By Ana Acle And Andres Viglucci, aviglucci@herald.com. Published Friday, January 28, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Host says fear she observed helped in changing her mind
Boy should stay in Miami, host of family visit says
As the Cuban government and Elian Gonzalez's grandmothers bitterly complained about the tension-filled Miami meeting with their grandson, visit host Sister Jeanne O'Laughlin surprised virtually everyone Thursday by shedding her ``neutral'' stance and calling for the boy to stay in the United
States.
O'Laughlin is not only talking about it; she is taking action. O'Laughlin said she decided to go to Capitol Hill -- at her own expense -- to lobby U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, a close friend, and other federal officials. Immigration officials quickly said O'Laughlin's opinion would not
affect their stance that Elian should be reunited with his father in Cuba.
The Miami family's supporters exulted over O'Laughlin's announcement and other unexpected news Thursday:
A federal judge hearing the family's lawsuit to block the government from sending Elian to Cuba put off a hearing until March, giving them time to press for proposals in Congress to give the boy U.S. citizenship.
The National Council of Churches, a U.S. Protestant and Orthodox group that sponsored the grandmother's U.S. trip, withdrew from further involvement after the Cuban Interests Section in Washington took control of the agenda.
``How are we doing? Pretty good,'' said family advisor Armando Gutierrez. ``Strike one, Sister Jeanne; strike two, the judge giving us time; strike three, the National Council pulling out.''
POSITIONS HARDEN
Even as supporters tallied up the score, it seemed evident that Wednesday's reunion between Elian and his grandmothers mostly succeeded in hardening positions on both sides of the Florida Straits.
Though it accomplished its main goal of a visit between them, the fallout suggests it failed to advance any kind of resolution to the impasse.
O'Laughlin said in an interview that before the meeting she believed Elian should go home. She changed her mind after seeing ``fear emanating'' from both the grandmothers, Mariela Quintana and Raquel Rodriguez, and the boy's Miami relatives. O'Laughlin, president of Barry University, blamed the
fear on the Cuban government, though she was not more specific.
``The laws of this nation always support the bond of a parent and child unless there is a dramatic circumstance,'' O'Laughlin said before departing for Washington late Thursday. ``This is a dramatic time. Because, as I found myself imagining the child growing into manhood, the fear that seemed
to be emanating made me question the environment this child has come from.''
HAVANA COMPLAINTS
Even before O'Laughlin made her announcement, the Cuban government, apparently based on accounts from the grandmothers, began complaining about the ``humiliating'' treatment allegedly accorded them during the meeting.
Among the complaints detailed in a long unsigned article in Thursday's edition of Granma, the Cuban Communist Party daily: That nuns in O'Laughlin's house constantly interrupted the private meeting between Elian and the grandmothers with ``trifles'' to eat as an excuse to deliver messages
praising the Miami relatives, and that a cell phone the grandmothers carried was confiscated as Elian and his father in Cuba, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, began a conversation -- their first outside the supervision of the Miami family.
Though O'Laughlin said the cell phone violated ground rules for the meeting, the Cubans and the grandmothers said that was never their understanding.
Later Thursday, Elian's father lashed out at the nuns' handling of the meeting.
``They brought everything crashing down,'' he told a meeting of the Pittsburgh-Matanzas Sister Cities Association in Cuba. ``I feel more indignant than ever, seeing how these brave mothers and grandmothers went into the heart of the Mafia.''
'CARING AND PASTORAL'
But Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, who was at the house during the meeting, said the complaints about the meeting were simply ``wrong.''
``Sister Jeanne needs to be commended. She was hospitable. She was caring and pastoral,'' he said. ``That doesn't take away that I think the grandmothers are right. They are loving grandmothers, and they want their grandson back.''
However, Edgar diplomatically questioned O'Laughlin's decision to take a stand on the issue of Elian's return, calling it ``a mistake.''
``When she accepted the responsibility from the INS to be a neutral person, I think the rights of being a public person ended,'' Edgar said. ``I'm saddened but I understand it. Sister Jeanne has to live in the neighborhood.''
FEARED HARM
Edgar attributed the grandmothers' fear during the meeting not to the Cuban government, but to the presence of vocal demonstrators outside the house and of Cuban American National Foundation officers in an adjoining yard -- both of which he said violated the rules for the meeting.
He said the women feared they could come to physical harm. That was why the grandmothers' departure for the house from Opa-locka airport, where they landed in a chartered flight from Washington, was delayed for an hour.
Edgar also said his group withdrew from involvement with the trip after the visit was over, when officials from the Cuban Interests Section stepped in.
LIMITED MISSION
"Our mission was to bring the grandmothers and give them an opportunity to meet with Elian. We accomplished our mission,'' he said. ``When those wheels lifted off yesterday, it was clear the Cuban Interests Section was deciding where the plane was going.''
O'Laughlin said Cuba's criticism of the meeting disturbed her.
```When I hugged the grandmothers goodbye, they were friendly and thankful,'' she said. ``I did not feel any antipathy.''
Wearing an emerald cross on a chain around her neck, O'Laughlin defended her decision to speak out, saying it was ``the truth in my heart.''
``If there was a doubt that I was neutral, you have to look at my perception on Monday and Tuesday,'' she said. ``At the time, I thought the child should return to his father in Cuba.
Of the three nuns at the house during the meeting, Sister Leonor Esnard, who came to the United States from Cuba when she was 14 with her younger brother on a Pedro Pan flight in 1961, had the closest contact with the grandmothers during their visit.
Contradicting reports from Cuba that the meeting was ``hellish,'' Esnard described a very comfortable, private atmosphere. She said she could not hear their conversation, but did hear a lot of laughter. At one point, the grandmothers began taking pictures with the boy. It wasn't until the boy
had left that the grandmothers broke down in tears.
``We tried to console them, but they were too upset,'' Esnard said. ``I felt for them. They love that kid.''
Herald translator Renato Perez contributed to this report.
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald |