Published Thursday, January 6, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Send back Elian to his father, INS says
Exiles announce extensive protests
By Alfonso Chardy, Gail Epstein Nieves And Andres Viglucci , aviglucci@herald.com
Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy whose rescue at sea on Thanksgiving Day touched millions around the world, belongs with his father in Cuba and not with relatives in Miami, U.S. officials decreed Wednesday -- a decision met with swift condemnation by a broad cross-section of Cuban exiles, some of
whom vowed to disrupt traffic today in protest.
Announced in a nationally televised news conference and quickly seconded by President Clinton, the conclusion by Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner was unequivocal: Parental rights in the case are paramount. Elian, whose mother perished with 10 others when their
boat foundered off Florida, must go home by Jan. 14, Meissner said.
``This little boy, who has been through so much, belongs with his father,'' she said.
Expressing vehement disagreement, exile leaders sketched out plans to enact traffic slowdowns beginning at 7 a.m. today, escalating to possible traffic stoppages on highways and entrances to Miami International Airport. Miami-Dade County administrators said extra police and tow trucks would
ensure the airport stays open.
``Let's take action immediately with the objective of paralyzing Miami and paralyzing the airport,'' Alberto Hernandez, a director with the Cuban American National Foundation, urged other exile leaders at a planning meeting Wednesday night.
The protests could jeopardize INS' strategy for returning Elian without forcing a showdown. Meissner made it clear that she prefers to allow Elian's relatives here and in Cuba to work out his return, either by themselves or with help from mediators whom she did not identify. Meissner would not
say what the agency would do if the family declines to cooperate.
``We believe that this decision can be carried out without INS' taking charge of Elian,'' Meissner said.
But even as a large crowd of supporters began gathering outside the family's Little Havana house, the 6-year-old boy's Miami relatives expressed anger and defiance. In a statement to reporters outside the federal courthouse in downtown Miami, Elian's cousin, Marisleysis Gonzalez, reaffirmed the
family's belief that the boy is better off in the United States than in repressive Cuba.
``This is an unjust decision,'' she said. ``I was surprised. I always thought this was a place of liberty. I told the INS officials that nobody is thinking about the child's rights and the sacrifice that his mother paid to bring him here.''
Spencer Eig, one of the family's attorneys, said the family will ask U.S. Attorney Janet Reno to reverse Meissner's decision before challenging the INS in court -- a legal recourse that experts described as a long shot.
Both Reno and Clinton, however, have already reviewed and concur in the decision, administration officials said.
``I told you when we started this that I would do my best to keep this decision out of politics. We have done that, we have not been involved in it,'' Clinton told reporters at the White House. ``The INS followed the law, and the procedures and made the decision that they made after an
exhaustive review of the facts.''
The U.S. Interests Section in Havana said Elian's father, Juan Gonzalez, was informed of the INS decision on Wednesday morning, but that he has not requested a U.S. visa to retrieve his child.
The National Council of Churches, a Protestant and Orthodox group that sent a delegation to see Elian's father in Cuba, said Gonzalez asked INS officials who met with him in Havana to allow the organization to help arrange Elian's return.
The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, a delegation member who returned from Cuba on Wednesday, said she hopes Elian's Miami relatives will be amenable to an amicable solution.
CAUTIOUS REACTION
The Cuban government reacted cautiously, warning in an official statement that ``the Cuban-American Mafia and the right wing in the U.S. Congress . . . will try by all their means to prevent the boy's return to Cuba.''
Meissner's decision did not surprise legal experts, who say U.S. and international law heavily favors biological parents in custody disputes. Meissner stressed that Elian's father, twice interviewed by INS officials in Cuba, convinced them of his sincerity and provided extensive proof that he
and his son enjoyed a close relationship.
``The father made it very clear during both of these meetings that he wants Elian returned to him as soon as possible. Based on these meetings, INS believes that the father is expressing his true wishes,'' she said.
But many exiles in Miami seemed shocked by the ruling, and politicians and community leaders roundly decried it as a political sop by a Clinton administration eager for better relations with Fidel Castro. Many demanded that Elian's Miami relatives be given a chance to plead their case in court.
``It's a real tragedy to have the president of the U.S. buckling to an ultimatum from a two-bit assassin dictator,'' said U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami.
After meeting with Elian's Miami family, Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas said, ``I think the strategy from our perspective is to rally behind the legal team, and seek an appropriate hearing for Elian.
Penelas spokesman Juan Mendieta said the mayor told Vice President Al Gore on Wednesday that the decision would hurt his bid for the presidency in South Florida unless he takes steps to have it rescinded.
TWO CONCERNS
Undergirding exile views were two common concerns: That Elian's father acted under government duress in asking for his son's return, and that sending the boy back would constitute a propaganda gift to the island's struggling Communist regime.
``This boy cannot become a trophy for Fidel,'' said Jorge Mas Santos, chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation.
Throughout the afternoon and evening, Spanish-language radio broadcast constant calls to protest. The organization Facts About Cuban Exiles issued an open letter that, while expressing disappointment with the INS decision, urged protesters to exercise restraint.
But police and the Florida Highway Patrol were bracing for traffic slowdowns and other threatened acts of civil disobedience. Large crowds are expected today at a noon demonstration outside the Claude Pepper Federal Building in downtown Miami.
On Wednesday afternoon, Ramon Saul Sanchez, leader of the anti-Castro Democracia Movement, led a band of followers through a drill in which participants practiced being arrested and linking arms in a ``human chain.'' Activists have threatened to surround Elian's Miami home with such a human
chain.
'MIXED EMOTIONS'
Miami-Dade police said anyone trying to block airport access will be asked to move -- and arrested and towed if they don't comply.
``Everyone has mixed emotions about this poor little boy,'' airport spokeswoman Lauren Gail Stover said. ``But we have got an airport to run.''
FHP reported no traffic-related protests by Wednesday evening, but said that as a precaution troopers would be stationed at the Dolphin Expressway tollbooth, the 103rd Street exit of the Palmetto Expressway, and Interstate 95 at the Golden Glades and State Road 112 -- all hot spots in previous
exile protests.
The 836 tollbooth is expected to be a major demonstration site, police said, warning protesters that traffic stoppages could result in tickets and towing.
``We obviously do not condone any stopping or interfering with the flow of traffic,'' FHP Lt. Ernesto Duarte said. ``It's against the law and it's dangerous.''
As his fate was being announced, Elian spent a quiet day at Lincoln-Marti School in Little Havana, where he enrolled Tuesday. He studied math and reading, then ate chicken, beans and rice, and a lettuce and tomato salad for lunch. When school was out at 2 p.m., Miami police slid Elian out the
back door and ushered him into a black sport utility vehicle with tinted windows and a `Salvemos a Elian' (Let's Save Elian) bumper sticker.
'SAFE HOUSE'
Cesar Nuñez, a staff cameraman for CBS 4, said the vehicle's driver made multiple and eventually successful efforts to switch Elian to another car so he couldn't be followed.
He was taken to what a family representative described as a ``safe house.'' Armando Gutierrez, the Miami family's spokesman, would only say that Elian was staying at a relative's home in Little Havana to ``shield the child from the commotion.''
Left unanswered Wednesday is what authorities would do if Elian's relatives refuse to give him up voluntarily, or if the threatened human chain of protesters materializes around the family house.
Miami Police, who have sporadically provided security to Elian's relatives, said they would not be involved in any efforts to remove the boy from their custody. Federal law officers, possibly from the U.S. Marshals Service, would enforce INS administrative orders or any court rulings in the
case, Assistant Chief Ray Martinez said. The INS and its sister agency, the Border Patrol, also have sworn uniformed officers.
Contributing to this story were Herald staff writers Karen Branch, Tyler Bridges, Lesley Clark, Frank Davies, Don Finefrock, Allison Klein, Marika Lynch, Jay Weaver, Herald translator Renato Perez, and Herald wire services.
Decisions inflame two worlds
Cubans, Haitians protest different grievances
By Anabelle De Gale, Marika Lynch, Karen Branch And Martin Merzer, merzer@herald.com
The stress fractures of a unique American metropolis came into sharper focus Wednesday.
A sad-eyed youngster, now the symbol of his people's plight, was ordered back to Cuba. And hundreds of impoverished Haitians, their bid for prosperity -- perhaps survival -- blocked within sight of fruition, returned to their island.
In South Florida, segments of two communities seethed and weeped over perceived injustices. They did this separately.
Many hundreds of Cuban exiles protested at immigration headquarters -- the same place where Haitians had demonstrated Monday -- and at the temporary home of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez.
Some threatened to block or slow rush-hour traffic beginning at 7 a.m. today, and engage in civil disobedience downtown.
``We will stop this city if the administration makes a political pact with the regime of Fidel Castro,'' activist leader Ramon Saul Sanchez told a crowd Wednesday evening. ``How many people are willing to go to jail?''
Hundreds raised their hands.
Others criticized that strategy. Civil disobedience is fine, they said, but not when it's directed against bystanders.
``It's very misguided and counterproductive,'' said Max Castro, a senior research associate at the University of Miami's Dante B. Fascell North-South Center and an expert on refugee issues.
``The vast majority of people, even Cubans, will not be very sympathetic if they are prevented from taking their kids to school or taking their parents to a hospital.''
PROTESTS LIMITED
For the most part, Wednesday's protests were limited, inconveniencing relatively few, though some intentional traffic slowdowns were evident on Flagler Street, State Road 836 and other places.
In Little Havana, many people protested on Northwest Second Street, outside the house now serving as Elian's home. The boy clung to an inner tube after his mother died while fleeing Cuba. He was rescued on Thanksgiving Day. Authorities ruled Wednesday that he must return to his Cuban father by
Jan. 14.
Many demonstrators held signs: ``Clinton go to hell.'' ``Clinton and Castro into the trash can of history.'' ``Freedom for Elian in U.S.''
Many felt betrayed.
``How are we going to send this kid back?'' said Eloy Cepero, 54, an exile activist. ``I'm a veteran of the U.S. Navy, and I will return my honorable discharge papers to Clinton if they send him back. This means freedom no longer exists.''
HAITIANS SPEAK OUT
Across town in Little Haiti and in Broward County, many Haitian Americans expressed resentment over what they consider unequal treatment. Cubans who make it to U.S. soil generally stay. Haitians face deportation, though some are released these days.
``Two things play against Haitians,'' said Jacques Despinosse, president of the Haitian Democratic Club in Miami-Dade County. ``We have no money, and no vote. Therefore, nobody will listen to us.''
Said Marvin Dejean, a leader of the Haitian Community Center in Fort Lauderdale:
``The U.S. has put itself in a quagmire simply by the fact they have created this double standard and made themselves look bad. If they were applying one simple law toward everyone, regardless of race and regardless of where they came from, this would not have happened.''
On Wednesday, 407 Haitian and other refugees, found on an overcrowded wooden vessel just offshore last weekend, landed in Port-au-Prince after a return trip aboard two Coast Guard cutters.
``It's about time this community gets unified to deal with this immigration issue,'' said Margaret Armand, a Haitian American who ran for the Broward School Board last year. ``We don't want lip service anymore. This is a human being issue. Not a Cuban, Nicaraguan or Haitian issue.''
Another aggrieved community seeking redress.
``We're a very peculiar kind of border town,'' Max Castro said. ``It's the border between the Caribbean and North America. A lot of controversies get worked out in this border town, and that's what we are seeing.''
Throughout the region, some felt themselves losing patience.
DECISION DEFENDED
At the Trail Tag Agency on Little Havana's Calle Ocho, Debbie Perkins of Coral Gables defended the decision by immigration authorities to return young Elian.
``It's his father -- blood is blood,'' she said as the crowd loudly disagreed. ``It shouldn't be a political matter, but typical of South Florida, anything that's Cuba-related is political. But hey, I'm just a gringa.''
The crowd booed, drowning her out.
Some within the exile community agreed with her.
``There's no question about it, he needs parental guidance,'' said Marcos Ferraez, sipping cafe con leche at a South Beach cafe -- and arguing with his friends. ``No one should rob him of that right. The love of his father outweighs any trip to Disney, any Pokemon toys, any amount of money.''
Still, others believed fervently that Elian must remain in the United States.
At Sedano's Supermarket on Calle Ocho, Eliana Rodriguez, a cashier, said talk of Elian's return raged nonstop.
``People can't pay for their groceries without asking me, `Have you heard?' '' Rodriguez said. ``No one has yet said they agree with the decision.''
Earlier in the day, more than 200 people gathered outside the INS building on Northeast 79th Street. Among them was a doctor still in scrubs, a car salesman on an extended lunch hour, and Horacio Sardinias, 87, trembling as he struggled to hold up his frayed Cuban flag.
``I'd rather lose my life than lose my principles,'' he said.
HUMAN CHAIN
Sanchez, the activist leader, appeared outside Elian's house and asked the crowd to practice forming a human chain -- a method that could be employed to block the boy's return.
People joined hands. On Sanchez's command, they started marching.
``Imagine you are in Cuba for one minute,'' Sanchez said.
``No!'' the crowd screamed.
``And you're going to rush Fidel Castro.''
``Murderer!'' the crowd yelled, surging forward.
Found in the crowd were Aymara Fernandez and her son, Joel, 5. She carried Joel on her shoulder. He is one year younger than Elian.
``When he saw the decision on TV, he got upset,'' Joel's mother said. ``He said, `Elian can't go to Cuba. There aren't any toys in Cuba.' ''
Herald staff writers Tyler Bridges, Jacqueline Charles, Dominique Collins-Berta, Gail Epstein Nieves, Mireidy Fernandez, Don Finefrock, Hans Mardy, Sara Olkon, Eunice Ponce and Renato Perez contributed to this report.
Father-son bond clinched decision on custody
By Frank Davies And Juan O. Tamayo, jtamayo@herald.com
The long and bitter tangle over Elian Gonzalez began unraveling on New Year's Eve, when his father met a U.S. immigration official at the Havana home of a UNICEF official and told him about their father-and-son haircuts.
Juan Miguel Gonzalez told the official that he had not gone to the barbershop since Elian left Cuba in November because that was something they had always done together.
That same day, the official from the Immigration and Naturalization Service typed out a transcript of the interview and sent it to Washington using the communications facilities of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana. Within hours, the wheels of the U.S. government were churning toward a
decision to send Elian back to his father in Cuba.
``He provided a tremendous amount of detail,'' INS Commissioner Doris Meissner recalled in her office Wednesday afternoon a few hours after her dramatic public announcement that Elian would be going back to Cuba. ``The time they spent together, the feelings he had. It went well beyond `This is
my son, here's his birth certificate.' ''
``He provided the kinds of details he could only know spontaneously if they had a long relationship,'' said another U.S. official familiar with the meeting. ``There was no one particular item, but a preponderance of evidence.''
On Monday, after reading the transcript of the New Year's Eve interview, Meissner consulted Attorney General Janet Reno. Tuesday, she made her final decision. Aides alerted Miami Police Tuesday afternoon, and telephoned Elian's Miami relatives early Wednesday to summon them to the 11 a.m.
meeting at which they were told that Elian would be returned to Cuba.
``I am not torn by this decision at all,'' a calm but forceful Meissner told The Herald during the 45-minute interview. ``I feel more right about this than many other decisions I've made, because this is about a parent and a child, one of the most fundamental things.''
The commissioner said she ``cannot imagine what it would be like to lose one parent and then face the prospect of not having the other parent,'' although she has known personal loss. Her husband, Charles Meissner, an assistant commerce secretary, died with Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and others
when their plane crashed in Croatia in 1996.
Meissner acknowledged the sharp political disputes surrounding the Elian case, but said the White House did not pressure her to rule one way or another, although she did consult frequently with Reno because she ``obviously knows Miami and has good instincts on this.''
``I know there will be a lot of discussion and debate about this in Miami, and that's healthy. I just hope it will be done peacefully,'' Meissner said.
``Now it's a matter of trying to figure out how to achieve the kid's return. Does the father come to pick him up? Do federal marshals put him on a plane? Now comes the hard part,'' said another U.S. official who has first-hand knowledge of the process.
As if the past month had been easy.
Elian became a virtual icon of the politics that separate Cubans on the island and in exile when he was rescued from an inner tube Thanksgiving Day.
Juan Miguel Gonzalez, a 31-year-old national park employee, and Cuban President Fidel Castro immediately demanded the child's return. Elian's relatives in Miami, and many other Cuban exiles, immediately insisted he be allowed to stay in the United States.
An INS official, accompanied by a diplomat from the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, had first interviewed Elian's father Dec. 13 at the house he shares with his new wife and son in the north-central city of Cardenas.
INS officials met a week later with Elian's relatives in Miami -- a great-aunt and -uncle -- who ``raised some questions that required us to go back to the dad,'' said one U.S. official involved in the process, held largely behind closed doors.
The official wouldn't say what the questions were, but Miami was then rife with false rumors that Gonzalez had once asked for a U.S. visa and with suspicions that Castro was manipulating him to demand Elian's return.
U.S. diplomats in Havana began looking for a better place to hold the second meeting -- ``a place where he would feel relaxed, and where we hoped we would be free of any government eyes,'' the official added.
``Coercion was always a great concern in a country like Cuba,'' Meissner said. ``We did everything we could to try to assess his true wishes.''
The solution: the home of a foreign official of the U.N. International Children's emergency relief Fund (UNICEF), not only neutral ground but child-related and presumably not important enough for Cuban intelligence officials to have bugged with electronic listening devices.
The second meeting was set for New Year's Eve.
``It became obvious in the course of the interview that we were talking about a father and son,'' said a U.S. official.
Meissner spent the weekend reading the transcripts of the interview, and by Monday the State Department was girding for a swift INS decision, with U.S. diplomats probing Cuban officials on whether they would let Gonzalez go to Miami to pick up Elian if the ruling went in his favor.
In the language of diplomats, who usually don't ask for anything unless they are certain of getting it, they did not ``request'' anything of the Cuban government. They simply ``floated a hypothetical,'' said one diplomat.
Havana has not yet responded to the question, designed largely to ease Elian's removal from Miami by perhaps averting the need for INS enforcement officers to take physical possession of the boy and send him back to Cuba.
Over the past two weeks, several Senate Republicans, including Majority Leader Trent Lott, Foreign Relations Chairman Jesse Helms and Connie Mack of Florida, had urged the INS to delay a decision on Elian until late January so that Congress could consider granting him U.S. citizenship.
``We considered that, but in the end the most important thing was the emotional health of the boy -- that's what is fundamentally at stake,'' said Meissner. ``We didn't want to delay this longer than we had to.''
Meissner, who had already been leaning toward recognizing Gonzalez's right to custody of Elian -- and thereby assuring his return to Cuba -- made her final decision on the child's future Tuesday morning.
That same afternoon, INS officials in Miami informed Miami police that the decision would be shared with the family Wednesday at 11 a.m. -- but officers were not told what that decision would be.
``We are not in the loop to know the decisions ahead of time, just that a decision will be made,'' said Maj. Carolyn Forquer, commander of the special investigations section.
Local police officers will not be the ones who take Elian from his relatives' custody, said Forquer. ``This is an INS decision . . . That's why we are in contact with INS, because we want to see what their game plan is.''
But the INS warning at least gave police time to set up sidewalk barriers at INS headquarters on 79th Street -- all the more important because by early Wednesday, Spanish radio broadcasters were calling for protests in front of the building. Police closed off the street.
Later, police later met with Democracy Movement leader Ramon Saul Sanchez to discuss his plans for a protest outside the Claude Pepper Federal Building from noon to 1:30 p.m. today.
``I don't think it will end there,'' predicted Miami Assistant Police Chief Ray Martinez. ``There's a strong feeling from the exile community, and they're going to make their feelings known. As long as it stays peaceful, we're prepared to facilitate that.''
Herald staff writer Gail Epstein Nieves contributed to this report.
Impact on long-term ties with Cuba seen as unlikely
By Juan O. Tamayo, jtamayo@herald.com
The INS decision to return Elian Gonzalez to Cuba may give Fidel Castro a brief propaganda victory, defuse a particularly emotional snag in U.S.-Cuba relations and improve mutual trust, U.S. and Cuban analysts say.
But it does nothing to improve long-term relations, erode the status of Cuban refugees arriving in South Florida or change the immigration accords that are now at the core of U.S.-Cuban relations, the analysts added.
Cuban exiles immediately branded the INS ruling as another Clinton administration attempt to appease Castro by chipping away at the preferential treatment given to Cubans arriving in the United States.
``It is lamentable that this government has decided to settle this case in the Immigration and Naturalization Service, instead of the legal courts where it belongs, Miami human rights activist Ruth Montaner said.
'DEVELOPING TRUST'
Yet other than stirring the passions of those Cuban exiles who want to keep Elian in Miami, and satisfying Castro's demands for his return, the INS decision appears unlikely to have a significant impact on U.S.-Cuba relations.
``I'm assuming there was some U.S.-Cuban cooperation in arranging all this, and that's always positive for developing trust, said Lisandro Perez, head of the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University.
``And for those people who `count points -- Castro wants this and the others want that -- there is a sense that Fidel Castro `won,' Perez added. ``But this will not affect the long-term bilateral relations.
``We still have 40 years of unrelenting hostility, said one U.S. official involved in Cuba issues. ``This is not a harbinger of our all-wonderful relations with Cuba. Fidel Castro remains in power.
1966 ACT UNTOUCHED
Left untouched by the ruling is the U.S. Cuban Adjustment Act, which Castro made the key target of his attacks as he mobilized millions of Cubans over the past month to stage demonstrations for Elian's return.
The 1966 Adjustment Act, which grants U.S. residency to all Cubans one year after their arrival, in essence treats all Cubans as victims of communist oppression entitled to preferential treatment. Castro has steadfastly argued it also promotes illegal and risky attempts to migrate to the United
States.
Also unaffected were the U.S.-Cuba migration accords signed in 1994 and 1995 in an attempt to control risky rafter departures from Cuba and increase legal migration.
At the start of the tug of war over Elian, Castro gave U.S. officials 72 hours to agree to return Elian, while one of his top aides, Ricardo Alarcon, threatened to boycott a December meeting of U.S. and Cuban officials to review progress on implementing the 1994-95 accords.
``But Castro had to back off the ultimatum, and the Alarcon meeting happened. We won those rounds, one U.S. official said. ``If Elian has to go back now, the rule of law wins also.
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