By Rick Bragg. The New York Times, April 30, 2000
MIAMI, April 29 -- The anger and disappointment filled 18 blocks. Old men who have hated Fidel Castro since 1959 shouted fresh rage today on the hot asphalt of Southwest Eighth Street, and young people who have never stepped foot on Cuban soil waited in line to buy T-shirts that read "Elián
We Love You." People prayed, made speeches, and just stood, being here, because it was important.
"I don't think he'll get to stay in this country," said Carmen Nuñez, one of thousands who came to Miami's Little Havana today in peaceful protest of the federal raid here a week ago to seize Elián González.
"I'm here for the cause, for my people, for my blood, for my country," said Ms. Nuñez, 42, a legal secretary who came to Miami from Cuba when she was 10. Like many people here, she has accepted the reality that Elián, the 6-year-old Cuban boy who was rescued off the
Florida coast in November, is with his father and probably will soon be back in Cuba. That does not mean she has to like it.
One week after Elián was taken from the home of Miami relatives in a predawn raid by federal agents that resulted in violent protests and more than 300 arrests, Cuban-Americans here again took to the streets, still angry but peaceful.
A crowd estimated in the tens of thousands and representing three generations of Cuban-Americans milled in the streets and denounced President Clinton, Attorney General Janet Reno and the United States. The crowd apparently never reached the 100,000 people that the organizers had promised, but
protesters said it was still a strong message to the nation.
"I've never been to Cuba in my life, but I felt I just had to be here," said Ileana Martínez, 29, a teacher. "We can't understand why this is happening, and we're here to show the world how criminal this is."
This peaceful demonstration, which lasted less than two hours, drew only a fraction of the attention of earlier demonstrations.
Only local, Spanish-language television stations carried the protest live today, unlike last week's live, national coverage. Last week, camera crews had filmed clashes between police officers and demonstrators. Today, demonstrators stood at attention as a bugler played the Cuban national anthem.
The Miami police today refused to give an estimate of the crowd size, which they routinely do at such demonstrations. The Associated Press said tens of thousands of people had joined the rally.
Outside Miami, the Cuban-Americans' demands for justice seemed to be getting little support.
Polls have shown that a majority of Americans seemed not only unimpressed with the demands for justice but angry at the denouncements of the United States and the upside-down American flags that have become a symbol of protest in Little Havana.
Demonstrators here loudly booed a plane that flew over with a banner that said, "America Loves Janet Reno."
In the crowd, some protesters made it clear who they are supporting in the presidential elections in November. Spanish-language radio announcers urged demonstrators to vote only Republican -- most of them already do -- and some protesters carried signs that read: "America, be patient. Nine
more months of Clinton and Co."
Many demonstrators waved signs saying "Carollo for President," lauding Mayor Joe Carollo of Miami, who has sided with the Cuban exiles in this confrontation with the federal government.
The rally today came just a day after the resignation of the police chief. On Friday, Chief William O'Brien resigned, saying he could no longer work for Mr. Carollo, whom he called divisive and destructive.
His resignation came a day after Mr. Carollo fired the city manager, Donald H. Warshaw, who had refused to fire Chief O'Brien in the aftermath of the raid.
Mr. Carollo was angry at Chief O'Brien, who learned of the raid an hour beforehand but did not alert the mayor, because Mr. Carollo had sided with Elián's Miami relatives against the federal government's decision to reunite the child with his father.
Mr. O'Brien said he kept silent because telling the mayor would have been like telling the family. It would have brought many more demonstrators to the house and put police officers, Elián, the family and others in danger of a larger, longer confrontation, he said.
Mr. Carollo said he was also angry with the chief because of the way the Miami police responded to last weekend's demonstrations, which left tires and overturned trash bins blazing in the streets. Mr. Carollo said Chief O'Brien and Mr. Warshaw, a former chief of police, gave officers a "green
light" to attack protesters.
While Cuban-Americans applauded the mayor, many other residents have reacted harshly to the turmoil in City Hall, saying that Mr. Carollo did not believe he served anyone other than the city's Cuban-Americans, who make up 60 percent of registered voters.
"Miami city officials act like heads of state, scapegoating and firing cabinet ministers after a lost war with a foreign power," said David Abraham, a law professor at the University of Miami. "This mixture of bellicosity and crude posturing continues to bring justified suspicion
and disrepute down on Miami."
Many demonstrators did see the Elián fight as a battle against a foreign power, the United States.
"Americans don't believe us," said Ana Ruíz, 30, a nurse. "They haven't been there," she said of Cuba and its Communist, oppressive society.
"They don't want to listen," she said, referring to Mr. Clinton and Ms. Reno.
"They don't want to understand."
But for today, it was a peaceful demonstration.
"This is what I like to see," said Ramón Saúl Sánchez, leader of Movimiento Democracia, an anti-Castro group that advocates nonviolent protests. "This is a nonviolent, massive demonstration," Mr. Sánchez said, "to demand justice, demand the
law."
Elián was far away from the chants and cheers. He is with his father, Juan Miguel González, stepmother and half-brother at the Wye River retreat in the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
The boy must remain in the United States until the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, rules on his Miami relatives' efforts to win an asylum hearing for the boy.
A cousin, his first-grade teacher and four playmates arrived in Maryland last week from Cuba to stay with him.
In Miami, the demonstration ended quietly, with the Cuban national anthem.
"It's not time to forgive and forget," said Ofelia Sedano, who owns a logistics company in Hialeah.
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company |