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.
Surprisingly unharmed by his stint as an illegal alien.
He will. In time...
You obviously define the freedom as a political reason.
I don't.
You see, I hold certain truths to be self-evident, among them is that men, all men, are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that among those rights are life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness.
I believe that with every fiber in my body, and I also believe than when people are faced with a choice like we had with Elian Gonzalez, to choose desecrating his God-given, unalienable right to Liberty is not only sacrilegious, but the equivalent to defecating on the American dream.
I fought to protect Elian's unalienable right to freedom, on the other side, and fighting against me were Fidel Castro, Bill Clinton, and Janet Reno.
Pick a side.
When exactly was Elian Gonzalez an illegal alien?
SPECULATION ON MY PART:
Fidel didn't release the KGB pictures of clinton's visit to Moscow while he was dodging the draft and supposedly at Oxford.
Given cliton's known proclivities, I can't help but wonder who or what he was boinking for the hidden cameras...
Your comments are not worth following.
I notice your bio is a little on the empty side.
He's never smiling, he never looks happy now.
When he was present without entry documents.
Bzzzzt! Wrong answer!
Cuba is special. Once a Cuban gets feet on dry land in the USA, they are here legally.
Then you don't know the law.
Cuban Adjustment Act of 1968.
"Even the captives of the mighty man will be taken away, And the prey of the tyrant will be rescued; For I will contend with you, And I will save your sons." -- Isaiah 49:22-25
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