Posted on 09/29/2005 10:10:09 AM PDT by Huntress
Elian Gonzalez, now a seventh grader in Cuba who calls President Fidel Castro a friend and "father," would see his Miami relatives again, despite saying their treatment of him five years ago was wrong. Gonzalez is interviewed by Bob Simon for a 60 MINUTES report to be broadcast Sunday, Oct. 2 (7:00-8:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network.
Gonzalez, 11, is a hero in Cuba after what happened to him when he was just 6 years old: His mother died at sea and he was rescued two miles off Florida, after which he was repatriated following a months-long tug of war between GonzalezÕ Miami relatives and his father and the Cuban government. In what Miami Cuban exiles would say is propaganda, Castro attended the boyÕs elementary school graduation and declared he was proud to have Gonzalez as his friend. ÊThe feeling is mutual. "It's also very moving to me and I also believe I am his friend," Gonzalez tells Simon. "Not only [do I think of Castro] as a friend, but also as a father," says Gonzalez. The boy believes that he could call the Cuban president on the phone if he wanted to.
Gonzalez gave a patriotic speech in front of Castro and cameras on the fifth anniversary of the day U.S. law enforcement officers raided his Miami relatives' house and removed him at gunpoint to be repatriated. ÊIt's all part of Castro's propagandist plans, says Ramon Sanchez, a Cuban-American who led demonstrations in Miami in support of keeping the boy in America five years ago. "[Gonzalez] is being brainwashed by the Cuban regime. When you see a child talking in the same exact way that the dictator has talked for 46 years, you know he has been indoctrinated," says Sanchez.
The boy says his Miami relatives, with whom he spent five months, tried to persuade him to stay in America. "They were telling me bad things about [my father]... They were also telling me to tell [my father] that I did not want to go back to Cuba and I always told them that I wanted to," he tells Simon. Gonzalez says he missed his father, school and his friends back in Cuba.
The worst parts of his Miami experience were the nights he found difficult to sleep through. "I would have nightmares and my uncles would talk to me about my mother... it was better not to remind me of that because that tormented me... I was very little," he recalls.
One of those great uncles who cared for him during that time, Delfin Gonzalez, denies that Elian was unhappy and says he doesn't believe anything he says in Cuba because the boy is a prisoner there.
Does Elian ever want to see those relatives again?Ê "Yes," he tells Simon. "Despite everything they did, the way they did it, it was wrong, they are [still] my family...my uncles."
60 MINUTES is close-captioned in Spanish; the signal is on the "CC3" menu item.
Developing...
I wonder if his 5th grade speach was written by an DNC/Hollyewood writer.
He's extremely well-known by everyone on the island, he's supposedly pretty bright, the imprisoned citizens of Cuba have a positive image of him (unlike the image they have of practically every other regime apparatchik), and he's a good-looking telegenic kid who will probably be a very telegenic adult.
The Euros and South Americans will eat up a Communist dictator who dresses snazzy and looks like Ricky Martin.
"Someday I will reign in terror and kill all the anti-revolutionaries just like Daddy and Uncle Hugo!"
Elian will come back to the US some day to stay. He will write a book and make millions of dollars.
Brainwashed.
Honest.
Well, CNN has been the "Communist News Network" (or, in the boring 90s, the "Clinton News Network") for some time now.
CBS has now established itself as the "Castro Broadcasting System" with this latest installment of "60 Minutes".
Maybe his 'father' Fidel will leave him an inheritance of about 1 billion US dollars of his FORTUNE. I wonder why the Cubans never have resented Fidel stashing so much cash. Isn't he won of this hemispheres more financially endowed?
Yeah...they never have an answer to the question of "if it's so great in Cuba, why do people routinely risk their lives to leave?"
I think he should have been sent back with his father. But no doubt Castro has "educated" him.
A child says the tyrant he lives under is wonderful. What does this remind us of??Ah, yes - how about a cable news network wanting a Baghdad bureau so badly that it toadied up to Saddam and made its Baghdad bureau essentially a propaganda organ for Saddam Hussain:
The News We (CNN) Kept To OurselvesThe "fake but" network is despicable.
Aw, he looks so sweet. Well, I am sad to see him brainwashed, but what boy WOULDN'T want to be with his Daddy and his school friends, when you think about it? My heart has broken for him, though, for the hideous, cruel way he was taken in the night at the end of a machine gun. Worse than Castro's indoctrination.
More Communist propaganda from See B.S.
Castro has had five friggin' years to indoctrinate this boy.
How Castro has managed to stay alive all this time is a mystery to me.
I know he wouldn't last a weekend in my neighborhood!
Semper Fi,
Kelly
Don't forget his hot cousin that he shared a room with...MEOW!
Dude, that was great! YOu are the big winner for the best post of the day!
I agree. And he will have special treatment, being a national hero and all. He won't have to live like the average cuban.
Good one.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.