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

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

[TAdams8591]

It seems unfair that a country who would have treated ELIAN so poorly should have benefitted so much because of his unfortunate demise.

[Jorge]

Castro might be planning to showcase this kid.....give him whatever passes for an "elite education" in the "island paradise," and then put him on the fast track up into a prominent government position, just to "prove" to the world that "upward mobility in Cuba" is possible for all citizens.

With over 100,000 dead Cuban's at the bottom of the Florida Straits, trying to escape Castro...NOTHING he can do for Elian will be convincing enough to contradict the human desire for freedom.

Castro will die a failure.

[FairOpinion]

"His great aunt, Haydee González, 61, said Elián is a quiet boy, reserved like his mother was, "

I think Elian remembers, that's why they have to have plainclothes police stationed in front of his house, so he can't talk to any outsiders.

[Jorge]

I think Elian remembers, that's why they have to have plainclothes police stationed in front of his house, so he can't talk to any outsiders.

It must be really creepy for him to know he is being watched and brainwashed by this totalitarian form of government.

I bet you anything deep down inside Elain longs to be back with his adopted family in America.

[Verginius Rufus]

The whole time Elian's father was in the U.S., the Clinton administration made sure he was always under the control of his Cuban handlers, so that he would never have a chance to express his real wishes, let alone be given the option of staying in America with Elian. (Since Elian had bonded with his Florida relatives, that would have been the best solution for Elian...but anathema to Castro.)

A Catholic nun who was a college president (Barry University, I think) was all for returning Elian to Cuba until she met his two grandmothers...seeing the fear in their eyes made her change her opinion.

[tertiary01]

ALL Cuban are here legally

I forgot about that. My friend married a US service man.

[solitas]

Terri Schindler should NOT have been denied food and water.
The cuban should NOT have been denied the opportunity to swim the rest of the way on his own.

[FairOpinion]

This is also a good place to point this out:

Rather Interview Staged

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1368088/posts

In Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant, author Humberto Fontova reveals for the first time how Dan Rather's "60 Minutes" interview with Juan Miguel (Elian Gonzalez's father) was stage-managed by former Clinton lawyer and friend, Gregory Craig.

According to a Cuban-American translator from the U.S. Treasury Department: "The questions for Juan Miguel were actually fed to Dan Rather by Gregory Craig. After a taping session, Craig would call Dan over, give him some more instructions and exchange papers with him. Then Dan would come back on the set and ask those.

The book reports that during the interview Craig acted like the movie director and even got a bona fide dramatic actor to translate and mouth the responses of Miguel."

[CHARLITE]

"...over 100,000 dead Cuban's at the bottom of the Florida Straits.."

Where did you get that figure? I'm not doubting you for an instant. It's believable, having gone on now for nearly a half century......but I'm just wondering where such a statistic comes from.

Char

[solitas]

www.angelfire.com/tv/stormtroopers/elian.swf

[nuconvert]

"living a ‘normal’ life"

Yeah, sure he is. I hope he can tell us all about his 'normal' life someday.

[my_pointy_head_is_sharp]

I think if Elian had been able to stay in the US, his father would have secretly been happy. Oh sure, he would have been sad (and would have pretended to be more sad), but he would have been happy that his son was living in the US, in freedom.

[Lancey Howard]

Yet, when he saw that picture, he stopped playing and said automatically, "Is the man going to kill that boy?"

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?

The Clinton legacy....

[A'elian' nation]

Things I pray for every night:

1) The discovery of WMD in Cuba.
Funny how we can attack despotism everywhere except 90 miles off-shore.

2) A pre-dawn raid on the Clinton library with federal marshalls dragging Clinton and Reno,half-naked, at gunpoint, out of his penthouse closet.

3) Elian Gonzalez taking over the "Golden Microphone" when El Rushbo retires or winning the gold medal in gymnastics in 2012 for the USA.

4) A very special place in the AfterLife for Clinton/Reno where they have to watch newsreel footage of Dan Rather reporting on the Waco holocaust and the Elian Gonzalez kidnapping over and over and over and over and . . . . .

[pollywog]

look at the GRIP that Castro has on that boys' arm!! Sure he is " chatting"!!!! Elian doesn't look HAPPY to me!!!!!!!

[pollywog]

yep.........you have that right. Elian to daddy in Castro COUNTRY.......Terri to the death chambers via MICHAEL's ORDERS!!!!!!

[wolficatZ]

[onyx]

Let me guess! All the tenured posters here who thought Michael had the right to kill Terri, wanted Elian back with his father in Cuba?





Nope.
Several of the posters who were outraged by Janet Reno
sending in the troops to grab Elian, are the same posters
who wanted Jeb and POTUS to send in troops for Terri.

Nice try though.

[tertiary01]

Maybe you mistated? Or are you just outvoted?

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

a symbol of the Cold War conflict between Cuban-Americans and Cuba

Oh, is that what the Cold War was?