By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer. Fri Feb 8, 2002.
Yahoo!
HAVANA (AP) - The U.S. group Freedom Forum presented shipwreck survivor
Elian Gonzalez with its Free Spirit Award Friday in a ceremony attended by the
boy's family and a few Cuban officials.
"In the minds of people all around the world, Elian is a hero for one
reason or another," said Al Neuharth, founder of both the Freedom Forum and
the daily USA Today.
Elian, 8, looked a bit awed as he receive the metal sculpture — a
stylized globe with what appears to be a flame rising out of the top,
representing a free spirit.
"Besides being able to survive at sea, our Free Spirit Award committee
said that through his ordeal Elian was able to come back and laugh no matter how
many grown-ups were tugging at him," said Neuharth.
"This is from the United States to you and to the people of Cuba,"
Neuharth told the boy. "Everybody in the United States loves you."
Elian was just 5 when he was found lashed to an inner tube as he floated at
sea off the Florida coast around Thanksgiving 1999. He was one of three people
who survived when their boat capsized as it traveled from Cuba to the United
States. Elian's mother and 10 others perished in the waves.
The child was temporarily placed with his relatives in Miami, setting off a
seven-month international child custody battle between family members on both
sides of the Florida Straits. After a battle that went all the way to the U.S.
Supreme Court (news - web sites) and an armed raid to seize the child from his
Florida family, Elian and his father returned to Cuba in late June 2000.
"His dad told me he is doing extremely well and that Elian sometimes
talks about being a doctor, sometimes talks about being a teacher, but mostly
talks about being an astronaut," Neuharth said. "Among his interests
have been baseball and now, karate. He has a purple belt."
The Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan foundation dedicated to free press and free
speech, presents the award annually along with $1 million. In Elian's case, the
money could not be awarded because of the 40-year-old U.S. trade embargo against
Cuba. Instead, it will go to help help needy refugee children living in the
United States, Neuharth said.
Elian's award, announced in 2000, could not be presented until now because
of delays by the U.S. government in granting a license to Neuharth and other
Freedom Forum for the trip to Cuba. "The Cuban government immediately said
we could come, but our own government fooled around for another year and a half,"
Neuharth said.
Previous Free Spirit Award recipients include Terry Anderson, the former
chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press who was held hostage in
Lebanon for nearly seven years, and former Supreme Court Justices William
Brennan and Thurgood Marshall. | 
