POLITICS-CUBA: Elian’s Family Rejects Offer of US Residency

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Mar 31 2000 (IPS) - The father of the shipwrecked Cuban boy Elián González, and his relatives living in Cuba expressed their offence at US vice-president Al Gore’s proposal to grant them permanent residence in the United States.

“It surprises us, frankly, that someone could undertake this initiative without our consent and without even consulting any of us,” said Elián’s relatives in Cuba in a letter sent to the US Senate – where the measure is under consideration – and published in Cuba’s state-run newspaper, ‘Granma.’

The boy’s family in Cuba made their disagreement with Gore’s proposal known in the letter, saying, “We hope the US Senate does not approve it (residency).”

The letter, signed by the six-year-old’s father, Juan Miguel González, his wife, and the boy’s grandparents, was sent Thursday to US Senate majority leader Trent Lott (of the Republican Party), and to minority leader Tom Daschle (of the Democratic Party, the party of president Bill Clinton).

Among other arguments, the family points to the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, which was unanimously approved in 1948 at the Ninth International American Conference, in Bogota.

Article 8 of the Declaration establishes that “every person has the right to fix his or her residenc in the territory of the State of which he or she is a national, to move about freely within such territory and not leave it except by his or her own will.”

“We reject the intent to arbitrarily deprive us of this right. We especially reject, with absolute firmness, the true purpose of this proposal,” said Elian’s relatives in the letter.

Gore’s initiative is one more maneuvre to “perpetuate the arbitrary retention of Elián González Brotons in US territory, in clear violation of international law,” reads the letter.

Gore, a Democratic Party presidential candidate for November’s elections, has repeatedly stated that he favours keeping the Cuban boy in the United States since he was rescued from the Florida straits last November 25.

Elián was one of three survivors of a capsized boat that carried Cubans trying to illegally emigrate to the United States. The tragedy resulted in the deaths of 11 people, including the boy’s mother, Elizabeth Brotons.

According to migration agreements between Havana and Washington, the boy should have been immediately repatriated to the island, but instead was handed over to his great-uncle in Miami, Lázaro Gonzalez, who then initiated proceedings to win custody of Elián.

It seems the vice-president is trying to slow down efforts by US Attorney General Janet Reno to force Lázaro González to return the boy to his family in Cuba if he loses the court case he has on appeal in federal court.

The US Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) did not keep its word to initiate Elián’s repatriation Thursday if Lázaro González did not turn in a written pledge by that day saying he would relinquish custody of the boy if he loses the court appeal.

Negotiations between the Miami family’s lawyers and INS officials were postponed until early next week.

Cuban president Fidel Castro announced that Elián’s father is ready to travel to United States immediately, but his departure depends on receiving assurances that authorities will hand over his son as soon as he arrives.

Juan Miguel González would make the trip accompanied by his closest family members, 12 of Elián’s classmates, two schoolteachers, as well as psychologists, psychiatrists and – as adviser to the group – the president of Cuba’s parliament, Ricardo Alarcón.

The group’s composition was questioned by the US State Department’s spokesman, James Foley, but the Cuban government responded that this is “a non-negotiable” issue. These people are “essential for the boy’s reinsertion into his family and his social environment,” it said in an official statement.

“Elián González Brotons was only five years old when, after losing his mother, he was prevented from returning to the family bosom. Since then, more than four months have gone by which have caused the boy and us unspeakable suffering,” affirmed Elián’s family in the letter to the US Senate.

They added that they had never “caused any harm to the United States, to its people or its senators” and wondered why they “continue imposing a punishment on them that is so unjust and cruel.”

Gore, for his part, said that Elián’s future should be decided in a family court – which would have jurisdiction over the case if the boy’s father had US resident status.