Five years later, Elián, now 11, is living a ‘normal’ life

SUN-SENTINEL.COM ^ | APRIL 17, 2005 | VANESSA BAUZA

[CHARLITE]

CáRDENAS, Cuba · Elián González says he wants to be a gymnast when he grows up. But his grandfather, Juan González Sr., knows Elián's future career choices are as variable as any normal preteen's and could change next month.

"I want him to be a good man, to do good deeds, not do anything he will regret. Everything else is all right," he said, sitting in his home in the coastal town of Cárdenas under a large photograph of a very young Elián.

At age 11, the boy whose bitter custody battle stands as a symbol of the Cold War conflict between Cuban-Americans and Cuba has been saddled with high expectations.

Five years ago this month, armed federal agents stormed into the home of Elián's Miami relatives and scooped him up in a lightning-fast, predawn raid that crushed the hopes of Cuban-American exiles. Within hours Elián was reunited with his father, Juan Miguel González. Two months later, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from the boy's Miami relatives to keep him in the United States, Elián and his father boarded a chartered Learjet and returned to Cuba.

[CHARLITE]

"....over a million Cubans have come to the US and it is estimated that at least 100,000 have drowned in the Florida Straits trying to get here.

Thanks for the clarification. It is appalling - both numbers like that and also the revelations in Sherrie Gossett's A.I.M.ORG article which I just posted on FR about an hour ago.

The title is: Dan Rather, CNN and Castro. I don't have the link, but you can find it in the Search box.

Thanks again,

Char

[Tired of Taxes]

Did you explain to your son that the boy's mother had already drowned in the ocean in her effort to get the boy to the United States and freedom? And that the President of the United States had the boy abducted at the point of a machine gun so that he could be forcibly returned to the horrible communist dictatorship of Cuba, and that the boy's mother therefore gave her life in vain?

I agree with you 100%, but my son was only 4 years old at the time. :-) I think I just told him that the boy was OK.

Now... he also got to see the events of 9/11... I didn't expect the pictures of people jumping to flash on screen, and he saw it. Boy, that left a lasting effect on him, too, and he was old enough then for a more complete explanation.

[Lancey Howard]

I have a few kids that I have been explaining stuff to for many years.
They see liberals for the complete scumbags that they are, believe me.

Regards,
LH

[RMDupree]

Michael Schiavo was a husband in name only. He was living with another woman and had two children by her. Thus the marital bond was completely compromised. Michael Schiavo had NO MORAL RIGHT to be making decisions for Terri.

Elian's mother and father were NOT married and Elian's father had begun a new family with someone else. Elian's mother who sacrificed her life to bring Elian to the United States, did so with the knowledge and permission of Elian's father who stated on several occasions he intended to get to the United States himself, in a tub, if he had to. Elain's father WANTED Elian here. After Castro stepped in, Elian's father was not free to speak the truth.

It is MOST disturbing that people like yourself are unable to distinguish between the above and normal situations.

Beautiful post and worth repeating!

[Republic]

It is a beautiful post, and it IS worth repeating!

[eleni121]

Human rights trump all other rights. Elian's mom wanted her son in the US - protecting his human rights. And what about her parental rights? In the Schiavo case, her parents wanted her alive. Life rights trump "husband" convenience rights.

You need to think things through before you go posting malarchey.

[Nachum]

I think there is a ray of light in this piece about Elian. He has laid the groundwork to visit the US and ask for asylum as an adolescent.

I hear everyone obsessing about his "father" comment about Castro and how bad his uncles were, but the one thing he makes clear is he wants to see them. After he is 12, 13, or 14 years old there would be enormous pressure on Castro (or the next dictator) to let him see his uncles.

It would lay the ground work for more trips and a future request for asylum. Their is precedent for adolescents as young as 11 to be given the right of self determination and be granted asylum. He is clearly being forced to say all the other things which do not actually implicate any action on his part except to see his uncles.

This piece is not necessarily as bad as it seems.

[piasa]

They are probably supporting Putin now.

[piasa]

Well, he is on the way...an official in their political machine now.