By Anita Snow, .c The Associated Press
HAVANA, 6P) - Cuba encouraged its citizens Thursday to continue protesting for a 6-year-old boy's repatriation, warning that exiles in Miami could try to block the U.S. government's decision to reunite the child with his father on the island.
With President Fidel Castro in attendance, media workers rallied Thursday at Havana's Palace of Conventions to demand Elian Gonzalez's return to Cuba. For weeks the communist government has held such rallies almost daily.
``The case of Elian is for today's youth what 40 years of the blockade, armed invasions, sabotage and attempts to kill President Fidel Castro were for earlier generations,'' said Cuban journalist Luis Baez, who has written several books about Cuban emigration to the United States.
In an unusual move after the rally, state television showed images of Cuban exiles in Miami protesting the U.S. decision to return Elian to the communist island. The footage showed exiles with signs demanding ``Freedom for Elian'' - the same battle cry regularly chanted during rallies on this
side of the Florida Straits.
With a voiceover that called the exiles ``criminals'' and ``mafia members,'' the unusual airing of anti-Castro protests in Miami appeared aimed at showing citizens the broad opposition to the decision among South Florida exiles.
Saying ``nothing is certain'' about Elian's return, the government exhorted citizens to keep rallying, after the boy's relatives in Miami said they would look for ways to get around Wednesday's ruling by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to repatriate the child by Jan. 14.
Cuban exiles in Miami will now ``proceed with all their resources to impede or delay'' the ruling, Cuba predicted Wednesday.
``We cannot stop mobilizing! The struggle must not stop for one minute!'' said a message that was read Wednesday night to several thousand rallying Cuban scientists.
Rescued on Nov. 25 by fishermen off the Florida coast, Elian has become the subject of an international custody battle.
His mother died in a boating accident trying to get Elian and herself to the United States. The boy's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, lives in Cuba and wants Elian back.
But Elian's relatives in Miami have fought to keep the boy, saying they could provide him with a better life. Since the INS decision was announced Wednesday, they have said they will appeal the decision.
Gonzalez has not appeared publicly since the announcement. Neither he nor Elian's four grandparents could be located in their hometown of Cardenas, east of Havana.
AP-NY-01-06-00 2354EST
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press |