Elian's Saga. Posted 10:20 a.m. Monday, April 17, 2000
Elian's dad: 'I don't have any tears left'
By Frances Robles . frobles@herald.com
WASHINGTON -- The players in the Elian Gonzalez custody tug-of-war awaited word today from a federal appeals court deciding whether to issue an injunction keeping the 6-year-old shipwreck survivor in the United States.
Such an order would not keep the government from delivering the boy to his father, however, although it would probably keep both of them from returning to Cuba immediately.
As early as today, the federal appellate court in Atlanta may rule on the Miami relatives' request for the emergency order barring the boy's removal from the United States until the same court hears the relatives' demand for a political asylum hearing for Elian. Oral arguments on that appeal are
set for May 11.
Meanwhile, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, the world's most publicly tormented father, called his Miami relatives child-abusers and kidnappers Sunday, saying on a ''60 Minutes'' appearance that his family has turned Elian Gonzalez against his own dad.
Juan Miguel Gonzalez also spoke harshly about the United States, saying this country is not his idea of the land of freedom. His Miami relatives, he added, have harmed his son more than the tragedy that killed his mother.
''Actually, he's suffering more here among them than he suffered in the sea,'' he said.
In an interview with CBS' Dan Rather, Gonzalez spoke out nationally for the first time since his arrival in the United States 10 days ago. Gonzalez was serious, somber, and occasionally choked up and frustrated. His first complaint: He has spoken to Elian only twice since he arrived here to
reclaim him.
Gonzalez said his firstborn has betrayed him -- the result of manipulation by Miami relatives who seek to keep the child in the United States.
Rather asked Gonzalez to share his thoughts on the videotape released last week showing a defiant, finger-pointing 6-year-old telling his father that he doesn't want to go back home. Did he weep, Rather asked.
NO TEARS LEFT
''I'm going to tell you the truth, I don't have any tears left,'' Gonzalez replied. ''I've cried too much. During this whole period of time, I've cried a lot and suffered greatly, and I'm still in pain. To tell you the truth, I have no tears left. I have -- I don't know -- I've run dry.''
The biting words he heard his son speak were not his, Gonzalez said.
''This is child abuse and mistreatment what they're doing to this boy,'' Gonzalez said. ''And it is something that has been induced, because these aren't the boy's true feelings. That's not the way this boy feels. And I know I'm right in saying that we have to take him back immediately because
what they're doing is making this child suffer.''
Although he did not speak of them by name, it was clear Gonzalez was accusing his uncle Lazaro Gonzalez, who took the boy in after he was found floating in an inner tube and then refused to give him back.
Lazaro said he watched the interview but had no comment on it. It was not clear if Elian watched but during the time that ''60 Minutes'' was on the boy was seen playing in the front yard of his relatives' Miami home and speaking on a cordless telephone.
The international custody battle has raged for nearly five months, with the Miami family on one side and Juan Miguel Gonzalez and the U.S. government on the other.
CALMER TENOR
Although Gonzalez sometimes came across as agitated, the short broadcast was a far cry from his last national television interview. In January, Gonzalez made headlines for a live ''Nightline'' interview in which he said he wanted to take a rifle to the people causing him troubles.
A CBS spokesman said no Cuban officials or attorneys were present during Saturday's taping. Rather took the chance to ask Gonzalez whether he was speaking freely.
''Let me give you the argument that these relatives in Miami and other people make: They say, No. 1, you're not your own man,'' Rather said. ''That you are a puppet at the end of Fidel Castro's strings.''
Gonzalez snapped back at the veteran broadcaster, asking why the name of Cuba's president is constantly invoked in what is basically a simple family matter.
''Why do you have to mix in Fidel Castro into all of this?'' he said. ''It's just me claiming my son. It's my son and not Fidel Castro's. It's a way of bringing in Fidel Castro and making it political.''
FREEDOM QUESTIONED
Gonzalez added that he didn't buy Rather's description of America as a place of ''freedom and opportunity.'' When asked why he does not stay here with his son, Gonzalez cited the Communist Party proclamations common at the rallies frequently held in Havana on his son's behalf.
''I ask you: What's freedom? Well, freedom is, for example, in Cuba where education and health care is free,'' he said. ''Or is it the way it is here? Which of the two is freedom? For example, here when parents send their children to school they have to worry about violence. A child could be
shot at school. In Cuba, things like that don't happen. . . . Which of the two is freedom?''
Rather didn't answer the rhetorical question.
The father's parting message to his boy: don't fret.
''Give him a big kiss and tell him not to worry -- he'll be with me soon,'' Gonzalez said. ''I love him very much. He will be with me soon, and he shouldn't worry.''
Herald staff writer Marika Lynch and Online News Writer Madeline Baro contributed to this report.
Little Havana neighbors trade privacy for a cause
By Sandra Marquez Garcia. smarquez@herald.com
In the land of Elianville, daily chores such as dumping trash and parking the car require police supervision. Television satellite trucks appear as if from outer space, barricades divide the block and strangers toting notebooks come knocking, asking to use the facilities.
Life on Little Havana's Northwest Second Street has resembled The Truman Show since Elian Gonzalez came to stay four months ago. But most residents are not fed up with the constant throng of media, police and protesters.
They say they are thrilled to have front-row seats to history in the making, and proud to sacrifice their privacy -- and sanity -- if it means helping Miami's miracle boy remain on free soil. And a few have reaped other, more material rewards.
The few who disagree have had to learn how to handle the jeering stares and pranks that can come with taking a different stance.
Pat Kingsbury, 85, a 50-year resident, carries an upside down U.S. flag on his daily walks. Kingsbury, a Navy veteran who survived gunship battles in the South Pacific during World War II, said his gesture is a distress call to the world. ''I'd just like to have my freedom back, my freedom to
walk around the block,'' Kingsbury said. ''I fought for that.''
Kingsbury said he began his act of defiance after he tried to stop a group of Elian supporters from draping a Cuban flag over an American flag. Since then, he said he has received some unfriendly stares.
''I told them that is illegal,'' he said. ''They told me to go to hell.''
The residential streets surrounding the home of Elian's Miami relatives are not neutral territory. Homeowners stake out their positions with signs posted on their front doors, and reporters are sometimes asked to declare their support for Elian to remain in Miami before being granted an
interview.
MILITANT STANCE
Leonarldo Ulabarro, 15, a ninth-grader at Miami High, said the neighborhood has become much more militant.
''When we first moved here, we were calm people,'' Ulabarro said. ''We didn't break barriers. We respected the cops. Now, if something happens, we have to do what is right so we can protect the kid so he can stay.''
Ulabarro, whose father is Cuban and mother is Puerto Rican, does his part by going to Elian's house every day after school. Sometimes he stays as late as 2 a.m., he said, causing him to show up late at school. But he doesn't get in trouble for the tardiness.
''One of my teachers sometimes comes here to protest, too,'' he said.
There have been tales of residents reaping fabulous sums for allowing television networks to park their monster satellite trucks in their driveways and front yards, though homeowners say the claims of riches are exaggerated.
On and off since February, Camilo Rodriguez, 39, a handyman, has allowed ABC to park two satellite trucks on his lawn at 2290 NW Second St., but insisted no money has changed hands.
''I know that everyone else is charging,'' he said. ''We haven't made a deal. We will talk about it once it's done.''
NO MONEY PASSED
ABC News producer Jean Garner said Rodriguez ''very graciously'' agreed to the arrangement, even without a promise of payment. She said the network will probably compensate him, ''but we don't want to offend the guy.''
The circus-like atmosphere can be too much to bear for the Baños family, making them increasingly indifferent to the outcome of the custody case.
''We quite frankly don't care what is happening, whether he stays or goes,'' said Tony Baños, 33, a supermarket manager who moved here from Cuba 21 years ago. ''We just don't like the interruption. This is not a major part of our lives.''
Baños blames the police and the protesters for having a bad attitude.
''Imagine, you work 9 to 5, then you have to go pick up the kids from the baby sitter, and then the police won't let you pull up into your own home because your driver's license doesn't have the right address,'' he said.
It's a familiar scenario for the family. Wife Viviana hasn't updated her driver's license since moving to 2366 NW Second St., and some nights she has to call her husband on her cellular phone to ask him to fetch her and the children.
SHOUTING MATCH
The brewing frustration led Viviana to get into a shouting match with some protesters one night. Then she heard the blasphemous words escape from her mouth.
''Why don't they just send him back!'' her husband recalled his wife saying. ''She was mad. She doesn't necessarily feel that way.''
But the damage was done. The family has since had their front gate spray-painted by vandals and is randomly awakened by pranksters ringing the front doorbell during the middle of the night, Baños said.
There is no sign of confrontation inside the home of Mary and Eddy Rodriguez at 2314 NW Second St. A pair of self-employed watchmakers, the Rodriguezes have welcomed reporters and camera crews from around the world to file dispatches from their home -- at no cost.
It's a bizarre scene and the couple take it as it comes. When a high-heeled reporter uproots a garden plant, Mary chalks it up to ''a casualty of war.'' A German camera crew wants to know whether they can film from the roof. It's no problem. ''Listen, you are going up there on your own risk,''
Mary cautions. ''Watch the tiles.''
CUBAN COFFEE
Inside the home, trays of fresh Cuban coffee are being served and reporters who need to use the bathroom are told to stand in line.
For their good deeds, the couple has had to take some heat.
On the day of the anticipated showdown between the Gonzalez family and U.S. marshals, the rumors were flying that the press corps might be ushered out before the custody transfer. In a snap, the Rodriguezes gave two networks permission to install electronic platforms on their front yard --
directly facing the Gonzalez residence.
''When the police say that they couldn't take away the scaffold, they said they could give me a citation for operating without a license. I shouted, 'I want to see someone stand up who says I have accepted any kind of money or reimbursement for services,' '' she said.
No one did.
''We have been totally inconvenienced,'' Rodriguez said. ''This is our own little contribution to help this little boy stay.''
Accusations mount as custody fight hits airwaves
Miami family says the U.S. portraying them as 'outlaws'
BY JAY WEAVER AND ANA ACLE , jweaver@herald.com
Fearing Elian Gonzalez might be sent back to Cuba at any moment, lawyers for the boy's Miami relatives revved up their public relations campaign Sunday by accusing the U.S. government of wrongly making them look like ''outlaws'' and by portraying the 6-year-old's father as ''violent'' toward
his son and late mother.
Their verbal attacks, seen by the government and the father's supporters as desperate, 11th-hour measures, previewed what is likely to be the climactic week in the almost five-month battle over whether Elian should stay in the United States or be returned to his father who wants to take him back
to Cuba.
Among the developments:
As early as today, a federal appellate court in Atlanta may rule on the Miami relatives' request for an emergency order barring the boy's removal from the United States until the same court hears their demand for a political asylum hearing for Elian. Oral arguments on that appeal are set for May
11.
Law enforcement authorities, including Attorney General Janet Reno, continue to review plans for a tactical operation involving federal agents to remove the boy from the Little Havana home of his great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez. He has refused to turn the boy over at a neutral location.
Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, attended Palm Sunday services with dozens of African-American supporters at the historic Shiloh Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. Later in the day, the CBS show 60 Minutes aired his interview with Dan Rather.
In Miami, hundreds of Cuban exiles and others continued their vigil outside Lazaro Gonzalez's home in Little Havana, vowing to block any attempt to snatch Elian away.
The fight over the boy's fate intensified last Thursday when Lazaro Gonzalez defied a written order from the Immigration and Naturalization Service to deliver Elian to Opa-locka Airport so he could be reunited with his father. Immigration officials, irritated by the great-uncle's defiance,
revoked his temporary custody of Elian along with the boy's parole allowing him to stay in this country.
Some of his attorneys appeared on network TV news programs Sunday and accused federal officials of misleading the American people by saying the great-uncle has broken the law.
''The truth of the matter is, there is no law that says this child has to be with his father or returned to Cuba,'' attorney Jose Garcia-Pedrosa said on NBC's Meet the Press.
Afterward, Garcia-Pedrosa said in an interview with The Herald that it is the immigration authorities' responsibility to fetch Elian, and that his great-uncle does not have to take him anywhere.
''They're trying to paint us as a bunch of outlaws,'' Garcia-Pedrosa said, referring to Reno and other officials. ''That is completely false, and they ought to stop it.''
But immigration officials said because they placed Elian's parole in the temporary care of Gonzalez, he must follow their instructions because the boy is only in the United States at the government's discretion.
INS VIEW
''We can set the conditions that dictate where and when they turn over the boy,'' INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona said.
''Since Thursday, they are in noncompliance of a federal order to abide by those instructions.''
Also on Sunday, the great-uncle's lawyers amplified their accusations that Juan Miguel Gonzalez abused both his son and his ex-wife, Elisabeth Brotons, who died on a boat journey with the child in late November.
The goal of this tactic: focus greater public attention on the government's unwillingness to conduct in-person psychological evaluations of Elian before deciding whether to transfer him to his father, said Garcia-Pedrosa.
''Why won't the government evaluate his allegations of abuse?'' he said.
Immigration officials, who interviewed Juan Miguel Gonzalez in Cuba twice in December, say he had a caring, loving relationship with Elian and agreed to reunite them.
On 60 Minutes, Juan Miguel Gonzalez said the relatives' and lawyers' allegations portraying him as an unfit father were groundless.
'THEY ARE LIES'
''When a child does something mischievous, well you could always spank your own son. But hurt him, I never hurt him and I never hurt his mother either,'' he told CBS' Dan Rather. ''They are lies, totally.''
Raquel Rodriguez, the mother of Elisabeth Brotons, told a Herald reporter in December that Juan Miguel Gonzalez was nice to her daughter and doted on Elian.
Meanwhile, outside the relatives' Little Havana home, about 200 supporters chanted ''Queremos ver a Elian'' (We want to see Elian). They got their wish around 3:15 p.m. when Elian and two small boys raced around the yard playing tag.
A little while later, an old friend of Elian's father stepped forward to suggest that Juan Miguel Gonzalez was not speaking freely on the custody dispute. Eduardo del Valle, 36, said Juan Miguel once told him he wanted to live in the United States.
''The person you see on television is a different person than the one I knew,'' said del Valle, who served in the Cuban military with Gonzalez. ''This is a game and I'm speaking now to end it.''
Del Valle, who has lived in Miami since 1996, added: ''I can't forget his envious eyes when he found out I was coming to this country.''
Herald staff writers Frances Robles and Marika Lynch contributed to this report.
Elian's Father Denies Abuse Charges
By James Pierpoint
MIAMI (Reuters) - Juan Miguel Gonzalez dismissed on Saturday as lies a claim by a former Cuban neighbor that he was a wife-beating child abuser and appealed for the return of his six-year-old son, Elian, the focus of an international custody battle.
``What's happening is that they're trying by any means possible ... (to) characterize me as an aggressive person,'' he said in an interview to be aired Sunday on the CBS program ``60 Minutes.'' ``Give me back my son.''
In a court filing on Friday, Nivaldo Vladimir Fernandez, who along with his girlfriend and Elian were the only survivors of an ill-fated escape by sea from Cuba, alleged that Juan Miguel Gonzalez abused both his wife, Elisabeth Brotons, who drowned on the voyage, and Elian, their only son.
Vladimir Fernandez claimed the father hit his former wife to the degree that she needed hospitalization and said Juan Miguel Gonzalez was of a ``violent'' and ``impulsive'' nature.
Juan Miguel, who flew to the United States last week in the hope of being quickly reunited with Elian, said this account was ``lies, totally'' and that he had never mistreated Elian or his late wife.
``In fact you can even ask my current wife if I've ever hit her or something and she'll tell you. It's not my way, not my style,'' he told correspondent Dan Rather in the interview taped in Washington. CBS News released a partial transcript.
Hundreds of foes of returning Elian to Cuba maintained a vigil in the heart of Miami's Little Havana on Saturday awaiting word on whether a U.S. federal appeals court would order the boy returned to his father.
As Elian played under the watchful eyes of a throng of supporters and television cameras in the yard of his great-uncle's modest home, his Miami relatives continued to defy a federal order to return him to his father.
``We will not attack anyone, but they are going to have to walk over us to take the child out of the house. We will not break the law. The exile community has always respected the laws of the United States and will continue to do so,'' said Rolando Carmenates, a 44-year-old Cuban exile.
Federal officials have vowed to move quickly to reunite the father and son if the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta rejects a plea he remain in Miami while the court weighs their appeal for an asylum hearing.
Regardless of the court decision, Elian's Miami relatives, who have cared for him since he was rescued from the sea in November, appear unwilling to abide by an Immigration and Naturalization Service order to relinquish the boy.
Miami Mayor Joe Carollo on Saturday openly questioned whether the boy's father, who has said he would eventually return with his son to Cuba, would renege on a promise made through his attorney to remain in the United States while the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals weighs the case.
``What is that order in place going to mean to a lawless government like Cuba's government? ... We all know there is no guarantee that they will not have that boy in a car, sneak him out of the (Cuban diplomatic residence in Washington), put him in a plane and bring him back to Cuba,'' Carollo
said on NBC's Today show.
In Washington, a Justice Department spokeswoman dismissed allegations raised in court papers that Juan Miguel was abusive.
``They (the Miami family) have made these allegations before. We do not feel that they have established any sufficient reason to believe that Juan Miguel was not a fit and loving father,'' she said, adding that the family has failed to provide any concrete evidence of the alleged abuse.
Juan Miguel Gonzalez left the home of a Cuban diplomat near Washington on Saturday to visit the offices of his lawyer.
Elian has been at the center of an international tug-of-war since shortly after he was found clinging to an inner tube in the seas off the Florida coast on Nov. 25. Elian's mother was one of 11 people drowned after the boat carrying them from Cuba capsized.
Elian quickly became a symbol for Miami's Cuban-American community, which argues the boy would have a better future in the United States than in Communist Cuba, and the focus of a national crusade by Cuban leader Fidel Castro to return him to his homeland.
President Clinton, touring the Sequoia National Forest in California, said he supported efforts by U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, a Miami native and former Dade County prosecutor, to return Elian peacefully to his father.
``I strongly support her effort,'' Clinton said. ``We have to let the court cases be decided. But I think the main thing is I hope all the people who came to the United States because we have freedom and rule of law will observe the rule of law.''
The family's defiance reflects a deep distrust of Fidel Castro in Miami's Little Havana, where crowds of Cuban exiles and supporters have kept vigil outside the modest Gonzalez home, where Elian spends his days playing on a swing, chasing puppies and watching his saga unfold on television.
Attorneys walking a thin line
By Amy Driscoll And Andres Viglucci. adriscoll@herald.com
Should a federal court order Lazaro Gonzalez to return Elian to his father, the lawyers representing the boy's Miami family will be thrust into a tricky legal position.
On one hand, the family's defense team -- numbering about a dozen -- has an obligation to strongly advocate for their client.
But as officers of the court, legal ethics prohibit the lawyers from encouraging the boy's great-uncle to disobey a federal court order and break the law.
''Though a lawyer has substantial latitude in advising a client, it is clear that a lawyer cannot aid a client in committing a crime,'' said Anthony Alfieri, a University of Miami law professor and director of the Center for Ethics and Public Service.
''Noncompliance with a court order -- contempt of court, in other words -- is a criminal act. To advise the family to do anything less than comply with a federal court order would be unethical,'' he said.
And it might not be Lazaro Gonzalez alone facing possible charges, the professor added. The family's lawyers could be in the jail cell beside him. Penalties in federal court for lawyers found in contempt of court include arrest, imprisonment and civil fines.
''If Lazaro Gonzalez wants to engage in an act of civil disobedience,'' Alfieri explained, ''the legal defense team is duty-bound to advise him that refusing to comply with a federal court order is less an act of civil disobedience than an act of contempt for the American legal process and the
rule of law in American society.''
Lawyers are officers of the court, which means they have an ethical obligation to follow the law and obey all court rules and procedures, said Kathy Kilpatrick, assistant director of lawyer regulation at The Florida Bar.
Additionally, they are obligated to explain the consequences of their client's actions if the client disobeys the law, she said.
''We do have to lay out all the possible consequences of refusing to follow a court order,'' she said. ''We do not have to compel them to obey it, however.''
Ethical violations substantiated by the Bar are turned over to the state Supreme Court for punishment. Sanctions can include reprimand, censure, suspension or dismissal from the Bar.
Miami defense attorney Roy Kahn said the Miami family's lawyers may be close to the line separating effective advocacy from complicity in their client's violation of the order.
''If they're trying to put the clients in the best light, I don't consider it improper,'' Kahn said. ''But if the lawyers are out there promoting and assisting in their efforts not to comply, then they're involved in complicity. It's a gray area. Sometimes you have to defend your clients'
actions to avoid a misinterpretation. But you have to be careful.''
As attorney Bruce Zimet, a Fort Lauderdale defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor, said: ''Lawyers have to be careful they don't get caught up in the moral cause of the case.''
The glare of international publicity also can blind a lawyer to his ethical obligations, Zimet noted. ''Everybody involved in this case seems to be a magnet for the TV cameras. I see all this posturing and I'm not sure who the client is. The uncle? The boy? You can't tell.''
Legal experts also pointedly questioned the ethics of a legal team that would seek custody of Elian in state court even though a federal court had jurisdiction in the case.
UM's Alfieri called the strategy a misuse of the legal system.
''The legal defense team's exploitation of the family court in seeking custody -- when the law of jurisdiction was well settled -- constituted an abuse of the legal process so great that in federal court it would have been deserving of sanctions,'' he said.
LAZARO vs. U.S.
Blunt and defiant, Elian's great-uncle isn't yielding: 'The child stays here'
By Manny Garcia . magarcia@herald.com. Published Sunday, April 16, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Lazaro Gonzalez, body shop worker, Marlboro smoker, family man, convicted drunk driver, die-hard anti-communist, has not slept in 72 hours.
His eyes are bloodshot. His voice is hoarse. But he is smiling, wide. He's gone 15 rounds with the Justice Department and his 6-year-old nephew remains in Little Havana -- the center of the exile universe.
Cranked up on adrenaline, applause and shots of Cuban coffee, Gonzalez tells hundreds of supporters outside his rented house that Elian Gonzalez is not going back to Cuba -- defying a federal order.
''El nino se queda aqui,'' Lazaro Gonzalez says in Spanish. ''The child stays here.''
For better or worse, the battle for Elian Gonzalez might as well be the United States versus Lazaro. In Washington, D.C., a massive team of Justice Department attorneys and bureaucrats remains frustrated, failing so far to persuade great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez to reunite his nephew with the boy's
father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
''Lazaro is a real simple guy,'' Miami Commissioner Tomas Regalado said. ''He speaks his mind. He says things without thinking. He's an old-time Cuban. He's the boss. It's his house. And it's his decision -- good or bad.''
Lazaro, 49, has taken center stage in recent weeks after his daughter, Marisleysis, 21, was hospitalized over the emotional roller coaster generated by the legal battle to keep Elian in the United States. With Marisleysis ill, Lazaro -- who speaks scant English -- has become the new family
representative seen around the world.
But he is highly unsophisticated and unpolished in dealing with the press, and that has made him the darling of Spanish-language reporters
because he does not mince words.
Last week, he told the press that he would not deliver Elian to Opa-locka Airport so the boy could be flown to his father in Washington.
''Ni Opa-locka. Ni palo loca,'' he said, a grand rhyming sound bite in Spanish that loses its bite in English. ''Not Opa-locka. Not crazy stick.''
Lazaro curses loudly. His temper explodes. He doesn't give a hoot what anyone -- including the United States government -- thinks of him. His only goal -- down to the bone, as he would say -- is to keep Elian Gonzalez from returning to Cuba.
''They will have to pry Elian out of my arms,'' Lazaro Gonzalez says. ''There is no future in Cuba. His milk ration is cut off at age 7. Here he can drink all the milk he wants in America. If they want to take him, they'll have to come here so the whole world can see it.''
To understand Lazaro, one must understand his world: the land of picadillo and pastelitos -- ground beef casserole and pastries, staples of Cuban cuisine.
THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Gonzalez lives at 2319 NW Second St. The house is 48 years old. The rent is $600 a month. The neighborhood is blue-collar, religious, tree-lined. Cuban flags hang outside homes here. Hand-painted signs exhort Elian to stay. This is the neighborhood that reelected Miami Commissioner Humberto
Hernandez because he was Cuban -- even after he had been charged with bank fraud and money laundering.
''It's a place where you can be born, live and die and never have to speak English,'' said Alberto Milian, 39, a Broward County prosecutor who grew up in Little Havana.
At National Hardware, a hammer is called a martillo. At Islas Canarias Restaurant, a sizzling flank steak is called palomilla. And the local supermarket is Publix, which residents call ''El Publi,'' and it sells Cafe Pilon, Galletas Gilda and long loaves of pan Cubano.
''It's a place where the Cuban sense is alive and well,'' Milian says. ''The Cold War is not dead because the suffering continues. Families are still separated. The Bay of Pigs memorial is an ever-present symbol.''
The memorial is south of the Gonzalez house, at Southwest Eighth Street and 13th Avenue, and is marked by an eternal flame that honors Cuban exiles who died trying to overthrow Castro. Monday is the 39th anniversary. Some older exiles still blame the failed invasion on the United States -- and
Democrats -- because President John F. Kennedy called off air support.
AVERSION TO BETRAYAL
Those closest to Lazaro Gonzalez say this is why he cannot hand over Elian without a fight: It would betray Elian and the memory of every Cuban who died trying to free Cuba or drowned trying to reach the United States -- like Elian's mother, Elisabeth Brotons.
''He believes he would be handing the child over to Castro,'' Commissioner Regalado said. ''A Cuban just can't do that.''
Others are not as complimentary.
Juan Miguel Gonzalez -- Elian's father -- says Lazaro has kidnapped his son. The courts have also shot down Lazaro and ordered him to return the boy.
''Lazaro Gonzalez has broken the law,'' said Maria Cardona, a spokewoman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington.
The Cuban government calls Lazaro an ''alcoholic'' who ''sexually abused his students'' while he worked as a physical education teacher at two government-run sports academies.
Lazaro says the allegations are untrue. There is no sordid past in Cuba, he says. He shows reporters a Certificate of Criminal Records issued by Cuba's Ministry of Justice on July 5, 1983. The certificate notes that Lazaro Gonzalez ''has not been sentenced by any judge or judicial court of the
nation to any punishment.''
But Lazaro will not discuss his two Miami-Dade convictions for driving under the influence, in 1991 and 1997.
'HE'S TRULY SORRY'
''People make mistakes,'' family publicist Armando Gutierrez said. ''He's truly sorry and moving on with his life to make his family proud.''
Lombardo Perez Sr., owner of Metro Ford, said the traffic arrests did not stop him from hiring Lazaro several months ago to do body work at the dealership. Like all workers, Lazaro passed an insurance-mandated drug test. Lazaro, court records show, says he earns $30,960 a year. Perez said Lazaro
does not get paid when he is not at Ford, so Perez gives the family money.
''I do it as a Cuban. I do it as a Christian,'' Perez said. ''Lazaro needs help.''
Lazaro was born June 20, 1950, in the coastal town of Cardenas, by car two hours east of Havana. He is the youngest of nine children. When he was 8, Castro took power in 1959. Three years later, the government tossed his older brother Delfin in prison. The government called him a traitor.
It was in Cuba that Lazaro met a young girl named Angela. They went to the movies to watch Palomo Linares, a bullfighting film. They fell in love and married 29 years ago. They have two children, Marisleysis and a son, William, 27.
The family moved to Miami in 1984, settling in Little Havana. Three years ago, Marisleysis graduated from Miami High, the oldest high school in Miami. She got a job at Ocean Bank, processing loans. Lazaro fixed boats and cars -- and made extra money doing repairs in his side yard.
SPOTLIGHT SHINES
The family lived anonymously until Thanksgiving Day, when fishermen found Elian strapped to an inner tube off the South Florida coast.
Now, said Lombardo Perez, a director of the Cuban American National Foundation, ''the pressure Lazaro is under is beyond comprehension. He has a team of lawyers giving him advice. The house is always full of people. Everybody wants their picture taken with him. The cell phone is constantly going
off. The press is outside. He gets two, maybe three, hours of sleep, and he still has to attend to his wife, his daughter and Elian.''
But government-appointed psychiatrists say this is not a stable environment for a child who survived such a traumatic ordeal.
The doctors say the constant traffic through the house and the television interviews are ''cruel and exploitive.''
Psychiatrist Jerry M. Wiener, who doesn't speak Spanish, recently met with Lazaro. ''He proved to be absolutely stubborn,'' Wiener said. ''We tried to explain positive and decent ways to reunite not only Elian but heal the wounds between the family. Lazaro would not hear of it. He said, 'I will
only meet in my house. In my territory.' ''
CHANGING MOODS
Said Dr. Paulina Kernberg, of Cornell University: ''He's a man of many contradictions. He can appear simple and sensible, then he goes into a long monologue and cannot be interrupted. Another moment he will be charming, then go into an outburst. He is volatile. His ego has been very inflated.''
In December, Miami-Dade School Board member Demetrio Perez introduced himself to Lazaro and Marisleysis.
''Mucho gusto, señora,'' Perez told Marisleysis, using the Spanish title equivalent to ''Mrs.''
Instantly, Gonzalez grabbed the commissioner's right arm and in a slow, deliberate tone said: ''Señorita. My daughter is a señorita. She is a young lady, pure and unspoiled.''
Stunned, Perez looked at his arm. ''Yes, of course. Of course, you are right, my apologies.''
Commissioner Regalado said Lazaro is misunderstood. He loves his family, adores Elian and gets overly emotional about both.
REACTION TO RENO
For example, Regalado said, he and Lazaro recently watched Attorney General Janet Reno talk about her meeting with Elian's father.
''He blew his top,'' Regalado said, adding that Lazaro raged at the television set and cursed Reno, calling her ''that old bitch hag.''
Dr. Wiener concluded: ''I think everybody there has convinced themselves that they are on the path of right and righteousness -- and that civilization as we know it is at stake right now.''
Lazaro Gonzalez agrees that he is on the path of righteousness.
''I cannot let this little child go back to Cuba,'' he said. ''There is no future on that island. Here he can have an education. Here he can grow up to be whatever he wants. This is America.''
Herald staff writers Ana Acle, Renato Perez, Liz Balmaseda and Jay Weaver contributed to this report.
Dad's middle-finger salute ignites stir in Washington
Hand aimed at hecklers
By Frances Robles. frobles@herald.com. Published Saturday, April 15, 2000, in the Miami Herald
GESTURE TO THE CROWD: Elian Gonzalez's father, Juan Miguel, gives the finger Thursday to demonstrators outside the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C.
The talk in Washington was of Juan Miguel Gonzalez -- not just his politics or his custody battle for his son Elian -- but his finger.
His middle one. And how he used it to offer an unfriendly salute to the few Cuban-American protesters who have heckled him since his arrival a week ago.
Gonzalez stepped onto the porch of the gated Cuban Interests Section on Thursday morning while the press interviewed one of his visitors. A small group of protesters across the street shouted: ``Your son is here!'' He looked toward them, elevated his arm, lifted his hand, and raised his finger,
too.
But not everyone who saw it was convinced it was his middle finger, or that it was intended to be menacing and obscene.
``To be honest, when I saw it, I thought it was his index finger,'' said Jorge Rodriguez, 24, a Georgetown University Law student from Miami, who has spent the past week protesting at the Cuban Interests Section.
``I thought he meant, wait up or No. 1. But then my friends said, `Look at that, he just gave us the finger!' ''
A Miami Herald photo clearly shows Gonzalez holding up his middle finger.
None of Gonzalez's representatives was available Thursday to shed light on the gesture. Cuban Interests Section spokesman Luis Fernandez did not return a telephone message and lawyer Gregory B. Craig did not mention it during a statement to the press.
"It's hard to say,'' Rodriguez said. ``If he did, whatever. He's been told horrible things about us. It's worse for him.''
Family's new legal claim: Rights treaties ban Elian's return
By Frank Davies. fdavies@herald.com. Published Saturday, April 15, 2000, in the Miami Herald
WASHINGTON -- In an unusual legal move and last-ditch effort to block the return of Elian Gonzalez to his father, Miami relatives are arguing in federal court here that human rights treaties and anti-torture conventions bar U.S. officials from returning the boy to a repressive regime such as
Castros Cuba.
``The thrust of this argument is that the United States has signed international conventions that prohibit repatriating refugees to a country that is found to be violating human rights,'' said George Fowler, representing the Miami relatives.
But Justice Department lawyers, in a brief filed Friday, asserted that the claim is deeply flawed and based on laws designed to protect refugees who do not want to return to a country that might persecute them -- not, as in this case, when a 6-year-olds father withdrew an asylum claim advanced
by other relatives.
The relatives were granted an emergency hearing Friday before U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy. But Fowler told the judge that ``the sense of urgency had been diminished'' because the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals had issued a temporary stay in the case in Atlanta Thursday -- three minutes
after Fowler filed his civil claim in Washington.
Kennedy scheduled a hearing for Wednesday on Fowlers request.
Fowler later said that human rights and anti-torture conventions apply in Elians case, because the State Department and international groups have documented a systematic violation of human rights in Cuba.
Fowlers motion said Elian, if returned, would ``be politically indoctrinated to a much larger extent than others,'' and told that his mother, who drowned trying to bring him to Florida, was ``a traitor to the revolution.''
Government lawyers countered that Fowler was simply repackaging the asylum arguments that were rejected by U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore in Miami last month, when he upheld the INS finding of ``no credible information indicating that [Elian] would be at risk of torture or persecution if
returned to his father.''
State Department spokesman James Rubin said Friday that in international custody cases, parent-child reunification is often more important than a countrys human rights record. ``There are a number of countries in the world that we return children to, pursuant to our policy of the rights of
parents to be with their children, that have worse human rights records than the United States,'' Rubin said at a press briefing.
President Clinton's remarks Saturday on the Elian Gonzalez case during a visit to Sequoia National Forest Saturday
Published Sunday, April 16, 2000, in the Miami Herald Internet Edition
Q Mr. President, what did you tell Janet Reno about the Gonzalez case?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we just had a conversation about where it is. We reviewed where the legal case was and what her plans were. I just told her that I strongly supported her efforts and that we clearly had to uphold the rule of law.
Q Do you want to see this brought to a swift end?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we have to let the court cases be decided. But I think the main thing is -- I hope that all the people there who say they came to the United States because we have freedom and the rule of law will observe the rule of law. When this thing finally plays out, in the end, the
law has to be obeyed. And that's basically what we talked about.
We talked a little about the details and -- she was the prosecutor there for 12 years, so she knows it very well and she's down there working hard on it and I think she'll handle it in as sensitive, but firm a way as possible. That's basically what we talked about -- just what's likely to happen
over the next couple of days.
But the main thing -- my message is simple; she has to deal with the day-to-day details. But the thing that we've got to do is to make sure that our laws are upheld and enforced. And in the end, I'm quite confident they will be.
Source: White House Web site
Concerns arise over Elian's emotional health
By Carol Rosenber. crosenberg@herald.com. Published Sunday, April 16, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Elian Gonzalez is up late these days, doesn't go to school and bit his Miami family's chosen psychologist on the arm recently. Earlier this week he told family members that he fears returning to Cuba means being put out to sea -- on a raft -- to go back the way he came.
Mental health experts selected by the government to advise it on returning Elian to his father's custody say they have spotted signs that Elian is under extraordinary stress. They talk of ''a progressive deterioration'' in his condition and say the political whirlwind in which he has been
embroiled could be causing him emotional harm.
Supporters of the Miami family's efforts to keep Elian here dispute that assessment. They say the only time his mood changes is after he has spoken with his father on the phone.
Nearly five months after Elian became the center of an international custody fight, his mental state, and the impact of returning him to his father and the battle surrounding him, have become the topic of debate between those who want to see a quick reunion with his father and those who want him
to remain with his Miami relatives.
''We have seen a progressive deterioration,'' said Dr. Paulina Kernberg, a child psychoanalyst from Cornell University medical college who is one of three mental health experts chosen by the Justice Department to advise on how to reunite the child with his father. ''We are all seriously,
seriously concerned about this misuse of this situation of this boy who has enough tragedy to deal with in his life.''
Kernberg has never met Elian, and is basing her observations on television footage and conversations with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez and great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez.
'DEEP TROUBLE'
Added Dr. Jerry Wiener, professor emeritus in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at George Washington University and another advisor to the Justice Department: ''His situation is deteriorating . . . Elian is in very deep trouble. Either things are being put in his mouth or he's been led to
understand that he's the one who makes decisions.''
Wiener also has never met Elian. But the government experts say they no longer see news video of Elian giving toothy grins, hearty waves and enthusiastic V-signs outside his great-uncle's Little Havana home. When captured on camera lately, the 6-year-old looks tired, wary, lackluster, they say.
By not shielding the boy from the political tug-of-war over his fate and by refusing to work out an orderly transfer to his father, Elian's Miami relatives ''have put him in harm's way in every possible way,'' Wiener said.
Armando Gutierrez, the family's spokesman who has spent long hours in Lazaro Gonzalez's house and seen the child up close throughout most of his nearly five month stay here, disputes the assessment.
'A FIGHTER'
''I don't think Elian is deteriorating. Elian is a fighter and I think Elian feels comfortable with the protection he's getting from his family; he knows they're fighting for him,'' he said.
Gutierrez says he has no concerns that the child's current situation could cause him to suffer a nervous breakdown. ''He didn't have a breakdown in 50 hours in the waters,'' Gutierrez said. ''I have not seen any signs of him having a nervous breakdown.''
Either way, there are signs that the child has been experiencing stress lately -- and acting out.
This week, Barry University president Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin reported that the child misunderstood a discussion of taking him to Washington to mean he was going to Cuba -- on a raft.
''They were preparing to go to Washington,'' the nun told Good Morning America, in an account confirmed by Gutierrez, who consulted with Marisleysis. ''He woke up and was so upset because he thought he would have to go back on the raft. And so it took pretty much until we could go pick
Marisleysis up at the hospital, that he began to see that there was no raft and that he was not going anywhere.''
No Miami family member has told the boy that he would return to Cuba on a plane rather than a raft, Gutierrez said. The subject is taboo, although Gutierrez said he believes Juan Miguel has told Elian in a telephone call he could come home ''just like the grandmothers,'' who visited earlier this
year.
During Wednesday night's meetings between Lazaro, Marisleysis and Attorney General Janet Reno at the nun's Miami Beach house, Elian bit Alina Lopez-Gottardi, the psychologist who has been working with Elian since December.
Lopez-Gottardi did not return a message from The Herald, but a witness who was in Sister Jeanne's house at the time said the child had been mostly bored during the meeting and had amused himself by watching cartoons in a nearby room.
He spent the evening ''hyperkinetic,'' the witness said, running between cartoons, the door to the dining room, where Reno was meeting family members inside, and the kitchen, where government officials, two psychologists, a baby sitter hired by Sister Jeanne and others had gathered.
At one point, the boy reached up to the counter to grab at some food or a drink. Lopez-Gottardi reached around him with one arm to pull him back. He sunk his teeth into her arm as she shouted, No me muerdas! No me muerdas!, ''Don't bite me!''
She then let him go, and he raced off.
Said Kernberg: '''A child who has problems psychologically, tends to do that [bite] when they feel misunderstood or controlled or coerced.''
Also of concern to the government psychiatrists was last week's homemade videotape of the child angrily telling his father he did not want to return to Cuba, and that Juan Miguel Gonzalez and his family should come to Miami.
Up until that point, Wiener said, the child had looked happy and well adjusted on television footage. Suddenly, he appeared to be angrily emulating his great-uncle, he said.
''He looked scripted and rehearsed. He looked a little bit like a robot, repeating these gestures,'' Wiener said. ''I mean what kind of 6-year-old talks like that? What kind of 6-year-old gives that kind of a statement, in a rehearsed way on camera. It was shameful.''
Cuban Americans who advocate the child staying here -- and argue that his father should defect and join him in Miami -- say they saw in the videotape the heartfelt sentiment of a child who understands perfectly his political environment.
FAMILY RESPONSIBILITY
But even if that were true, said Dr. Alan Delamater, a pediatric psychologist of the University of Miami, it is the responsibility of his Miami family to prepare Elian for what he characterized as an ''imminent transfer'' to his father, as dictated by the government.
''I do think even 6-year-olds have their own thoughts and opinions and feelings. Certainly it is important for adults to understand how kids feel and to take that into account,'' said Delamater, who is not one of the government's advisors but who has been watching the situation for months.
''But at the same time, responsible adults make decisions as responsible adults do. They don't allow 6-year-olds who are in such conditions and vulnerable to dictate what their conditions should be.''
Others were alarmed by the time of the taping, sometime after midnight, against a backdrop of a chaotic, politically charged home life rather than the peace and protection that they say a child who only recently lost his mother would require.
''He's not going to school. He's having instruction at home. He doesn't have privacy. He doesn't have peer relations,'' said Kernberg, a fluent Spanish speaker and native of Chile.
''He doesn't have a daily routine. He's being kept up to ungodly hours at night. You saw him playing at 11:30 [p.m.] with all the lights. He's facing all the people who are shouting and demonstrating, which they have the right to do but which is not so nice for the child.''
Gutierrez responded that Elian is doing fine with ''home schooling'' by a teacher and visits from his classmates from the Lincoln Marti School.
And he disputes that the child is sleep deprived. ''Most of the time he falls asleep at 9,'' Gutierrez said. ''Sometimes 7:30, sometimes 8:30. I'm telling you, this kid gets lots of sleep.''
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