Yahoo! May 19, 2000
Elian's Cuban Teacher Criticized
By George Gedda, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Should a 6-year-old boy be taught communist ideals on U.S. soil?
No, says Rep. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who thinks it's a travesty that Elian Gonzalez and four school companions from Cuba are receiving classes each day from a teacher imported from Cuba.
Elian has been at a rural retreat on the Eastern Shore of Maryland since a few days after he was seized by federal agents from his Miami relatives on April 22.
His teacher and classmates, all from his hometown of Cardenas, joined him in Maryland a few days later. Also at the retreat are Elian's father, stepmother and half brother.
The Gonzalez family is awaiting a court decision on whether Elian can return to Cuba, as his father wishes.
While no details have emerged about the content of the instruction, Cuba has long relied on teachers to instill revolutionary values.
Menendez says that process begins when young children start leaning their ABCs.
``A is for armas (arms), B is for batallon (battalion),'' says Menendez, widely known on Capitol Hill as an unyielding opponent of Cuban President Fidel Castro.
The spokesman for the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington, Luis Fernandez, calls Menendez's thesis ``totally ridiculous.''
He says Elian's schooling is equivalent to home education programs not uncommon in the United States. He adds that the program is designed to enable Elian to make up for the five months of schooling he lost when he was staying with relatives in Miami.
But Menendez says this is more than a catch-up program. ``I can't believe the U.S. government has made it possible for Elian to be indoctrinated on U.S. soil,'' he says.
He also notes that pictures appeared in the Communist Party newspaper in Cuba of Elian wearing a blue scarf, part of the standard uniform of the Pioneers, a communist youth group.
He calls the scarf ``a symbol of indoctrination.'' The message is that Elian ``is a part of the communist youth of Cuba,'' Menendez says.
He asks: ``Will we import anything that Elian's father might want when it contravenes our beliefs?''
Fernandez says the blue scarf is simply part of the school uniform.
``Children (in Cuba) go to school in uniform, just the way they do at private schools in the United States. I don't see what the problem is,'' he says.
Maria Cardona, a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, says there is nothing improper about the education arrangements for Elian.
There might be a legitimate question if American children were being taught by a Cuban teacher. But, in this case, the students are Cuban nationals who are in the United States on temporary visas, Cardona says.
The pictures of Elian wearing the blue scarf touched a raw nerve among some Cuban-Americans in Miami.
``It seems communism has penetrated the United States,'' says Ramon Chong, a Miami area security guard who came to the United States from Cuba four years ago.
Meantime, Elian's Miami relatives have complained to the INS about their inability to visit or contact him since he has been in his father's custody.
Their lawyer said a priest, a psychologist and attorneys have all been denied visitation although numerous Cuban government officials have been allowed to visit Elian.
Cardona said it is up to the boy's father to decide who visits him, who speaks to him and what he wears.
Elian's Relatives Seek Visitation
MIAMI, 19 (AP) - Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives have complained to federal officials about their inability to contact the 6-year-old Cuban boy while he has been in his father's custody at a Maryland retreat.
In a letter sent to the Immigration and Naturalization Service on Thursday, attorney Manuel A. Diaz, who represents Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez, complained that the relatives, a priest, a psychologist and attorneys have all been denied visitations.
Diaz also noted that numerous Cuban government officials have been allowed to visit Elian. The boy has been with his father in Maryland since shortly after he was seized by federal agents last month from Lazaro Gonzalez's Little Havana home.
The Miami relatives haven't even been allowed to call Elian, Diaz complained, but when Elian lived with them federal officials made sure the boy was available daily to take phone calls from his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
``We fail to see how the INS and (Justice Department) could honestly state that they could require Lazaro Gonzalez to provide Juan Miguel telephone access while in Lazaro's care and how, inversely, that power is not available to them now that Elian is in Juan Miguel's care,'' Diaz wrote.
The relatives also have complained about photographs showing him wearing a scarf typically worn by a communist youth group's members.
INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona said early Friday that it is up to the boy's father to decide who visits him, speaks to him and what he wears.
Elian has been in the United States since November, when he was found clinging to an inner tube off the coast of South Florida. His mother and 10 other people fleeing Cuba died when their boat capsized en route to the United States.
RNC: Orioles Owner and Democrat Fat Cat Discriminates Against Those Who Flee Castro's Clutches
Company Press Release. Thursday May 18, 5:01 pm Eastern Time
'Cubans who escape Castro's Communism should be welcomed, not blocked from freedom'
WASHINGTON, May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Baltimore Orioles owner and Democrat fat cat Peter Angelos says he'll never sign a player to his team who escaped the terror of Communist dictator Fidel Castro, causing the Chairman of the Republican National Committee to denounce the Democrat honcho for his
``blatant pro-Castro discrimination.''
``Cubans who flee the brutal regime of Castro's Cuba should be welcomed to the United States with wide open arms and all the opportunities that freedom and capitalism provide,'' said Chairman Jim Nicholson. ``Instead, Peter Angelos - who sits in the swank owners box at Camden Yards and is the
biggest trial lawyer donor in the country - turns a blind eye to the atrocities committed by Castro's totalitarian state.''
``Angelos' blatant pro-Castro discrimination is akin to an employer placing a 'No Hire' sign in front of immigrants who risked their lives to escape the repressive Communism of the Soviet Union or a Jewish family fleeing Hitler's Nazi Germany.''
According to Federal Election Commission reports, Angelos, a liberal trial lawyer, gave $1.192 million to Democrat committees over the last decade, including a fresh $250,000 check cut to the Democrat National Committee on March 31, 2000.
SOURCE: Republican National Committee
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