Editorial. Published Thursday, May 18, 2000, in the Miami Herald

This was no Boy Scout uniform. With a blue kerchief around his neck, there was Elián González outfitted as un pionero -- a Pioneer, a member of the young communist league in Cuba. Only this was Wye Plantation, at a makeshift Cuban school there, courtesy of the U.S. State Department and protected by U.S. marshals.

No doubt the children dutifully recite the mantra: ``Pioneers for communism, we will be like Che!''

Of course, here in the United States parents can choose what type of school to send their kids -- and public schools are purposely kept secular. That's not so for Elián's father, and certainly not in Cuba where the Pioneers exist to churn out good communists who will not criticize the dictator. Pioneers even are trained to squeal on parents who do. Now, doesn't Elián have a court case pending on political asylum?

The regime's use of Elián while in the United States is insulting and repulsive.

Copyright 2000 Miami Herald

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