From The Saga of Elian. Published Thursday, May 25, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Police prepare, rallies planned for Reno visit today
By Madeline Baro Diaz. Online news reporter. achardy@herald.
Both detractors and supporters of Attorney General Janet Reno are planning demonstrations this evening when she participates in a celebration of Florida's first 150 women lawyers.
Reno is making her first South Florida appearance since the federal government seized Elián González from his Miami relatives' home to reunite him with his father.
She will be the keynote speaker at the event, sponsored by the Florida Bar Association and the Florida Association of Women Lawyers, at the Sheraton Bal Harbour Beach Resort, 9701 Collins Ave.
Miami-Dade police say they expect between 500 and 1,000 demonstrators at the Bal Harbour hotel.
The Cuban American Bar Association has formally withdrawn from the ceremony, charging that Reno violated the U.S. Constitution when she authorized the pre-dawn raid.
Several groups are joining together to stage a demonstration in support of Reno at 4 p.m. today in front of the hotel.
An announcement for the rally stated: ''We are asking that all law-abiding Citizens of Miami-Dade County join together in supporting this country's top Law Enforcement Official in the performance of her duties.''
Organizers also asked people to fly only American flags, using the slogan "ONE COMMUNITY, ONE PEOPLE, ONE FLAG.''
Haitian American United Inc. says it will be there, too, protesting new Immigration and Naturalization Service rules that could return immigrant parents to Haiti while leaving their American-born children behind.
Anti-Castro/pro-human rights groups like Mothers Against Repression are expected to demonstrate near the hotel, as well.
Meanwhile, Ramon Saul Sanchez, head of the Miami-based Democracy Movement, which pushes for human rights in Cuba, is organizing a flotilla of boats. The flotilla will include the group's Democracia and Human Rights boats and will be a symbolic protest at sea facing the hotel, Sanchez said.
Brothers to the Rescue, the group that flies missions over the Florida Straits looking for Cubans out at sea, planned to have demonstrators on the street as well as in a small-planes fly-over.
Bal Harbour police will handle security inside the hotel and Miami-Dade police will handle security among the demonstrators, said Lt. Jay Smith, spokesman for Bal Harbour police.
Between 500 and 1,000 protesters are expected, said Miami-Dade police spokeswoman Nelda Fonticiella. Anti-Castro demonstrators will be in an area just north of the Sheraton, pro-government demonstrators will be at an area just south of the Sheraton and the Haitian-American group will be
demonstrating on a median directly across from the hotel.
Fonticiella wouldn't say how many officers will be at the hotel, but indicated there would be enough to handle any situation that might arise.
The last time Reno was in town was April 12-13, when she made a personal plea to Elian's great-uncle Lázaro González to hand over the child peacefully to federal authorities. The great-uncle defied the government's order, saying they would have to take the boy by force. The raid
happened a little over a week later.
Herald wire services contributed to this report.
Accounts of survivors in Elian saga disputed
By Alfonso Chardy. achardy@herald.com
A doctor who examined Elian Gonzalez shortly after he was rescued on Thanksgiving Day told immigration authorities the boy probably had been in the water less than 24 hours, newly released U.S. Coast Guard records show.
The records, and interviews based on them, also cast doubt on the commonly told story of how the two adult survivors of the rafter tragedy came ashore.
A man listed in the documents as a witness told The Herald on Tuesday that he found Arianne Horta and Nivaldo Fernandez several miles out to sea and brought them to Crandon Park Marina so they would not be returned to Cuba.
The two survivors have insisted that they swam to shore by themselves, a story Horta repeated again this week.
The records, released to The Herald in response to a request filed under the federal Freedom of Information Act, are unlikely to change the basic legal issues in the court battle over whether Elian Gonzalez is entitled to a political asylum hearing.
But they show that six months after Elian was plucked from the sea there is still much that is not known for sure about the sinking of the boat that carried Elian, his mother and 12 other people on an ill-fated journey to the United States.
Resolving those discrepancies could prove difficult. Only Horta, Fernandez and Elian, who was then 5 years old, survived the sinking, and the documents suggest that Horta and Fernandez have changed some of the details of their account since they were first interviewed by U.S. authorities.
But Coast Guard officials also were cautious about the accuracy of information contained in the phone and radio logs provided to The Herald.
``Many times, the information in the logs is hearsay,'' said a Coast Guard spokeswoman who asked that her name not be published.
According to the most oft-repeated version of the events, the boat in which Elian, his mother, Horta, 22, and her boyfriend, Fernandez, 33, were traveling capsized late at night Monday, Nov. 22. That would mean that Elian, Horta and Fernandez spent more than 50 hours in the water before being
rescued on the morning of Nov. 25, Thanksgiving Day.
There is little doubt that the boat left Cuba Nov. 22. Cuban authorities telexed the U.S. Coast Guard that day reporting that a badly overloaded boat had left for the United States. And a phone bill shows that Elian's grandfather, Juan Gonzalez Hernandez, placed a collect call to his sister in
Miami, Georgina Cid, at 9:01 p.m. that day to report that Elian and his mother were on their way to Miami.
But it is less clear what happened between that time and 6:25 a.m. Thanksgiving Day -- the time listed on a Miami-Dade police report taken on the discovery at Crandon Park Marina of Horta and Fernandez. Elian was located about two hours later off Fort Lauderdale.
In an interview Tuesday, Horta repeated her version of events that she, Fernandez and Elian were in the water from around 10 p.m. Monday Nov. 22 until their discovery Nov. 25.
``I remember distinctly that we went into the water Nov. 22 because it was my birthday,'' Horta said. ``I spent my birthday in the water.''
A Coast Guard log entry at noon Nov. 25, however, contradicts Horta. It says the boat capsized ``early morning Tuesday.''
DEEP SUSPICION
Another Coast Guard log entry written at 6:52 p.m. Nov. 25 reflects deep Border Patrol suspicion that the survivors could have been in the water since Monday night. It quotes an unidentified Border Patrol agent as saying it was ``not believable that 5-year-old survived on raft for 3 days.''
Yet, the same log entry notes that ``Miami medical personnel'' had indicated to the Border Patrol that Horta and Fernandez ``look like they could have been out there for that long.''
Another entry, this from Nov. 26, the day after the rescues, claims that a doctor had said the boy had been in the water much less time than the commonly believed version would suggest.
``Doctor said the boy wasn't in the water 24 hrs,'' the entry says. The notation was made by an unidentified Coast Guard mission coordinator.
The coordinator obtained the information from a U.S. Border Patrol officer who -- in turn -- was relaying the gist of a conversation with one of the doctors who treated Elian at Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital in Hollywood.
The Coast Guard said this week that it did not have the name of the doctor. A spokeswoman for the hospital, Lauri Brunelli, declined to comment, citing patient confidentiality.
Inconsistencies about the timing of the capsizing are compounded by differing versions of how Horta and Fernandez reached shore.
Horta, in a story The Herald published Nov. 28, was quoted as saying she and Fernandez were rescued by a passing boat. But in a later story published Dec. 13, Horta left the impression she and Fernandez swam to shore -- a version Horta repeated Tuesday, saying that she and Fernandez made the
swim after seeing the lights of Key Biscayne.
WITNESS NAMED
But a previously unreleased police report gave the name of a witness, Reniel Carmenate, who when contacted by The Herald on Tuesday gave two accounts of how Horta and Fernandez were rescued, both of which differed from Horta's version.
In the first, Carmenate said that he and other people pulled Horta and Fernandez from an inner tube as it floated in the water near Crandon Park Marina on the west side of the Rickenbacker Causeway near Key Biscayne.
But when told that Horta claimed that she and Fernandez had swum to shore, Carmenate changed his story.
``I guess I'll have to tell you what really happened,'' he said. ``The real story is that we found them several miles off Key Biscayne.''
Carmenate said he took Horta and Fernandez to shore before calling authorities so the couple would not be automatically returned to Cuba. Cuban migrants intercepted at sea are generally repatriated while those who reach shore usually stay.
Carmenate said he was aware of the policy because he had been a ``rafter'' himself. Carmenate said he arrived from Cuba by boat two years ago.
Told of Carmenate's version, Horta insisted Wednesday that she and Fernandez swam to shore by themselves and that she had never met Carmenate. Fernandez could not be reached for comment.
But there is little doubt that Carmenate was one of the sources of the first reports to authorities about Horta and Fernandez. His name is listed in a Miami-Dade police account of the incident, and a Coast Guard log entry notes that a Border Patrol agent believed that the fishermen who found
Horta and Fernandez somehow were involved.
Elian quoted as saying he's eager to go home
By Frances Robles. frobles@herald.com
WASHINGTON -- A proponent of Elian Gonzalez's return to Cuba on Wednesday cited a comment she said the boy made as evidence the 6-year-old is eager to return to Cuba.
The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell said that as an INS agent fiddled with passports and travel papers at the Wye Plantation retreat Wednesday, Elian looked at his father and asked, ``Does this mean we're going back to Cuba? I want to go home.''
Immigration and Naturalization Service spokeswoman Maria Cardona said the government could neither confirm nor deny that Elian made the comment. She said the INS agent who was in the room at the time does not speak Spanish and said he wasn't focused on the conversations going on in the room.
Campbell said the exchange between the boy and his father occurred as INS agents stopped by to extend the visas of Elian's entourage. The boy spoke in Spanish and was translated by a female interpreter. Campbell said she thinks the interpreter works for the Cuban Interests Section in Washington.
``Juan Miguel is quite ready to go home. They all are, including Elian, who said so two or three times in my presence,'' Campbell said. ``He doesn't talk about his time in Miami. He mentions the kids he played with, but not Marisleysis or the others. His father tells him, `You can talk about it.
These people are part of our family.' ''
Campbell's account of the comment was met with skepticism by supporters of Elian's Miami relatives, who are arguing in court that the boy should be given an asylum hearing.
``Consider the source,'' said Armando Gutierrez, the spokesman for the Miami relatives. ``She's been wanting to send him back to Cuba from the beginning. She was probably standing right there trying to convince him.''
Kendall Coffey, who is representing Elian's great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez in the quest to keep the boy in the United States, dismissed the remarks as a product of weeks of indoctrination.
``We said in court: We assumed he'd be getting worked on moments after the predawn raid,'' Coffey said. ``We assume he's getting worked on every day. He's worked on more and faster than we predicted.''
Parsing the significance of Elian's comments has become an important part of the debate over whether or not he should be returned to Cuba. Earlier this year, a comment he made in the front yard of the Little Havana home of his Miami relatives was the subject of much speculation, as was an angry
videotape released by his relatives in which he said he wanted to stay in Miami.
The attorneys arguing on behalf of his Miami relatives have said that at a minimum the INS should at least listen to the boy's thoughts on whether he should be returned. The INS has argued that a 6-year-old is too young to play a role in such an important decision as asylum.
VISAS EXTENDED
While not confirming whether the comment was made, Cardona did note that the INS did extend until June 2 visitors' visas for Elian, his father, stepmother, half-brother, cousin, teacher, four friends and their parents. She said the agent did not speak to Elian at all.
Whatever Elian's feelings on returning to Cuba, the entourage has apparently tired of the Wye Plantation and will be leaving the secluded Maryland estate for a seven-bedroom home in a centrally located neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
The family is expected to move within days to a property owned by the Youth for Understanding International Exchange, the nation's oldest and largest student exchange organization.
The group owns a Revolutionary War-era home on its 6.5-acre property in the city's Cleveland Park neighborhood. It's empty, fully furnished, and designed with 1920s decor. The home was initially considered when Juan Miguel arrived in April, but was dismissed because of security concerns,
spokesman Len Doran said.
``Diplomats, presidents and kings have come here,'' Doran said. ``The Secret Service gives us a lot of grief. They hate this place.''
The home is surrounded by four other buildings, making the property a tight squeeze. It sits on a rolling estate that used to be farmland -- smack in the middle of a busy D.C. neighborhood.
`VERY NICE HOUSE'
Doran said the agency hasn't heard for certain whether the home, called Rosedale and once owned by a war general and later a wealthy industrialist, will host the Gonzalez clan. Juan Miguel visited the home Wednesday with someone from the Cuban Interests Section, he said.
``He said he thought it was a very nice house,'' Doran said, adding that there would be no fee for the Gonzalez stay.
Cuban Interests Section spokesman Luis Fernandez referred questions about the move to Juan Miguel's lawyer, Greg Craig. Craig did not return calls seeking comment.
U.S. Marshals also visited the property Wednesday.
``We'd certainly want to check it out,'' Marshals spokesman Bill Likatovich said. ``It seems this place and the place where they are now, Wye, are two opposites.''
Campbell said the move is imminent and spurred largely by boredom.
``It's practical. It's close. It's not every place that can absorb that many people,'' she said. ``Juan Miguel hopes to be able to go out and about. It depends on how many people follow them.''
Family members moving out of house where Elian stayed
By Ana Acle. aacle@herald.com
Hidden in a sleepy West Miami backyard is the world's most photographed swing set, El Parque de Elian, guarded by a friendly black Labrador named Dolphin.
It all looks so familiar, except for the new address.
The Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez have a new home. They may move from their famous rented Little Havana house as early as next month if renovations on their new home and the sale of the property are completed.
``They are moving,'' family spokesman Armando Gutierrez confirmed, ending months of speculation.
It's a modest step up for the Gonzalezes. The 1948 three-bedroom, two-bath, West Miami home is older but slightly roomier than their 1952 two-bedroom, one-bath, Little Havana dwelling that still attracts tourists.
The family said they have not felt comfortable in the Little Havana home, where they lived for more than a decade, after the government's armed raid April 22. Since then, the family has been scattered in homes of relatives. The Gonzalezes say they want privacy and have kept a low profile.
But the West Miami neighborhood already buzzes with the news. A neighbor, curlers still in her hair, dropped by Tuesday with a cafecito for Lazaro Gonzalez, who later that day gave the house a new coat of lime green paint. West Miami Mayor Rebeca Sosa and the police chief have reportedly
welcomed them to their city.
``People I don't know wave to me if I'm standing outside,'' Lazaro Gonzalez said. It's like that at restaurants, too. He can't go anywhere lately without being stopped and offered condolences.
Posts have been dug for a privacy fence at the new home.
Their old home, damaged during the raid, could become a museum if some Cuban exile organizations get their wish, but landlords John and Paula Massey of Coral Gables won't comment on the possibility of a sale.
The West Miami residence, previously in foreclosure, was bought at an auction in February for $112,500 in cash by Our First Home, owned by Luis Aparicio and Roberto Curbelo Jr., a real estate investor and friend of the Gonzalez family.
Curbelo, who announced in April his candidacy for the Miami-Dade County Commission District 11 seat, often was seen carrying Elian on his shoulders when the boy lived with his relatives and was in the home when the raid occurred.
Plans are to sell the renovated home to Elian's great-uncle, Delfin Gonzalez, who will in turn lease the home, with the option to buy, to brother Lazaro Gonzalez, wife Angela and daughter Marisleysis. The arrangement is necessary because Delfin qualifies for a mortgage; Angela works, but Lazaro
is not currently employed.
Some people have wondered if the Gonzalezes still hope that Elian may return to them and therefore have kept Elian's toys and moved to a home with an extra bedroom.
But Lazaro Gonzalez simply says he doesn't want looters taking any of Elian's belongings.
``I don't want anyone profiting from Elian,'' Gonzalez said. ``There are people who will buy anything of his for a lot of money.''
In fact, earlier this month, eBay pulled from its Internet auction a raft claiming to be Elian's after bidding hit $10 million because the owner could not document its origin. Elian was found clinging to an inner tube, not a raft.
Gonzalez gets upset when the conversation turns to Elian and the Communist uniform in which the boy was recently photographed.
``They're teaching him how to be like Che -- an assassin and an asthmatic,'' Gonzalez says.
Ernesto Che Guevara, who helped Fidel Castro in his guerrilla war to overtake Cuba, was an asthma sufferer. After saying the Communist refrain ``We will be like Che,'' some Cuban exiles jokingly add in a low voice: ``Yes, asthmatics.''
Photographer of Elian raid honored
MIAMI -- (AP) -- The freelance photographer who took the Associated Press photo of federal agents with goggles and assault weapons snatching a crying Elian Gonzalez from the home of his Miami relatives was honored Wednesday by a group of Cuban Americans.
Alan Diaz received a plaque and commendation from Miami Mayor Joe Carollo for the photo Diaz took during the raid Saturday, April 22. About 200 Cuban Americans attended a dinner in Miami's Little Havana to honor Diaz.
``You are honoring me for my job, and that was my job,'' Diaz told the crowd.
Diaz, 53, thanked colleagues for bringing him food and coffee during the months he worked outside the Little Havana house and neighbors who let him use their homes to transmit photos.
Elian has been in the United States since Thanksgiving Day, when two men out fishing found him clinging to an inner tube off the coast of South Florida. The boy's mother died trying to flee their country in a boat that capsized.
The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta will decide whether the 6-year-old boy is mature enough to seek asylum despite his father's wishes to take him back to Cuba.
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