By Anita Snow, .c The Associated Press
HAVANA, 14 (AP) - Tens of thousands of Cuban mothers marched toward the American diplomatic mission today to demand the repatriation of Elian Gonzalez in an emotional appeal for the 6-year-old boy who lost his own mother at sea and is now separated from his father on the communist island.
``We want our son!'' chanted the women as they moved slowly up Havana's coastal Malecon highway toward the U.S. Interests Section. Some women waved the red, white and blue Cuban flag. Others carried their small children in their arms or on their shoulders during the ``March of the Combatant
Mothers.''
``Bring back our son!'' declared a sign outside the American mission that featured a portrait of Elian behind a chainlink fence to underscore Cuba's position that the child has been ``kidnapped.''
Fidel Castro's government is increasingly appealing to human emotion as it ends a sixth week of mass mobilizations pressing for Elian's return to his father and grandparents in Cuba. Today's protest marked a return to the larger marches that characterized the first demonstrations calling for the
boy's repatriation.
In a powerful interview Thursday with ABC's ``Nightline,'' Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, 31, expressed growing rage and frustration over his son's extended stay in the United States with his family's Miami relatives.
Elian's maternal grandmother, Raquel Rodriguez, has expressed her own despair in recent days, saying that her dead daughter will not rest until Elian is back in Cuba with his father and grandparents. Elisabeth Brotons was among 11 people who died when their boat sank in the Florida Straits and
Elian survived by clinging to an inner tube.
Elian's paternal great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez is fighting to keep the boy with him in Miami, saying he can give the child a better life outside the communist country. He and others who oppose the boy's return to Cuba say that Brotons died in the fateful ocean crossing to give the boy freedom in
the United States.
``Saying that keeping Elian there out of respect for my daughter's will is a bunch of lies,'' Rodriguez told Cuban journalists earlier this week.
``You can see that none of them know her,'' the grandmother said, referring to the statements made by Elian's parental relatives in Miami about her daughter. ``I was her mother and I knew her better than anyone.''
The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has ruled that Gonzalez is the only person who has the right to speak for Elian on immigration issues and earlier said that the boy should be returned to his father by today.
But Attorney General Janet Reno lifted the deadline to give Elian's Miami relatives a chance to fight for the boy in federal court.
Reno said this week that only a federal court has jurisdiction in the case and rejected a Florida state judge's order that Elian remain in Miami until March 6 to hear his arguments by his American relatives.
She has exhorted all sides in the dispute to work together in the interests of the child.
AP-NY-01-14-00 1041EST
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. |