By Andres Oppenheimer, aoppenheimer@herald.com. Published Wednesday, January 12, 2000, in the Miami Herald
PUNTA DEL ESTE, Uruguay -- The case of young Cuban rafter Elian Gonzalez is making big headlines in South America, where many newspapers are showing little sympathy for the Cuban exiles in Miami who are trying to keep him in the United States.
Few of the stories about the 6-year-old rafter whose mother and stepfather died while trying to reach U.S. soil focus on the plight of Cuban rafters who risk death trying to escape political repression or economic misery in Cuba. Rather, they reflect -- often critically -- the efforts of Cuban
exiles to prevent him from being reunited with his father in Cuba.
``The story is being presented as that of a kid who has been wrested away from his father,'' said Danilo Arbilla, publisher of Uruguay's weekly Busqueda. ``Nobody remembers his mother, and nobody suspects that his father is being pressed or rewarded [by the Cuban government] to do what he is
doing.''
Carlos Pauletti, a veteran international correspondent with Uruguay's daily El Pais, says that ``most of what I've seen in the local media suggests that the boy should be sent to his father in Cuba. The media are focusing on the drama of the kid, who is caught in the middle of a political battle
between the Cuban government and the exiles.''
In neighboring Argentina, several newspapers echoed Cuban President Fidel Castro's claim that the child was being ``kidnapped'' by U.S. authorities.
Argentina's mass-circulation tabloid Clarin ran a story Sunday under the headline, Anti-Castro forces block Clinton and retain Elian. The story refers to ``arch-conservative Republican legislators who oppose any relaxation of Washington's policy toward Havana.''
The article ran next to a Havana-datelined interview with Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who was quoted as calling for his son's immediate return to Cuba because his Miami relatives ``are nothing, and I'm Elian's father.''
Argentina's La Nacion newspaper reported the story in a more subdued tone, reflecting the various positions on Elian's fate. On Thursday, the newspaper ran a sidebar about the experiences of Cubans who flee the island on rafts.
Colombia's news weekly Semana carried a story titled Home in Dispute, in which it said, ``The [Elian] story has been exploited by the Cuban American National Foundation, which seized the image of the defenseless child to print posters against the Cuban government.''
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