Cute kid who is unfortunately Castro's pawn.
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...
Cute kid who is unfortunately Castro's pawn.
Wonder if a minder was present, and if so, did CBS disclose that?
ping
My guess would be 1) yes, and 2) no.
Castro has had 5 years to "educate" the boy.
Just you wait, one day, this kid will defect to the US...
Don't forget sending in the SWAT team to drag him away from his family. Poor Elian. But in the long run I think it was one of the decisive issues in defeating Gore.
May I be the first to say he will insinuate that it is Bush's fault.....
Can we trust CBS News yet?
Did I miss it where it mentioned where this interview was done? Can I assume Elian made these comments in a free Cuba?....oh I'm sorry, I forgot Castro is still alive.
Is there some brain-curdling disease at CBS that would drive them to use their airtime to give a sympathetic portrait of Castro's gulag?
Like he wasn't married to your mother at the time of your conception, nor at your birth? Like he had nothing to do with you until suddenly you turned up in the US and Castro needed a ploy to get you back? Like if he had any sense he would have run away from his minders when he was in the States and asked for asylum? Of course that would probably have condemned his family remaining in Cuba.
Yes, they're all Democrats.
He was now "re-patriated" - HE WAS KIDNAPPED BY THE CLINTON ADMIN.
We all owe Elian a debt of gratitude. I am confident that the JBT siezure of Elian was worth far more than 278 votes in Florida 2000.
"brain-curdling disease"
It's called COMMUNISM! and or LIBERALISM and or MARXISM.
Yes.
Apparently so! I am so sick of the 'everything's great in Cuba' line. 'They have wonderful health care'. 'One-hundred-percent literacy'. And so on..... I wish all the libs would go live there already! The simple rejoinder is, if Fidel's island kingdom is really a paradise, why do people continue to risk their lives to escape?
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