The New York Times, April 13, 2000. Reuters.
In a home vide distributed by Spanish network Univision and aired on major television stations, Elián González tells his father he doesn't want to go back to Cuba.
Wagging his finger at the camera, 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez told his father in a home video released by his Miami relatives Thursday that he did not want to return to Cuba with his surviving parent.
"Papa, I don't want to go to Cuba. If you want to, stay here. I am not going to Cuba," said the child, who is at the center of a custody war between his Cuban father and the Miami relatives who do not want him to grow up under communism.
The lawyer for the child's father issued a statement saying the father believed his son had been "exploited enough" and urged the media not to broadcast the video.
Gregory Craig said only Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who arrived in Washington a week ago to be reunited with his son, had the "legal and moral" right to speak for the boy.
"News media should know Mr. Gonzalez has not given his permission or approval for any journalist to interview, photograph or broadcast his son. Elian Gonzalez has been exploited enough," Craig said in a statement.
Distributed by Spanish network Univision and aired on major television stations, the video was taken by the Miami relatives late Wednesday after the family was told to hand over the child at an airport near Miami at 2 p.m. Thursday.
The deadline passed without a handover and the government has agreed to delay any attempt to retrieve the 6-year-old from his Miami relatives while a federal appeals court considers their request to block the move.
"I DO NOT WANT TO RETURN"
Elian has lived with his Miami relatives since he was rescued floating on an inner tube last November off the Florida coast. The child survived a shipwreck that killed his mother and 10 others only to be thrust into a cross-straits custody dispute.
The boy and his Miami relatives met with Attorney General Janet Reno Wednesday at the home of Dominican Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin and the video was recorded after that.
"Dad, you saw that older woman (Reno) that came to the sister's house. She wants to see me back in Cuba.... You are saying that I want to return to Cuba but I am telling you that I know that I do not want to return to Cuba," Elian said, sitting cross-legged on a bed and chewing gum as
he delivered the message in Spanish to his father.
On his arrival in the United States a week ago, Juan Miguel Gonzalez lashed out at his Miami kin for parading the child in front of television cameras.
In a series of interviews with ABC television last month, Elian drew a picture of the traumatic shipwreck in which his mother died and told the network's anchor, Diane Sawyer, that he wanted to stay in Miami.
Sawyer came under fire for interviewing the boy, who is seen by many as a pawn in the war between Miami-based Cuban exiles and the government of Cuban President Fidel Castro.
A pediatric psychologist from the University of Miami, Alan Delamater, told CNN the latest video was inappropriate.
"Clearly as a vulnerable child that he is, he is responding to a lot of pressure around him," Delamater told CNN.
While it was important for children to express their feelings, he said 6-year-olds needed to know that adults were in charge and that they would look after them.
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