Yahoo! May 22, 2000
Cubans Rally for Elian's Return
MARIEL, Cuba, 20 (AP) - Cubans rallied for Elian Gonzalez's return Saturday, gathering by the tens of thousands and chanting the boy's name in front of a stage decorated with a gigantic photograph of the 6-year-old and his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
The rally under a bright sun was held at the port best known as the departure point for thousands of Cubans who fled the island in rafts and boats during a 1980 exodus. The crowd listened for two hours to speeches and performances by military officers, student leaders, youth choirs, music
groups and children.
``Return Elian! Return Elian!'' the crowd chanted during the event.
During her turn on the stage, 5-year-old Maithe Mezquia suggested to the crowd: ``Let's send a kiss to the Comandante'' - Fidel Castro, who was not present. Gen. Raul Castro, chief of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Cuban leader's younger brother, was in the front row with other top
officials.
Castro called for a national campaign of mass rallies demanding Elian's return shortly after the boy was rescued from the waters off Florida in late November. His mother and 10 others had died in a failed attempt to flee Cuba.
After staying with Miami relatives for several months, Elian was reunited in April with his father, who wants to take his son back to the communist island. Father and son are staying at a farm in Maryland while awaiting an appeals court decision on the Miami relatives' request that a political
asylum hearing be held for the boy.
Cuban Photos of Elian Criticized
By George Gedda, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON, 19 (AP) - The State Department accused Cuba of using Elian Gonzalez for political goals by posting pictures on the Internet showing the boy wearing part of the standard uniform used by a communist youth group, an administration official said Friday.
That message was delivered to Cuban diplomats summoned to the State Department on Thursday, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Efforts to reach the Cuban diplomatic mission for comment were unsuccessful.
The pictures were posted on the Internet after appearing in the Communist Party daily Granma.
Among lawmakers irritated by the pictures was Rep. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who called the blue scarf Elian was wearing a ``symbol of indoctrination.''
The message is that Elian ``is a part of the communist youth of Cuba,'' Menendez said.
The scarf denotes membership in the Communist Party Youth organization, the Pioneers, and is worn to school by children each day. Elian has been tutored by a teacher from his hometown of Cardenas since his arrival three weeks ago at a rural retreat on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The pictures were
taken at the retreat.
He was sent there after being seized at gunpoint by federal agents from Miami relatives. He and other family members are awaiting the outcome of court proceedings aimed at determining whether he should be allowed to return to Cuba, as his father wishes.
Earlier in the week, the spokesman for the Cuban mission, Luis Fernandez, said he was puzzled over the fuss caused by the scarf.
``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 said.
Menendez also thinks it is a travesty that Elian and four school companions from Cuba are receiving instruction each day from a teacher imported from Cuba.
While no details have emerged about the content of the instruction, Cuba has long relied on teachers to instill revolutionary values.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, asked whether she has concerns about the schooling Elian has been receiving, had no comment Friday except to acknowledge the meeting with the Cuban diplomats. She provided no details.
Her only other comment was to welcome the recent release of two political prisoners by the Cuban government and to urge the release of two colleagues, along with all remaining political prisoners.
Albright spoke during a joint news conference with Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama.
Menendez, discussing the education situation in Cuba, said the indoctrination process starts when children are learning their ABC's.
``A is for armas (arms), B is for batallon (battalion),'' said Menendez, widely known on Capitol Hill as an unyielding opponent of Cuban President Fidel Castro.
Fernandez called Menendez's thesis ``totally ridiculous.'' He said Elian's schooling is equivalent to home education programs not uncommon in the United States. He added 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 said 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 said.
Maria Cardona, a spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, said 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 said.
Momentum Builds for Easing Embargo on Cuba
By Charles Abbott
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Four decades after the United States imposed trade sanctions on Cuba that show no signs of working, momentum is growing in Congress to open the first major crack in the embargo by allowing food and medicine sales to the communist nation.
The custody battle over Cuban shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez has highlighted the estrangement between Cuba and the United States and contributed to the weariness many feel toward sanctions.
Approval of the exemption for food and medicine could be the biggest overture in U.S.-Cuban relations in nearly a decade. Sanctions were imposed after the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power on the island just 90 miles off the Florida coast.
U.S. sanctions have cost Cuba and American businesses billions of dollars, but Castro, the Cuban president, remains firmly in power. The embargo has been denounced by religious leaders, including Pope John Paul II, and human rights groups, foreign policy experts and a growing number of U.S.
politicians.
``Continuing this embargo makes no sense,'' said Sen. Byron Dorgan, a Democrat from North Dakota, a key farming state.
The embargo has been strongly supported for years by a vocal Cuban American community in Florida and in a few other states. The conventional wisdom has been that any U.S. elected official who challenged it would be committing political suicide.
Supporters failed in 1998 and 1999 to exempt food and medicine from the embargo in the face of potent anti-Castro sentiment, spearheaded by Rep. Tom DeLay of Texas, the third- ranking Republican in the House of Representatives, and lawmakers from Florida.
Anti-Castro Lobby Meets Its Match
But this year may be different partly because of the Elian case. The U.S. government last month removed the 6-year-old boy from the home of his relatives in Miami to reunite him with his Cuban father. Elian was rescued at sea last November after his mother and 10 others drowned trying to come to
the United States from Cuba. His Miami relatives, backed by anti-communist Cuban Americans, have argued he should be allowed to grow up in the United States
``That silliness in Miami has really made people think'' and turn against the embargo, said Rep. Jose Serrano, a New York Democrat.
This year, anti-Castro Cuban Americans may have met their match in terms of lobbying clout in Congress -- the potent farm and business lobby -- which relishes the prospect of a substantial market just off the U.S. coast. Cuba spends $700 million a year to buy grain, meat and other food, mostly
from Canada, Europe and Latin America.
The U.S. embargo had backfired and given Castro a scapegoat for his government's failings, said Shawn Malone, coordinator of the Cuba program at Georgetown University in Washington. The last major relaxation in U.S. policy was an easing in travel restrictions in the early 1990s.
``In terms of policy, the ability to sell anything to Cuba is significant because it opens a hole in a blanket prohibition,'' said Malone. ``A lot of people would see that as a way to get a foot in the door.''
The exemption for food and medicines has survived its first congressional test -- approval by key committees of both the House and Senate. Backers of the exemption have seized on another justification, saying it would be hypocritical for Congress to grant permanent trade relations to the world's
largest communist state, China -- in a vote expected next week -- while denying it to Cuba.
Many Obstacles Remain
But plenty of obstacles remain for the proposal.
``It's a long road yet,'' said Rep. Jack Kingston, a Georgia Republican and sanctions supporter. ``It will be challenged on the floor (of the House)'' and in negotiations between the two chambers later in the year.
A Senate vote on exempting food and medicine from unilateral U.S. embargoes might be deferred until June due to jockeying over farm aid. Last year, senators voted 70-28 for the exemption, which would primarily affect Cuba along with a half-dozen other nations.
In the House, DeLay was fighting the plan even though it was approved in the key Appropriations Committee vote by a vote of 35-24, a sign of strength for its supporters. DeLay made clear that Republican leaders might use their power to strip the proposal from any legislation.
``We won't protect the amendment,'' DeLay told reporters.
Even if it survives in Congress, the White House has problems with the proposal. President Clinton has not said he would veto it but is concerned that the plan would usurp his authority in foreign policy, a White House official said.
The drive for the Cuba exemption is part of a broader trend in U.S. policy. Sentiment in Congress has shifted from reflexively using sanctions to punish so-called rogue nations. Pro-trade supporters argue that sanctions only hand over foreign markets to competitors in Europe and elsewhere,
hurting U.S. business and farmers as much as the target of the embargo.
A year ago, Clinton eased sanctions on Libya, Iran and Sudan, allowing food and medicine sales on a case-by-case basis. U.S. food has also been donated for famine relief in North Korea.
Food sales are allowed only to nongovernmental entities in Cuba.
Under the proposal, food and medicine would be exempt from unilateral U.S. sanctions unless Congress agreed with a presidential request. No export credits would be offered to nations formally under sanctions. One-year licenses would be required for sales.
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Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. |