Published Wednesday, March 29, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Elian's words on going back to Cuba deleted from ABC interview
By Terry Jackson . tjackson@herald.com
In the second segment of ABC's exclusive interview with Elian Gonzalez Tuesday, Good Morning America's Diane Sawyer declined to deliver Elian's own words on whether he wants to go back to Cuba.
Sawyer reported that Elian told her and Dr. Gunther Perdigao, the child psychologist hired by ABC, that he didn't want to return to Cuba, but the network withheld tape of Elian saying that in his own words.
Sawyer told viewers: ``As we said before, the relatives in Miami say Elian repeatedly insists he does not want to go back to Cuba. He told us that, too, but in this inflamed climate, on this inflamed subject, we thought it best not to broadcast the exact words of a 6-year-old child.''
An ABC spokeswoman would not comment further on exactly what Elian said or elaborate on why GMA decided to not air Elian's words.
Segments from Sawyer's two-day interview with Elian last week in Miami are scheduled to be a part of tonight's 20/20 newsmagazine, which airs at 10 on WPLG-ABC 10. ABC would not comment Tuesday on whether the 20/20 report would contain any new material from the Elian interview.
Sawyer and ABC continued to come under fire from Fidel Castro and Gregory Craig, the U.S. lawyer for Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
Castro said Monday in Havana that Sawyer and a Good Morning America producer were in Cuba last week and made no mention of their intention to interview Elian without his father's permission.
``Here, they didn't say a word to anyone about the program, and suddenly we learn about the program,'' Castro said.
Before the interview aired, National Assembly president Ricardo Alarcon sent a letter to ABC producer Carol Marquis, denouncing ABC's decision to not speak with Elian's father.
``As you surely know, there are legal and moral standards in the United States and the rest of the world that protect the father-son relationship and the rights of minors,'' Alarcon wrote.
On Tuesday's show, Craig sparred with Sawyer over the same issue.
``We do regret and are disappointed that you didn't consult with the father, didn't ask permission,'' Craig said.
The Justice Department also took issue with Sawyer's report, which has intimated that no one is being sensitive to Elian.
The department sent a letter Tuesday that said the U.S. government has from the start been mindful that a 6-year-old is at the heart of the situation. ``We are concerned for him and will continue to try to resolve this matter in a way that avoids additional trauma to him,'' the letter said.
Authorities keep watch on exile groups
Miami mayor appeals for calm
By Alfonso Chardy. achardy@herald.com
As tensions rise over the latest crisis in the Elian Gonzalez case, federal and local officials are stepping up scrutiny of some groups in hopes of avoiding disturbances if immigration officials revoke the boy's parole.
City of Miami and Miami-Dade County officials said they have intensified the monitoring of Spanish-language radio stations and public statements by some exile leaders in an effort to anticipate possible protest demonstrations.
Most prominent exile organizations, including Brothers to the Rescue and the Democracia Movement, which have organized major protests in the past, had not called for protests Tuesday.
``We are waiting to see what happens in the negotiations between the federal government and the Elian family lawyers,'' said Demoracia Movement leader Ramon Saul Sanchez who pioneered the protest tactic of blocking or slowing traffic.
MIAMI ON ALERT
While county police said they were monitoring the situation, preparations were mainly the responsibility of Miami, since most of the action is unfolding within city limits.
Miami Mayor Joe Carollo, in an interview, appealed for calm and said he was in touch with community leaders, federal officials and Elian's family to prepare for any contingency.
Carollo said he thinks demonstrations, such as a 9 p.m. prayer vigil tonight at Southwest Eighth Street and 22nd Avenue, will be lawful. But if peaceful protests turn violent or disruptive, police will respond.
``It is our responsibility to protect life and property and safeguard the well-being of the citizens of Miami,'' Carollo said.
A MAYOR'S PLEDGE
He also pledged that Miami Police would not help federal authorities remove the child from his Miami home if the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service revokes Elian's parole and orders his return to Cuba.
``The Miami Police Department will not participate in taking Elian Gonzalez away from his Miami family to be sent to Castro's hell,'' Carollo said.
Late Tuesday afternoon, Carollo met with four U.S. Justice Department and INS officials at City Hall.
INS declined to comment, but Carollo said the officials requested his views on what the case outcome should be. ``I told them INS should let due process take its course,'' he said.
Carollo said he also was seeking a meeting later Tuesday with Kendall Coffey, one of the Miami family's lawyers, to get a briefing on legal developments.
In the county, Miami-Dade Mayor Alex Penelas -- through spokesman Juan Mendieta -- blamed tensions on the Justice Department.
``Attempts to modify or abridge the process is what's causing a lot of the tension in the community,'' Mendieta said.
He said Penelas would join most of the mayors in the county for a news conference on the steps of the federal courthouse in downtown Miami at noon today to urge the Justice Department to grant Elian a normal appellate process.
FREQUENT CONTACT
Armando Gutierrez, the Miami family spokesman, said he was in frequent contact with Miami Police, particularly undercover officers assigned to protect Elian's house and monitor exile activity in the area.
In moments of tension, the house near the corner of Northwest 23rd Avenue and 2nd Street has become ground zero for the start of exile protests.
Gutierrez said he visited Spanish-language radio stations frequently to urge listeners not to commit acts of violence. ``I'm asking people to remain calm,'' Gutierrez said.
While Democracia Movement's Sanchez would not provide details on a specific response, he did cite the possibility of a ``Return Flotilla'' in which exile boats would sail toward Cuba should INS send Elian back.
Only the smaller exile group, Vigilia Mambisa, was taking action.
Vigilia leader Miguel Saavedra, who is behind the almost daily demonstrations in front of Elian's house, disagreed with the wait-and-see attitude of other exile groups.
``This is like a hurricane,'' Saavedra said. ``You have to be ready now, not at the last minute.''
Relatives forced into a showdown
INS, uncle to meet today on demands over Elian
Andres Viglucci And Jay Weaver. aviglucci@herald.com
Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives, on the brink of losing custody of the boy to U.S. immigration authorities, will get one last chance today to agree to a key government demand and stave off his threatened repatriation to Cuba.
Federal officials summoned the boy's great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, to a critical afternoon meeting in Miami to determine Elian's fate -- a showdown forced Tuesday when his lawyers again refused to agree to surrender the boy should they lose an abbreviated court battle to keep him in the United
States.
If Gonzalez won't sign the guarantee, the Immigration and Naturalization Service said it would make good on its threat to revoke the child's legal permission to remain in the country as of 9 a.m. Thursday, and demand that he be turned over at a specific time and place.
``If they don't comply, they should be expecting specific instructions from the INS on how to turn over the boy,'' said Maria Cardona, the INS' chief spokeswoman.
By the end of the day Tuesday, however, hours after a morning meeting between both sides' lawyers failed to resolve the standoff, the relatives weren't budging.
``I wouldn't want my father to sign that,'' Lazaro Gonzalez's daughter, Marisleysis, told CNN. ``To me, it's betraying Elian.''
If Lazaro Gonzalez refuses the government's offer, independent legal experts say, he would be taking a huge gamble.
He would still have one legal avenue to stop the INS from taking custody of Elian -- seeking an emergency order from the federal courts barring the government from acting.
AN EMERGENCY ORDER
One attorney for Gonzalez, Linda Osberg-Braun, said the relatives' legal team would consider seeking an emergency order only after the government issues their client a letter demanding Elian's surrender.
``No stay is needed until they do that,'' Osberg-Braun said.
But legal experts say winning such an order is a long shot for the relatives. If the legal team fails to obtain one, the INS has the power to send the boy back to Cuba swiftly.
``When someone's parole is revoked, that person is usually taken back into the custody of the INS immediately and sent back to their country right away,'' said Michael Ray, president of the South Florida chapter of the American Immigrations Lawyers Association.
The INS would not specify how it plans to take custody of Elian, but senior officials have made it plain they are banking on the relatives and their attorneys to live up to promises to obey the law by voluntarily surrendering the boy.
If his relatives refuse to turn over Elian, they could face civil and criminal charges ranging from contempt of court to harboring an illegal alien. The government could also send federal agents in to forcibly remove the boy from his relatives' Little Havana home, but officials have insisted
they would do so only as a last resort. They say there is no current plan in place to do so.
STREETS REMAIN QUIET
Miami's streets remained quiet as most Cuban exile protest leaders hewed to a wait-and-see attitude Tuesday. Armando Gutierrez, spokesman for the Miami relatives, urged calm over Spanish-language radio.
``We're peaceful people, working people, honest people and decent people and we don't want to be maneuvered by Castro's spies in the community to do things we don't want to do,'' he said in an interview, alluding to agitators who many exiles believe try to stir up unrest in Miami at the behest
of the Cuban government.
Some exile leaders, however, were vowing active resistance should the government move in to remove Elian.
DEMONSTRATORS GATHER
About 75 demonstrators gathered outside the Gonzalez home in Little Havana in response to a call by the anti-Castro Vigilia Mambisa, which has said it would form a human chain around the home if the government tries to remove Elian.
``The people are very angry and I think there are going to be very ugly days here in Miami,'' said demonstrator Abel Lopez.
For the second day, Elian remained at home. The family has asked Lincoln-Marti school administrators to home-school the boy in response to comments made by Fidel Castro over the weekend.
Some, including family spokesman Gutierrez, interpreted Castro's comments as a threat to send commandos to ``rescue'' Elian. But Castro on Monday, calling Gutierrez an ``idiot,'' said, ``I stated very clearly that we weren't going to fight on the field of weapons and violence, but [on the field]
of ideas.''
The Miami relatives' attorneys said they rejected the government demands because they have been troubled by what one legal team member termed ``draconian threats.'' Whether to agree to the demand to pledge to surrender Elian at the conclusion of a court case is entirely up to Lazaro Gonzalez,
said family attorney Roger Bernstein.
``It's not the sole sticking point,'' Bernstein said. ``We're keeping all of our options open. Ultimately, this is Lazaro's decision.''
The government, in an effort to forestall what officials regard as legal foot-dragging by the family's lawyers, has been pressuring the relatives to agree to an abbreviated federal court battle.
LAWSUIT IS DISMISSED
Last week, U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore upheld Reno's authority to return Elian to his father in Cuba, dismissing a lawsuit by the Miami relatives that sought to force the INS to provide the boy an asylum hearing.
The relatives' lawyers immediately filed a notice of appeal with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. At their request, U.S. Circuit Judge Frank M. Hull on Monday allowed more time for the appeal than the government wanted. He ordered both sides to file all court papers by May 1, with
oral arguments scheduled for the following week.
But the INS has said it is not legally bound to await the appeal absent a court order barring it from moving ahead with Elian's repatriation. The INS says it is merely exercising authority to set conditions for an alien's ``parole'' -- the temporary legal authorization that permits Elian to
remain in the country. If Lazaro Gonzalez, as Elian's temporary custodian, declines to agree to agency conditions, the INS can revoke the parole.
``We hope that he will agree to the very reasonable conditions that we have set out as a condition of Elian's continued parole,'' INS spokeswoman Karen Kraushaar said in a brief statement read to reporters outside INS headquarters in Miami on Tuesday afternoon.
``Far from depriving Lazaro Gonzalez of his right to appeal, we have attempted to accommodate his interests in obtaining review by the Court of Appeals while assuring a prompt and orderly reunion of Elian and his father if the District court's decision is affirmed.''
On Capitol Hill on Tuesday, though, members who want to give the Miami family more time for appeals stepped up their criticism of Attorney General Janet Reno and the INS.
``Let the appeals court set the time frame,'' said Florida's Republican Sen. Connie Mack. ``Why is Justice trying to short-circuit the process?''
Herald staff writers Ana Acle, Alfonso Chardy and Frank Davies and staff translator Renato Perez contributed to this report, which was supplemented by Herald wire services.
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