PLANS FOR TRANSITION IN POST-CASTRO CUBA - Miami Herald
Wye River Blues - ©2000, Blind Tangerine Washington Click on www.elian.cu and see for yourself.
July 4, 2000 Internet use in Cuba is stringently regulated and largely unavailable to the general population. Although the educational resources of the World Wide Web will presumably now be denied the repatriated 6-year old, at least he can claim the distinction of being the only Cuban child with his own WWW address.
"Goin' to Wye River get my brain washed clean
Goin' down to Wye river get my mind washed clean
Put on my Pioneer bandana
Forget the crazy things I've seen"
SO LONG, IT'S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YOU
(An Advance Obituary for Freedom)
WILL CASTRO GOVERNMENT EXPLOIT ELIAN?
After denouncing the Cuban-American community's exploitation of the plight of Elian Gonzales for propaganda purposes and assurances that Elian will resume a "normal" life since his return, the Cuban government has established a quite well-designed web site featuring a Fidel Castro speech with English (Ingles) translation on Windows Media Player.
July 2, 2000 In a rally attended by an estimated 300,000 in Manzanillo, Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque stated that if Washington does not repeal the Cuban Adjustment Act, which has been in effect since 1966, "sad episodes could be repeated such as the one we saw with the kidnapping of Elián," who returned to Havana on Wednesday, June 28. "Some day, the current leaders of the United States and their predecessors should be held accountable for the lives lost in the dangerous Straits of Florida," he stated. Pérez Roque added that despite its joy over the boy’s return, Cuba will continue demanding the repeal of all laws directed against Cuba and the return of the territory occupied by the Guantánamo naval base, on the eastern tip of Cuba. (Source - Granma International)
Recent articles in the Cuban Communist party daily "Granma", report that Fidel Castro called Elián and Juan Miguel González "moral giants" and Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque warned about the possibility of the emergence of cases similar to the kidnapping of Elián González, "if the United States does not modify its policy of hostility toward the island."
June 28, 2000 An official note announced that from there, along an unpublicized route, the group was taken to a place where they would be reunited with the rest of their family members, and finally to the school prepared for them several months ago in Playa municipality. The note stated that they would remain there for a minimal period, in light of the fact that Elián is well advanced in his studies, since he has learned how to read and write and is properly prepared for entering second grade in September. Following a rest, Juan Miguel, his wife and their two sons will return to Cárdenas to resume their normal life.
At Dulles Airport in the U.S. capital, after the normal customs procedures, Juan Miguel González bade farewell to the Americans who had been closest to him during this whole period: Reverend Joan Brown Campbell and lawyer Gregory Craig.
In the old terminal of the José Martí Airport in Havana, at a discreet distance, were four representatives of the Young Communist League, students and the Pioneers' Organization who had led the battle for Elián's return.
The message was sent to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and read to the Cuban people on state-run television Friday night. Elian Gonzales' name was at the first signature on the list, followed by that of Juan Miguel Gonzales, Elian's stepmother Nersey and the boy's five schoolmates from Cardenas, Cuba who are still in Washington D.C. attending the "private school" set up for Elian by Cuban officials and the U.S. government.
"We would like very much to be with you today, sharing the happiness that characterizes our family, but as you know, the enemies of the fatherland are delaying Elian's return," the letter went on to say. Over 300,000 attended a government-sponsored rally in the Cuban countryside said to be the largest since the Cuba began organizing demonstrations demanding Elian's return in December.
Agents also said they used no profanity during the raid and no threats of force were made against anyone in the house. According to the agents' side of the story, no pepper gas was used inside the house and no one was clubbed with a rifle butt. Click here for more.
May 26, 2000 Cuban officials are pleased because the new location is within the 25 mile travel limit imposed on diplomats. In the May 24 edition of Granma, the Cuban communist party daily charged that Elian and Juan Miguel's "confinement" at the Wye plantation was illegal and that Elian's father was unable to exercise his parental rights. For more details click here. In the light of public opinion polls, which overwhelmingly support the child's return to Cuba and the action of Janet Reno's Justice Department. Republican-backed hearings have been indefinitely postponed. Conservative pundits are saying that the communist form of government seems to be much more accepted in the United States since the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the cold war.
But not all those who favor Elian's staying in the United States are registered Republicans.
In an E mail to Branson Internet News Online, Libertarian Bill Davison of the newly-established "Left-Wingers for Liberty" foundation quoted Abraham Lincoln, who said, "Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it." Davison also reminded in his e mail that Lincoln gave us the phrase "government of the people, by the people and for the people" in his Gettysburg address. "If polls are the voice of the people, the people have spoken, and it looks like Elian Gonzales may well be heading back to Havana soon." Davison said.
Branson Internet News Online - April 17, 2000
Most parents desire above all, a better life for their children. When
Elisabeth Brotons died bringing her son Elian to the United States, she was
seeking what she believed would be a better life for her child. Did she die
in vain? At this point no one can say. The matter is now in the hands of the
11th District Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
Presently, Elian has a loving home with his great-uncle Lazaro Gonzales and a substitute mother in his second cousin Marisleysis. Not all 6 year-old Cuban children who sought
political asylum in the United States have had it so good. In the year 2000, with the support of most of the American people, our government is seeking to send Elian back to Cuba. In 1960, things were different. What would the public opinion polls have said when John F. Kennedy was President?
Many Cuban-Americans feel that Kennedy's failure to send promised air support contributed to the debacle the Bay of Pigs became. What results an airstrike on
the Cuban mainland at the height of the cold war would have had is hard to say.
Considering the attitude of the Soviet Union at the time, it could well have resulted
in the nuclear holocaust we so narrowly escaped in 1962. Or Kennedy's hesitation
could be why more than 11 million Cubans still live under Castro's tyranny today.
Operation Pedro Pan was the largest child rescue ever recorded in the
Western Hemisphere. With the blessing of their parents, 14,000 Cuban
children ranging in age from 6 to 16 were flown out of Cuba to the United
States between December 1960 and October 1962. "Pedro Pan" was a secret plan
developed by The U.S. State Department and the Roman Catholic Church in Miami.
A young priest, Rev. Bryan O. Walsh, was given unprecedented authority by the U.S. State Department to allow entry, without a visa, to the children. Many of the parents were underground freedom fighters who stayed in Cuba seeking to overthrow the newly-established communist regime of Fidel Castro, which came to power in January, 1959.
The new Cuban government had just closed all Catholic schools, confiscated church property and was planning to indoctrinate children in special schools.
The parents believed Castro would be ousted and they would soon be reunited with their children after obtaining visas enabling them to travel to the United States. Their hopes dimmed when the Bay of Pigs invasion failed on April 17, 1961. Then came the Cuban missile crisis in October of 1962. The flights stopped and the operation ground to a halt.
"With some exceptions, the children of Pedro Pan say they are grateful to
have grown up in this country, but they also wonder what their lives would
have been like if they had not been separated from their parents." said
Mirta Ojito, in one of the New York Times articles that won her a 1999
Distinguished Writing Award from the American Society of Newspaper Editors.
There has been much speculation that the main reason for the Justice Department's stand on the Elian Gonzales situation is Fidel Casto's threatened repeat of the 1980 Mariel boatlift, when 125,000 Cuban refugees arrived on our shores. Approximately 5% of the "Marielitos", as they came to be called, were common criminals and mental patients released by the Castro regime, only to be detained by INS officials in the United States. But most were simply refugees seeking the freedom America symbolizes to victims of tyranny the world over. "People love liberty, even if they do not know that they love it. They are driven by it and flee from where it does not exist." said Cuban statesman and philosopher Jose Marti. Mirta Ojito was one of those "Marielitos". For a unique perspective on Cuban-American relations yesterday and today, read what she has to say.
Elian Gonzales has moved from the Aspen Institute's Wye plantation to the Rosedale Estate in Washington, D.C. owned by Youth for Understanding The move puts the family closer to attorney Greg Craig, who is representing Elian's father in the case currently before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.
TENS OF THOUSANDS MARCH IN MIAMI's LITTLE HAVANA
May 29, 2000
Tens of thousands of people marched peacefully in Miami's little Havana Saturday. Elian Gonzales may be gone, but he is not forgotten by Miami's Cuban-American community. The political fallout since the 5 am raid by armed INS agents has been considerable. Miami Mayor Joe Carollo recently fired city manager Donald Warshaw for refusing to fire Miami police chief William O'Brien, who had advance knowledge of the raid, but did not inform Carollo. O'Brien resigned after Carollo's action.
Elian Quote of the day:
"I know most members of the Cuban-American community differ with my opinion because they have the best interests of Elian at heart." (Janet Reno at a press conference Friday, April 7, 2000)
ON BAY OF PIGS ANNIVERSARY
OPERATION PEDRO PAN REMEMBERED
In an interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC TV's "Good Morning America", Elian said he did not want his father to visit him in Miami "because he'll take me to Cuba and I don't want to go to Cuba." When asked if he would like it if his father stayed in Miami, Elian answered: "He can stay here. I don't want to go."
DOLPHINS MAY HAVE PROTECTED ELIAN FROM SHARKS
When two fishermen rescued 6 year old Elian Gonzales as he floated in an inner tube in the shark-infested waters off the coast of Florida on Thanksgiving day, 1999, Elian spoke of being surrounded by dolphins. Later, Elian chose to name his black Labrador puppy "Dolphin". Could it be the seagoing mammals protected him on his perilous journey? Dolphins have been known to attack and even kill sharks. Between 1991 and 1993, a total of 42 dead porpoises were found washed ashore with "massive multiple trauma" in Moray Firth in Scotland. Their injuries were believed to have been inflicted when they were rammed by dolphins. Several theories for the dolphins' violent behavior were made, including mistaken identity. Marine biologists studying the case believed the dolphins may have mistaken the porpoises for sharks.
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