Cuban exiles, say the boy should stay in the United States.
Copyright © 2000 Reuters Limited. |