Published Friday, September 29, 2000, in the
Miami Herald
Elián's relatives sue over raid
By Ana Acle . Aacle@Herald.Com
The Miami relatives of Elián González filed a lawsuit Thursday
in federal court against U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and other government
officials, claiming the armed raid that removed the 6-year-old boy from their
home violated their civil rights.
Lázaro, his wife, Angela, and daughter Marisleysis González
said the government conspired to violate the family's right to assemble, to be
free from an unreasonable search and seizure, and to be free from the use of
unnecessary and excessive force by the government without due process of law.
"The last time I saw anything like that was in films of post-war
Germany where the Nazis were just doing whatever they wanted to and invading
people's homes even without cause,'' said the family's lawyer, Ron Guralnick.
Both the Justice Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service
defended their actions.
"Unfortunately, the González family's refusal to comply with a
lawful federal order and their statements that they would never give up the
child except by force compelled us to take enforcement actions,'' Justice
Department spokeswoman Carole Florman said.
The González family took in Elián in November, after the boy
survived a sea voyage from Cuba that killed his mother and 10 other people.
The crux of the suit rests on the information the government used to obtain
an administrative arrest warrant for Elián and a search warrant of the
González home. The family claims that Reno, Immigration and
Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner and her deputy Eric Holder
knew the warrants were issued on false information.
The lawsuit also claims the predawn raid on April 22 violated an 11th
Circuit Court of Appeals ruling prohibiting any party -- including the
government -- from taking Elián back to Cuba.
"They used that illegal arrest warrant for substantiation for what now
becomes an illegal search warrant,'' said Guralnick, who successfully
represented Eula McDuffie in the civil suit filed in the death of her son,
insurance agent Arthur McDuffie. His co-counsel is Frank Quintero.
The family also is suing for damages, including mental distress, physical
injury and property damages. They've also made a claim for punitive damages.
Deal near on easing embargo
Would OK some sales to Cuba
By Frank Davies And Ana Radelat . Fdavies@Herald.Com
WASHINGTON -- Republican leaders in Congress and farm-state senators on
Thursday were nearing a deal to allow the sale of agricultural products to Cuba,
with restrictions on financing, while blocking expanded travel to the island.
But House leaders and Rep. Lincoln Díaz-Balart, a Miami Republican,
called the plan a done deal. It would allow cash sales to Cuba and Iran but ban
the use of U.S. credits or financing by American financial institutions.
Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who helped negotiate the deal, characterized the
agreement as a "significant opening'' for trade with Cuba. A U.S. embargo
on such trade has been in effect since 1962.
But some farm-state senators, including Republican Pat Roberts of Kansas and
Chuck Hegel of Nebraska, complained that financing restrictions in the deal are
so onerous that U.S. farmers will realize few benefits. They are pushing for
changes in the legislation to make sales easier.
GOP leaders made the deal more attractive to farm states by allowing the
restriction on U.S. financing of sales to Iran be waived by the president for
national security purposes. U.S. farmers and economists believe that Iran, with
a larger market and a healthier economy than Cuba, is a much better immediate
trading partner.
The legislation is part of a $75 billion agricultural bill that has been
stalled for weeks over the Cuba issue.
House leaders, facing adjournment in the next two weeks, hope for floor
votes in both chambers next week.
The final agriculture bill, which cannot be amended, will be voted either up
or down.
Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., the House sponsor of the anti-sanctions
legislation, pressed for a couple of changes that would make deals with Cuba
easier: allowing U.S. banks to process third-country loans involved in sales to
Cuba, and permitting U.S. insurers to handle foreign policies guaranteeing
shipments to the island.
The House's Cuban-American members, defenders of the embargo over the years,
have fought a rising tide of political sentiment -- mainly from farm states --
to allow the sale of U.S. agricultural products to Cuba.
Both the House and Senate voted in principle earlier this year to punch
holes in the embargo and to allow travel to the island.
Díaz-Balart said he is satisfied that the language in the legislation
is restrictive, making it difficult for U.S. companies to do business in Cuba
because they will have to go through third countries for financing.
"Some sales are possible, if they go through third countries,'' said Díaz-Balart.
"But Castro doesn't purchase without public financing, because he doesn't
pay what he owes.''
House leaders allied with Díaz-Balart and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,
another Miami Republican, were also able to fight off major changes in the
travel ban.
Final farewell to Cuban poet
By Wilfredo Cancio Isla . El Nuevo Herald
Relatives and friends of Heberto Padilla bade farewell to the Cuban poet,
praising the social and literary contributions of "his impatience and his
song.''
The words, by Padilla himself, appeared in Out of the Game, the collection
of poems that earned him the wrath of the Cuban government in 1968.
Under a torrential rain, Padilla, who died this week at age 68, was buried
at noon Thursday at Miami Memorial Park in the presence of about 40 people,
including his children and siblings.
One of the numerous flower arrangements outlined the island of Cuba in white
roses, a reminder that the exiled poet once wrote that "I live in Cuba.
I've always lived in Cuba. Those years of wandering throughout the world are my
lies, my falsehoods.''
"Heberto Padilla always has been the most lucid voice of our
generation,'' journalist Carlos Verdecia, a close friend of the poet since their
days in Cuba, told the mourners.
Without intending to make history, "Padilla's talent and voice shook
the foundations of a merciless regime,'' Verdecia said, alluding to the
repercussions of Out of the Game.
The book, which won the 1968 National Award for Poetry, was harshly
criticized by the regime of Fidel Castro. Padilla then became the target of
official harassment and was imprisoned in 1971. He came to the United States in
1980.
"His name entered the universal conscience as the expression of freedom
that every honest man carries within himself,'' Verdecia said.
Paraphrasing the poem The Hour, which appears in Out of the Game, Verdecia
said that "not everything was futile'' in Padilla's challenge to the
revolution and that "his impatience and his song made sense.''
Before the burial, a Mass was said in Padilla's memory at the Church of the
Little Flower in Coral Gables.
Thursday in Cuba, the official press published the government's first
reaction to Padilla's death. "Although his work as a poet is important, he
gained international notoriety through the propaganda-laden manipulation of his
counterrevolutionary position,'' said the newspaper Juventud Rebelde (Rebel
Youth).
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald | 