Published Wednesday, September 6, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Church group gets glimpse of Elián, visits with family
By D. Aileen Dodd . adodd@herald.com
Leaders of the National Council of Churches found a healthy, happy Elián and his father, Juan Miguel González, eager to return to work in two weeks, the group said after a Tuesday visit in Cárdenas, Elián's hometown.
The stop was part of the organization's five-day ecumenical summit in Cuba. Delegates were greeted with hugs and kisses from Juan Miguel González and Elián's grandmothers, Raquel Rodriguez and Mariela Quintana. They thanked the NCC for working with the Cuban Council of Churches to
reunite the family.
"They were very grateful to us,'' said Reinerio Arce, president of the Cuban Council of Churches. "They repeated that two or three times.''
Officials from the two church councils met with the family for 45 minutes in a private residence in Cárdenas and looked in on Elián's second-grade class without disturbing his studies.
'LIKE A NORMAL CHILD'
"He looked great. He seemed relaxed, like a normal child,'' said the Rev. Bob Edgar, NCC general secretary. "Juan Miguel said he was happy that when he takes his son on the bike to school, he doesn't get interrupted by people who are seeing his celebrity.''
If Elián continues to do well, Juan Miguel plans to return to work in the tourism industry Sept. 15.
While in Cuba this week, the NCC and the Cuban Council, which are enjoying improved relations, hope to build on the relationship strengthened by the González reunion and focus attention on more widespread problems facing the country -- poverty, hunger and lack of medical supplies.
On Tuesday, the NCC presented 1,500 school kits packed with pencils, pens, paper and scissors to principals in Cardenas. Later this week, executives will meet with government officials in Havana to discuss other needs and the council's continuing campaign to end the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
BLAMES BUREAUCRACY
"We would like to see the embargo against Cuba changed for humanitarian concerns,'' Roy Lloyd, an NCC spokesman, said from Connecticut. "Why should children and the elderly suffer because of bureaucracy?''
Reaching out to other Christians in Cuba, the councils are planning a meeting with Monsignor Jaime Ortega, the Roman Catholic cardinal there. The groups hope the talk will open the door to an ongoing ecumenical dialogue and additional support for programs to aid the poor in the country.
"There has been an enormous increase in religious worship and relationships [between denominations] in Cuba,'' Edgar said. "The NCC voted to work with the Roman Catholic and evangelical community to build a new ecumenical table.''
PARTNERS FOR DECADES
The NCC and the Cuban Council have been partners for decades. Eight years ago, the groups launched an aid program that brought more than $1 million in food, medicine and medical equipment to help children and the elderly living in poverty. None of its campaigns, however, have been as public as
the Elián González case.
"We worked well together,'' Arce said. "We want to find new ways we can work together.''
Cuban President Fidel Castro will not meet the NCC delegation in Cuba. The president is among 150 heads of state to travel to a conference at the United Nations in New York this week. The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, former NCC general secretary, is planning to meet with Castro to get an update on
Elián González while Castro is in the United States.
Edgar said the meeting was not yet scheduled. The group returns to the United States on Thursday.
Anti-embargo movement gains allies
Four urge 'phased reductions'
By Frank Davies. fdavies@herald.com
WASHINGTON -- Four former members of Congress -- two Democrats and two Republicans -- added their opposition Tuesday to the U.S. embargo on Cuba after a visit to the island marked by lengthy meetings with leading dissidents and a confrontation with a top Cuban official.
The group called for "phased reductions'' of sanctions on Cuba, "serious consideration'' for allowing a U.S. bank in Havana to arrange financing of food and medicine sales, removing the ceiling on remittances and greater cultural and educational links between the two countries.
At a press conference Tuesday, the former members -- Democrats John Brademas of Indiana and Larry LaRocco of Idaho, and Republicans Fred Grandy of Iowa and Jack Buechner of Missouri -- said they hoped their report would aid the anti-embargo movement in Congress.
Two delegations of former members made "official'' trips to Cuba, approved by the Cuban government, in 1996 and last year, but the four-day visit in June was "unofficial.'' The four former members used tourist visas, meeting with Bishop Luis Robles Díaz, the papal nuncio in
Havana, other religious leaders, and diplomats from Spain and Canada.
"But it was the dissidents who influenced our delegation the most with their courage,'' said Grandy, referring to independent journalists Manuel David Orrio and Raúl Rivero, and the trio of Marta Beatriz Roque, René Gómez Manzano and Felix Bonne, who had been released
from prison just weeks before.
Grandy recalled that Roque had been warned by Cuban officials not to meet with the delegation, "but her reaction was, 'If I cant see these people, just lock me up again.' ''
To varying degrees, the dissidents said that loosening sanctions on Cuba will bring more U.S. dollars to the island and bring needed change.
On the last day of the visit, Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque hosted a contentious meeting with the delegation, chiding them for "seeing dirty people'' and asked: "Are you in this country illegally?''
Brademas, a former New York University president who is fluent in Spanish, said that Roque asked sarcastically if one of the dissidents had been sober.
Replied Brademas: "As sober, Mr. Minister, as everyone at this table.''
Majorities in both the House and Senate support an end to sanctions on food and medicine sales, but the GOP leadership has prevented a final vote.
Heavily guarded Castro arrives for U.N. summit
Meets with leaders, gives speech today
By Frances Robles. frobles@herald.com
NEW YORK -- Cuban President Fidel Castro arrived in New York City under heavily armed guard Tuesday, went past the commotion and straight to business as he began his fourth visit to the United Nations in 40 years.
Castro left Havana to attend the U.N.'s Millennium Summit, a meeting of 150 world leaders whose descent upon Manhattan snarled East Side traffic. Thousands of police officers were deployed, staking out every corner. Police were getting ready for the 91 scheduled demonstrations and hundreds of
motorcades surrounding the largest gathering of world leaders in history.
Despite the hubbub surrounding Castro's visit -- the mayor here called him a murderer, and exiles called for his arrest -- it did not appear that the communist leader planned to keep a low profile. He quickly met with two presidents, while sympathetic Americans jockeyed for face time with the
man who holds the record for the longest United Nations speech -- 4 1/2 hours in 1960.
Castro's first stop was to the Chinese U.N. mission, where he met with President Jiang Zemin. Chinese officials said the pair met for about an hour to support one another's causes. For Castro, it was Elián González. For Jiang, Taiwan.
Castro, the Chinese said, supports the reunification of China.
His next meeting was with the prime minister of Malaysia, Mahathir Mohamad.
Castro's itinerary is being kept secret, but he is expected to attend a U.N. luncheon today, where President Clinton will also be present. He'll give a five-minute speech to the 150 world leaders some time late this morning.
On Friday, Castro will attend a service at the Riverside Church in Manhattan's Upper West Side. Former Secretary General of National Council of Churches, the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, Reps. Jose Serrano and Charles Rangel also expect to meet with Castro.
Castro is among those participating in a summit with the lofty goal of turning the 21st Century into an epoch free of war, poverty, ignorance and disease. At the summit's conclusion, world leaders are expected to adopt a Millennium Declaration, which commits to eradicating poverty, promoting
education and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Noting that more than five million people have lost their lives in wars during the last decade, the document says, "we will spare no effort to free our peoples from the scourge of war.''
"We hope that the summit will be a democratic, tolerant gathering, where no one will try to impose models and patterns, and where diverse histories, cultures and economic and political systems will be respected,'' said Felipe Pérez Roque, Cuba's foreign minister.
The summit runs today through Friday.
Hundreds of people have already begun their protests, including a large Pakistani contingent and a South Florida entourage of Cuban Americans.
Brothers to the Rescue founder José Basulto seized the opportunity to present law enforcement authorities with a complaint accusing Castro of murder.
Basulto and other exiles argue that Castro should be charged for the deaths of four Brothers pilots shot down by Cuban MiGs in 1996. Castro, they say, should be treated like Chile's former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who was arrested in London on a Spanish warrant that sought to try him for
human rights abuses.
This was Castro's first visit to the U.S. in five years, and his first since the Pinochet arrest gave rise to exile dreams of his indictment.
"My position is simple: There's a criminal in town,'' Basulto said.
He said he took a dossier of documents to the FBI offices in New York. FBI spokesmen did not return calls seeking comment.
New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani, an outspoken Castro critic, said his staff advised Basulto to take his case to the FBI.
Guiliani said he believes Castro could be charged in New York because it is the first federal jurisdiction he entered.
"I understand the frustration and their anger at the murder of innocent people,'' Guiliani said at a press briefing. "It's not the first time he killed innocent people.''
As a former associate attorney general who served during the Mariel boatlift, Guiliani said he "had to deal with what Fidel Castro did to Miami and the rest of America.''
Despite Guiliani's assurances, U.N. officials say Castro enjoys diplomatic immunity from arrest while here on U.N. business.
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