Review & Outlook. June 25, 2001.
Wall Street Journal
Remember the four-year-old Cuban child trapped between Washington and
Havana? The mother who had died tragically -- and the surviving father who just
wanted his child? And Fidel Castro and Janet Reno and the National Council of
Churches, all agreed on the primacy of family values here? Remember all those
headlines?
Of course you don't. Because we're not talking about Elian Gonzalez. We're
talking about four-year-old Giselle Cordova, daughter of Dr. Leonel Cordova.
Last year Dr. Cordova defected from a Cuban medical mission in Zimbabwe. On June
17, Dr. Cordova's wife was killed in a motorcycle accident. And since Giselle
has a U.S. permit, the only thing keeping her in Cuba and away from her sole
surviving parent is . . . Fidel Castro.
Giselle and Dr. Cordova are not alone. But because they and others like
them are icky types who do not extol the virtues of, say, Cuban health care,
they do not make for popular causes celebres on the Upper West Side. We've
written before about Jose Cohen, a former Cuban intelligence officer whose wife
and three children -- 16-year-old Yanelis, 12-year-old Yamila, and nine-year-old
Isaac -- remain in Cuba though they too have U.S. visas. Or nine-year-old
Nohemi, daughter of Milagros Cruz Cano, a blind democracy activist who was
deported from Cuba in October 1999.
Back when it was a matter of packing Elian off to Mr. Castro's island
paradise, determination was the operative word, even if it meant armed officers
breaking down the door of an American citizen in the wee hours of morning. As
Janet Reno, then Attorney General and now possible Florida gubernatorial
candidate, told Miami's Spanish language WQBA-AM radio just last week, "I
did what I did for one human reason: I think the little boy belongs to his
father." Ditto for the National Council of Churches, a key cheerleader of
this humanitarian gesture.
In a dispatch published Friday by CNSNews.com, a National Council of
Churches spokesperson said the NCC had not been asked for its help in Giselle
Cordova's case. Well, just to make sure, Florida Congresswoman Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen tells us she will today fax up the names and stories of all the
aforementioned people and ask for help. She also plans to ask Ms. Reno. "We're
going to put them to the test," she told us. "And it will be
interesting to see if anything happens by the end of the week." Indeed. | 
