By Karen DeYoung. Washington Post Staff Writer. Thursday, March 2, 2000; Page A04
Great-Uncle Says Boy 'in Shock,' Needs to Return to Cuba
Manuel Gonzalez, the great-uncle of Elian Gonzalez in Miami who has advocated returning the 6-year-old to Cuba, said yesterday that the boy has been profoundly changed by his experiences over the last three months and is "in shock."
In his first extensive public statement on the case, in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Gonzalez said that the boy needs psychological therapy and that it should be provided by "the family that brought him up, that nurtured him, that really understands him."
Gonzalez is estranged from Elian's two other great-uncles in Miami, Lazaro and Delfin Gonzalez, who have refused to comply with an Immigration and Naturalization Service order to return the child, one of three survivors of a November shipwreck in which his mother drowned. Lazaro Gonzalez, with
whom Elian has been living since his rescue, has filed a federal lawsuit against the INS order, and a hearing is scheduled in Miami next week.
The divisions in the Gonzalez family were echoed yesterday in the Senate, where Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) protested that the hearing violated committee rules against interference in matters under judicial and administrative procedures. He also said it was convened so hastily that it
prevented the appearance of a full complement of witnesses who support Elian's return to Cuba.
It is "regrettable," Leahy said, that Congress is "using domestic political institutions to undermine lawful judicial authority for partisan gain."
The hearing was called at the request of Sen. Connie Mack (R-Fla.), who has introduced legislation to make Elian a U.S. citizen, and was placed on the schedule late Tuesday. The committee chairman, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), pledged to hold another hearing if that is what Leahy wants. Hatch
has strongly supported overturning the INS order.
Those testifying in support of keeping Elian here included Alina Fernandez, the illegitimate daughter of Cuban President Fidel Castro who fled Cuba in 1993, and Lazaro Gonzalez's 21-year-old daughter, Marisleysis. Although the boy's father, Juan Manuel Gonzalez, has said repeatedly he wants
Elian returned to Cuba, Marisleysis Gonzalez said she has inferred, through telephone comments she said the father made to her, that he really wants Elian to stay in the United States and was being pressured by the Castro government to say otherwise.
In addition, she testified, "I really asked this little boy what he wants. . . . He said, 'My mother brought me here, and I want to stay here.' He asked me to promise him I would never leave his side, and would always protect him."
Great-uncle Manuel Gonzalez said he left Cuba with his wife and two young sons in the 1980s hoping to improve his children's future. But his oldest son died of cancer at age 14, he told the committee. "That is why I struggle . . . with reasoned minds like yours to help return this child to
his father.
"This is not a whim. Every son needs his father's character, his tenacity, regardless of where he is."
Unlike his brothers in Miami, Manuel Gonzalez said he has traveled to Cuba every year since Elian was born to visit him and other family members there, and is close to the boy. Despite insistence by other family members that Elian is happy, he said he has found the boy unresponsive and acting
abnormally.
"He doesn't know where he is," Gonzalez said.
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