Posted on 08/01/2004 2:57:57 PM PDT by Libloather
4 years after return to Cuba, Elian a normal schoolboy
BY MAKI BECKER
New York Daily News
Posted on Sat, Jul. 31, 2004
NEW YORK - (KRT) - Elian Gonzalez, now 10, hits the books in Cardenas, Cuba, where he lives with his father.
Four years after little Elian Gonzalez was plucked from the seas off Florida's coast and sparked an international custody battle, the young boy is leading a sheltered and almost normal life back in Cuba.
Elian lives with his father in their hometown of Cardenas and he still sports the same impish grin that captivated the world back in 2000.
In an interview with NBC's "Dateline" to air Sunday, Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, says he has generally kept Elian out of the limelight, even moving to a secret location in town to avoid the press.
"The media (in Miami) intimidated him, pressured him most of all," Gonzalez said in his first interview in three years. "It totally overwhelmed him."
As Elian's American relatives fought to keep him in the U.S. and his father sought to take him back to Cuba, hundreds of reporters camped out outside their Miami home, recording every movement of the photogenic little boy.
The custody clash even led to a war of words between Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and the boy's fiercely anti-Castro American relatives.
The stalemate ended dramatically as heavily armed federal officers stormed the house in the middle of the night, snatched the terrified boy and took him into protective custody.
Elian still grieves for his mother who drowned when their boat capsized on its way to Florida, Gonzalez said, but he has adjusted to life well.
"I can truly say that since his return, my son has never had to see a psychologist, or anyone else," Gonzalez told "Dateline NBC."
Elian is learning karate and has two girlfriends, Gonzalez reports.
"The Cuban Adjustment Act was enacted in 1966, at the time when citizens from socialists countries who were persecuted were considered to be political refugees and were granted asylum."
Exactly. Elian was a refugee, and as per the CAA he was legally supposed to allowed to stay.
His Mother died to bring him to freedom.
That's correct.
Are you forgetting that Elian relatives had custody of him since he was found floating on a rubber tube?
Are you saying that unmarried fathers are automatically granted custody if mother dies or is declared unfit?
And even if it was, I wouldn't agree that a father has no rights to his children if he wasn't married to the now dead mother.
Do you think boyfriends who get their girlfriends pregnant and remain unmarried for seven years should have automatic custody rights?
I read some place that Fidel does indeed have dirt on all sorts of people, and Clinton would sure have provided plenty of dirt.
"Normal" according to Fidel's standards? The day Clinton/Reno ordered troops to seize a small boy on behalf of a Communist tyrant was a marker of how far we have fallen as a culture.
Maybe someday the "Manchurian-izing" will wear off and little Elian (perhaps an adult by then) will remember his brief freedom fondly.
Elian's father has no liberty, at any level.
I was waiting for you to show up.
Raul (if he's still alive) will try to run things; he can't.
The people who are actually running things (the Cuban equivalent of the Politburo) will eventually come to the realization that without the charismatic presence of Castro, they will not be able to hold the island together, or to stop the people from exploding, and eventually will seek to normalize relations with the US.
"Free medical care"!
Here's one of my favorite net pundits talking about just that subject:
Socialist intellectuals will tell you that Cuba is a model nation: universal free health care, near total literacy, and essentially no gap whatsoever between the rich and the poor. They call it an island paradise where brotherhood and compassion reign in stark contrast to the brutal inequalities of the heartless and racist capitalist monster to the North, ruled by it’s Imperial Nazi King, who is the devious mastermind of all manner of Conspiratorial Wheels and also a moron.
Capitalist intellectuals – and there are not many, since most of these people have jobs – argue that Cuba is a squalid, corrupt, poverty-ridden basket case, a land of oppression and secret police and torture chambers run by a megalomaniac who practices the most idiotic, inhuman and degrading economic system ever invented.
So here we sit in the chartroom, with our competing maps. What to think?
Well, we can agree that the act of giving up your home, your friends and your family must be traumatic, especially since you will face prison, or worse, if you are caught trying to vote with your feet. And I think all can agree that placing your infant daughter and your aged mother on a raft of inner tubes would be a trifle more traumatic and horrifying than not getting enough whole cane sugar in your grande frappucino at Starbucks.
So, is Socialism a better way to live, or is Capitalism? Leave the armies of experts and intellectuals down in the bilge where they belong.
Go up on deck, get out the telescope, and answer one simple question for me and for yourself:
Which way are the rafts headed?
Source
Still haven't forgotten the dishonorable cast of characters such as Greg Craig, Dr. Redlener, Maxine Waters, et al.
As another poster might have put it--
Reno==>Clinton==>devilmen-usurpers.
Freedom---Elian!
Good to "see" you old friend.
Let me guess... Fletcher?
You can watch it on realplayer, fast forward to about one hour 26 minutes at least, not very clear, or my connection isn't very good, but you will see Elian. I don't have the stomach to listen to that monster's speech, but I did hear him say towards the end to Bush, that "we are willing to die". Go to: C-span international videos and click on Fidelita Castro link.
When questioned if Elian has gone to any counseling, his father said, "I can truly say that since his return my son has never had to see a psychologist or anyone else."
They don't do "counseling" in Cuba, they give sedatives and tranquilizers.
Bump!
Good to see you PD! Good post, btw.
Hi!!! Nice to see you here! Besitos a todos los Elianistas!
I just finished watching NBC Dateline about Elian.
It was disgusting. They were presenting it, as if Elian and Juan Gozales didn't want to talk to the US media, then they finally talk with Juan Gonzales and casually mention there are two bodyguards hovering nearby, and also security is guarding Juan Gonzales's home, but he leads "just a normal life, yes, sirree!'. From Dateline it turns out, that the real evil is the US, who is not allowing Cuban Americans to go back and visit relatives, unless they are immediate relatives.
They did have some video of Elian, which his Father took, ostensibly anyway, but they didn't allow the US TV anywhere near Elian.
Gracias, del mismo modo. Besitos para ti tambien.
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