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June 28, 2001.
Cuba Allows Two Youths to Emigrate
By Vivian Sequera, Associated Press Writer
ARTEMISA, Cuba (AP) - In a case that recalled Cuban castaway Elian Gonzalez,
the communist government has agreed to let a little girl and her half brother
emigrate to Miami to live with the girl's father - a physician who defected last
year.
The children's relatives told The Associated Press on Thursday that Cuban
officials were helping arrange the documents necessary for the departure of
Giselle Cordova, 4, and Yusinel Hernandez, 11, after their mother Rosalba
Gonzalez died earlier this month in a motorcycle accident a few blocks from her
Havana home.
Cuban citizens must obtain permission from the government to leave the
island - even if they have visas from other countries to visit or emigrate
definitively.
Cuban passports for the two children, as well as exit visas, were to be
ready later Thursday, said Tania Cordova, Giselle's aunt. Giselle has been
staying with her aunt in this community about 30 miles west of Havana since her
mother was killed.
The aunt said the process was begun three days ago and that officials had
responded "in record time ... they have treated us very well.''
The approval of the children's departure coincided with the one-year
anniversary Thursday of Elian Gonzalez's repatriation.
Elian, now 7, was rescued off the coast of South Florida on Thanksgiving Day
after his mother and 10 others perished when their boat capsized during an
illegal journey from Cuba to the United States.
One year later: Elian made lasting impression
WPLG Click10.com. Thursday June 28 11:05 AM EDT
It's been one year since a controversy that tore South Florida apart ended
when Elian Gonzalez returned to Cuba with his father.
Elian spent several months with family members in Little Havana before
federal agents reunited him with his father, for the eventual return to Cuba.
Much has changed in a year.
The home where Elian lived could be turned into a museum and back in Cuba
Elian celebrated his 7th birthday with Fidel Castro (news - web sites).
"At all times, his expressions, his gestures have gone back to the way
they were before," Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez said.
In Elian's hometown of Cardennas, security guards are keeping the curious
and tourists at bay.
Sam Ciancio, the fisherman who jumped in the water to rescue Elian when he
was found at sea, was allowed to visit the boy recently. Ciancio said that Elian
seems OK, but he also expressed the opinion that he is being exploited.
Back in Florida, family supporters still gather in front of the home where
Elian lived. They are expected to gather there again today.
Elian Adjusting Well to Cuban Life
NEW YORK, 27 (AP) - Elian Gonzalez has adjusted well since returning to
Cuba, with no ill effects from being pulled from the home of his Miami relatives
by armed U.S. government agents, his father told NBC.
The boy's only fear is television cameras, Juan Miguel Gonzalez said.
In the NBC report, shown on the "Today'' show Wednesday one day before
the first anniversary of Elian's return to Cuba, Elian is shown playing happily
with second-grade classmates, jumping in a circle and playing musical chairs at
his school in the Cuban city of Cardenas.
Elian was not interviewed but his father, a waiter at a resort for foreign
tourists two hours from Havana, told NBC his son doesn't miss his Miami
relatives, who tried to gain custody of the boy after his mother drowned trying
to reach Florida on a raft. Elian was taken from the relatives' Miami home in
April 2000.
"I feel fine and my family is very happy,'' Gonzalez said in Spanish,
according to a translation provided by NBC. "A year after all these events,
life has gone back to normal. Everything is back to normal.''
He said Elian also doesn't seem bothered by the days he spent in the water
after a boat smuggling him and his mother to Florida sank in the Florida Straits
in November 1999, killing her and 10 others. He said his son goes to the beach
and plays in the water, and does mention his mother.
"There was never any need for him to see a psychologist because from
the very beginning when I saw him in Washington he looked to me to be the same
Elian as always ... normal, just as expressive,'' he said.
Gonzalez said he had not previously talked about his private reunion with
his son aboard a U.S. government airplane because was embarrassed. He said he
collapsed when he saw his son and had to be helped to his feet.
Phone calls to the home of Elian's Miami relatives were not answered.
Family spokesman Armando Gutierrez said Thursday's anniversary would be a
sad day for the family. He said he had not seen the NBC interview.
Castro's Health Dominating Talk
By Alex Veiga, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI, 27 (AP) - Speculation over what Fidel Castro (news - web sites)'s
recent fainting spell could mean has taken hold of Florida's Cuban exile
community like nothing else since the Elian Gonzalez saga.
Callers to exile-run radio stations debated this week whether the
74-year-old Castro, who seemed to briefly pass out while delivering a speech
Saturday in Cuba, has weeks or months to live.
"Everyone is commenting about his downfall, how he was disorganized and
incoherent,'' said the Rev. Manuel Salabarria, spokesman for WWFE-AM. "The
entire exile community is moving at the pace of that new development.''
Largely missing has been talk of Elian, who returned to Cuba a year ago
Thursday following a Supreme Court ruling that ended the legal battle for
custody waged by the Cuban boy's Miami relatives.
Unlike the one-year anniversary of the armed raid to seize the boy, marked
in April by scores of Cuban-Americans gathered outside the Little Havana home
where Elian lived for five months, no prayer vigils or protests are planned this
time.
"What we're trying to do is put behind the case of Elian Gonzalez as we
have millions of children in Cuba that are living under oppression,'' said Ramon
Saul Sanchez, head of Democracy Movement, a Miami-based Cuban exile group.
Armando Gutierrez, spokesman for Lazaro Gonzalez, the boy's great-uncle,
said Wednesday that the anniversary would be "a sad day'' for the family,
but that no plans were being made to commemorate the day.
Not lost on some, however, is the drawing power that Elian's name still
evokes.
The same Cuban exile leaders who used the airwaves to rally crowds to
demonstrate in support of Elian's Miami relatives last year urged listeners
Wednesday to protest former Attorney General Janet Reno (news - web sites),
scheduled to speak Thursday in Miami Beach.
Many Cuban-Americans loathe Reno because of her handling of the Elian case.
Reno has been making speaking appearances as she ponders whether to run for
Florida governor.
Meanwhile, a group led by former U.S. diplomat Sally Grooms Cowal, who came
to know Elian's father during his stay in Washington last year, planned to use
the day to push for an end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
Cowal, head of the Cuba Policy Foundation and former ambassador to Trinidad
and Tobago, said she seized upon the Elian anniversary to make the point that
easing restrictions on travel to Cuba would help reunite Cuban-Americans and
their relatives on the island.
"The myth is that Cuban-Americans speak with one voice in support of
the embargo, and in fact, they don't,'' said Cowal, who is backing bills before
Congress to roll back measures approved last year restricting travel and food
and medicine sales to the communist-ruled island.
Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation,
the largest and most powerful Cuban exile group, disputed the idea that U.S.
travel to Cuba could help to lead to reforms there.
"A farmer from Iowa walking through the streets of Havana is not going
to change any thoughts. Tourism in Cuba supports the regime,'' Garcia said. "I
would argue that 42 years of engagement by the entire world community has
produced a 42-year-old dictatorship.'' | 
