By Luisa Yanez Sun-Sentinel. Web-posted: 12:33 a.m. May 1, 2000
MIAMI -- Some might call them lawbreakers for battling federal agents.
Others have called them heroes.
The day of the predawn raid at the Elián González home, Teresa Benitez, 31, and Morgan Marcos, 35, both of Miami, were among a handful of supporters who made a fruitless last stand against federal agents at the home of the boy's great-uncle, Lázaro González.
In television footage, Benitez can be seen lunging at the agent carrying the 6-year-old to a waiting minivan at 5:18 a.m. April 22.
"I don't even remember what I did," Benitez said on Sunday, her first interview since the raid. "I was acting on instinct. I'm normally not like that." Her husband agrees.
Eight days after Operation Reunion, the couple said they walked away with three things from their first experience as activists: rattled nerves, Elián's cries for help and an infamous souvenir -- the battering ram federal agents used to get into the house, then left behind.
"I don't know why we kept it," Benitez said.
"They threw it on the ground. I have it in my house as a reminder of what happened. I don't know what I'm going to do with it."
The heavy instrument, they said, was wielded by agents to hold back the protesters who refused the agents' orders to let them get into the house. The agents then used it to force their way into the house.
The couple acknowledge they grappled with the agents, refusing to follow their orders.
Benitez disagrees with the agents' account of what happened during those three minutes:
"They said they knocked on the door for 30 seconds. No way," she said. "They got us out of the way and began forcing the door down."
How they came to be at the González house had to do with what they perceived to be a boy needing help, they said. The couple has never been active in Cuban exile politics. He owns a fence installation company, and Benitez helps out.
Benitez, who was born in the United States, said her parents left Cuba in 1965 and are not politically active. Nor is Marcos.
"I had been watching the story, then the day the Reno went to the nun's house on Miami Beach," she said, "I became convinced that they were going to take the boy by force, and I got involved to try to stop it because I felt it was wrong to send him back to a communist country."
That night, Benitez said, she joined those who kept vigil at the house and kept coming back.
"I knew that if they came, they would come in the dark," she said.
Marcos, who came to the United States at age 4, said he felt for Elián.
The night of the raid, Benitez said, "We were there at 2:30 a.m., and my husband wanted to leave and I wanted to stay."
Just before 5 a.m., the couple walked to the all-night Rey's Pizza and back. Benitez sat in the González yard and joined a prayer circle.
Moments later, people started screaming: "They're here!"
Marcos said he was knocked to the ground and agents kept him pinned down. Benitez said she was pushed but continued trying to get up. "They kept saying 'stay down or we'll shoot you!'" Benitez said.
On the videotape, as agent Betty Mills ran down the steps with Elián, Benitez is seen pushing her into the bushes, knocking a blanket off the boy. Agents then shoved Benitez to the ground.
"People have come up to me and said, 'You're a heroine,'" Benitez said. "I feel bad I didn't do more. I feel guilty I didn't stop them."
She said she was close enough to Elián to hear his cries.
"It's true he was yelling for help. But he was saying: 'Help me, Marisleysis, help me!'"
Luisa Yanez can be reached at lyanez@sun-sentinel.com or at 305-810-5007.
Copyright 1999, Sun-Sentinel Co. & South Florida Interactive, Inc. |