CUBA: Elian ‘One Step Closer’ to Return, Says Government

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, May 27 2000 (IPS) - The Cuban government saw the change of residence in the United States by shipwreck boy Elian Gonzalez and his family as a sign that the case had moved a step closer to some kind of outcome.

Six-year-old Elian, his father Juan Miguel Gonzalez, stepmother Nersy Carmenate, and half-brother Hianny, along with his schoolmates and teacher who joined him in April, moved Thursday afternoon to a house in the Cleveland Park neighbourhood of Washington, D.C.

Since Elian was removed by force on Apr 22 from the home of his great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez in Miami, where he lived for five months after his rescue at sea, the boy has been staying at a farm, the Wye Plantation in the state of Maryland, 122 kms from the capital.

Six months have passed since Elian was found drifting off the coast of Florida after the boat in which he and his mother and 12 other Cuban emigrants were attempting to reach the United States capsized. The boy’s mother drowned in the accident, and only two people besides Elian survived.

Since his rescue, Elian has been the star of not only a custody dispute, but also a wider political battle between fervently anti- Castro sectors of the Cuban exile community in Miami and the Cuban government.

“He is closer to the airport,” joked Carmen Naredo, a bank employee who said she has been closely following the case ever since ‘Granma’, the official publication of the Communist Party of Cuba, published a letter by Juan Miguel asking the foreign ministry to help bring his son back home on Nov 27.

The government of Fidel Castro saw the change of residence as “an important event, and one step towards the release” of Elian, according to an official communique printed by ‘Granma’ Friday.

Juan Miguel Gonzalez flew to the United States in early April. But although he was reunited with his son, a court ruling has prohibited Elian from leaving the country.

The case now depends on the Atlanta appeals court which, based on a suit brought by Lazaro Gonzalez, will rule whether Elian has the right to a political asylum hearing without his father’s consent.

“Wye Plantation was not the best place to await the Atlanta decision,” stated the official communique.

The court held a hearing on May 11, and could take weeks or even months to hand down its final ruling. Analysts say that while the final outcome is hard to predict, the most logical decision would be for the court to dismiss the request for a political asylum hearing for Elian.

“Now, in Washington, they will have access in a question of minutes to friendly, trustworthy professionals, if necessary,” states the communique, which described the farm in Maryland as “a remote, isolated spot” ideal “for the first few weeks” following the boy’s reunion with his father.

One of the Castro administration’s chief concerns with respect to the Wye Plantation was that Cuban diplomats had to apply for authorisation by the US State Department each time they needed to visit Elian and his father.

The beautiful, spacious farm was far beyond the 25-mile range within which the personnel of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington are allowed to move about freely.

According to ‘Granma’, at the start “everything was moving ahead in apparent harmony and good faith,” until the State Department “abruptly and almost totally cut off travel permits for the diplomats” in charge of keeping Elian’s family supplied with what they needed and maintaining contact between them and their relations in Cuba.

The communique also recalled the US refusal of entry visas for Elian’s grandparents and the restrictions on the number of people allowed to accompany the boy in his process of “readaptation” in the United States.

Keeping Juan Miguel “isolated and without any possibility of making public statements in case of any dirty tricks” played into the hands of those who were trying to evade their duty, which was to come up with a “clean and fair solution” to the problem, stated the cover-page article of ‘Granma’.

The Gonzalez family in Miami also decided to move, because Elian’s second cousin, Marisleysis – described as his “surrogate mother” in the five months he spent in the home of Lazaro Gonzalez – was reluctant to return home after uniformed and armed federal marshalls broke down the door in the Apr 22 predawn raid in which the boy was seized.

The Miami Gonzalezes appealed the Mar 21 ruling handed down by Judge Michael Moore, which upheld a Jan 5 Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) decision that the boy belonged with his father, who was the only person who could speak for him.

Analysts say the Supreme Court would be unlikely to accept a new appeal by Elian’s Miami relations if the Atlanta court rules against a political asylum hearing for the boy. But they do not rule out the possibility of other legal maneuvres that could lead the case to stretch on for years.