By Dalia Acosta
HAVANA, Dec 10 1999 (IPS)

Some 300,000 people marched on the U.S. Interests Section in the Cuban capital in ongoing pro-government protests, demanding the repatriation of a six-year-old boy who was caught up in a case of emigrant smuggling to the United States.

Shouts of “We want Elián,” “Free my boy,” and “Don’t worry Elián, the people are with you,” echoed Thursday during a two- hour demonstration, known as the “March of the Combatant People,” outside the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana.

Some 20,000 children, secondary school students, university students, rural workers, and even the elderly from three provinces surrounding Havana were transported to the capital by government authorities for the march.

“The demonstrations will continue until the boy is returned to his family,” said Otto Rivero, first secretary of the Union of Communist Youth (UJC), considered the training ground for the governing Communist Party of Cuba.

Elián González, living with his paternal great-aunt and great- uncle in the United States since Nov 25, may be returned to Cuba, announced Miami’s ‘New Herald’ newspaper Tuesday, citing a statement from the U.S. State Department.

But U.S. president Bill Clinton said Wednesday evening that justice authorities in his country will decide on the issue based on “what is best for the boy.”

“There is a legal process underway,” said Clinton and called on Cuba to avoid political manipulating the situation. “I don’t think politics or threats have anything to do with this and, if it is up to me, they won’t,” he told the press.

Elián González survived the shipwreck two weeks ago of a boat in which 14 people attempted to reach the U.S. coast. Eleven of the passengers died, including the boy’s mother and step-father.

Elián’s biological father, Juan Miguel González, has decided to excercise his custodial rights and demands the boy’s return.

His son was taken out of Cuba by the mother, Elizabeth Brotón, without his knowledge or obtaining his consent, asserts González.

Cuban president Fidel Castro stated Wednesday that González is not willing to travel to the United States, nor will he meet with U.S. officials until they announce the boy’s return to the island nation.

Elián, meanwhile, remains at the home of his relatives in Miami, surrounded by new toys and defended by organisations of anti- Castro exiles who demand his right to live in freedom in the United States.

Castro called on Washington to seek “an honourable and dignified solution for both parties,” but also admitted his distrust that the United States “will proceed in a just and humane way in recognising the father’s rights without delay.”

Cuba’s claims on Elián are based on its Family Code and on the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, though it was never ratified by the United States.

The Convention, signed by 191 nations, establishes in Article 11 that the signing parties will combat “the illicit transfer and non-return of children abroad.”

Elizardo Sánchez, president of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National Reconciliation, a banned organisation in Cuba, agreed with Castro’s stance on the issue, saying “the fairest and most rational solution to this controversy” is the child’s return to Cuba.

But the opposition leader believes it would be an abuse of the situation if the United States, Cuba, or the anti-Castro organisations in exile “try to politically manipulate the tragedy” of Elián.

The Conference of Catholic Bishops, meanwhile, lamented that “emotional or political implications are obstructing the rapid resolution of the conflict, a solution that is found in such basic rules of law.”

The Conference, the Catholic Church’s highest forum on the island, defended Elian’s father’s custodial rights and called for the protection of “the privacy and innocence of the boy” so that he does not become the object “of any kind of pressure, manipulation or propoganda.”

The custody dispute over the boy has created a new tensions between Cuba and the United States, the worst since the Cuban air force shot down two aircraft piloted by members of the anti-Castro Brothers to the Rescue in 1996.

Representatives from both governments were scheduled to meet Monday in Havana to debate migration accords signed by both countries in 1994 and 1995, but the talks may be called off if the current situation remains unchanged.

Ricardo Alarcón, head of the Cuban delegation to the talks and president of Cuban parliament, affirmed that the meeting would be useless if Elián is not first returned to his father on the island. “The agreements run the risk of dying if they continue to receive such severe blows,” he said.

The accords state that both countries must guarantee “legal and orderly” emigration from the island.

The United States committed to granting at least 20,000 visas annually to Cubans, and repatriating all Cuban citizens who are intercepted in illegal attempts to reach U.S. territory. But if Cubans make it to the U.S. without being caught, they are allowed to stay and are given immigration priority.

Cuba, for its part, promised it would not punish the repatriated individuals for the crime of illegally leaving the country.

Excerpt: