Posted on 11/27/2013 6:49:46 AM PST by afraidfortherepublic
Elian Gonzalez, the object of a 1999-2000 custody squabble involving Washington, Havana and family members on both sides of the Florida Strait, holds a piece of U.S. legislation directly responsible for what he endured then, Cuban official media said Monday.
"They were very sad times for me, which marked me for my whole life. I was never given the chance to have a moment to think about my mother, who as a result of that (U.S.) Cuban Adjustment Act died at sea," the now-19-year-old Gonzalez said last weekend during a Union of Young Communists event.
~snip~
The 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act led in practice to Washington's wet foot, dry foot policy, which gives Cuban migrants who reach U.S. soil the right to remain in the country.
"I suffered the consequences of that law. They also violated my basic rights gathered in the (U.N.) Convention on the Rights of the Child: the right to be together with my father, the right to keep my nationality and to remain in my cultural context," Gonzalez said.
He also acknowledged "the nobility" of the U.S. people, who - although "often they are also the victims of disinformation" - sympathized with his plight.
~snip~
(Excerpt) Read more at latino.foxnews.com ...
Let Elian come back to American soil - or perhaps to a free country like Russia - and say these words again.
Right now all we are hearing from Elian is what his jailers want him to say.
I despise Communism and the Cuban government.
That said, Natural Law says that any fit parent has a God given right to raise his/her child.
Once the identity of his lone surviving parent was determined and it was confirmed that that parent wanted him returned home, he should immediately been sent back to his father. If his father wanted him to stay in the U.S., he should (and would) have been allowed to stay.
Would it be OK for Americans to go to poor countries and snatch impoverished children away from their parents, against their parents’ will, to give them “a better life”?
What if some Saudi billionaire could give American kids, with loving, middle class, parents “a better life”, should he be allowed to kidnap them for their own good?
All that keeping him here all that time was give Castro ammunition in the propaganda wars.
And our time in the US marked US for life, dudito. It created a people genuinely concerned about the welfare of others, yet proud of their heritage. Then in 2008, a president was elected who was determined to take us down a few notches, and dangerously so. His greatest desire was to teach the US a lesson. Or three. He enacted programs and laws designed to destroy what had existed prior to his empowerment, and appears to be determined to inflict even more damage in the remaining time he has in office.
You’re not in a great position, Mr. Gonzalez, but neither are we. We have a leadership cadre that is determined to take this country into a place much like where you live. We cannot know if you are a propaganda tool of the regime in your country or are honestly speaking your sentiments. We wish we had the luxury of pondering your concerns, but we are too busy trying to rescue ourselves.
>>>NO immigration status to the US ever for this ingrate.
<<<
Yes, what a horrible, “ungrateful” little boy he was, for wanting to be with his FATHER in the home he grew up in, instead of in a foreign country with relatives he barely knew.
Sure, Castro made a politcal pawn out of this boy, but those who refused to quickly return him to his father did so first.
I have little to add after reading your two comments.
It just seems that he’s forgotten the reasons why his brave mom fled Cuba.
He is a great propaganda tool for the Cuban Gov’t.. He has name recognition, and his future looks to be very good so long as he parrots the Party line. He’s going to be a lot better off than most of the Cubans.
Not even curious why his brave mom did what she did.
Oh well, if he was living in the US he would probably
just be another low information Democrat voter.
Lest we forget.
Bill Clinton will burn in HELL for all Eternity for what he did to that boy
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/173919/eric-holder-and-seizing-elian/byron-york
Watching Elian kidnapped on TV, and seeing this picture, was the first and only time I’ve vomited spontaneously as a visceral reaction. In America...? Seriously...? I still cannot believe it happened here.
Elian wants to keep his ration card. Simple.
So have you spoken up about the Uniform Child Abduction Prevention Act (UCAPA)? This law makes every parent a potential child abductor subject to having their children confiscated at gunpoint.
www.ucapa.org.
“That said, Natural Law says that any fit parent has a God given right to raise his/her child.”
And that is where your argument falls on its face. Until Castro got involved, the father wanted his son to remain with the Miami relatives. There are records of him talking to them to assure his safety.
It was a groundswell of all you “Natural Rights” folks and “Fathers’Rights” folks and the National Council of Churches and Methodist groups that made it easy for Clinton and his crime syndicate to do their dirty work.
Elian Gonzalez was the last case in my memory when “Fathers’ Rights” ever became a cause. Just crickets now.
And what is your proof that the father wanted him returned home? The father was constantly under the gun of Castro even when he came to the U.S.
Read this and then let me hear about your Natural Law.
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/elian/cousin.htm
You’d probably prefer children to accompany their natural parents into the Holocaust gas chambers too.
“...any fit parent has a God given right to raise his/her child...”
Under US Family Law (varying in degrees by state) an absentee father who shows sudden interest in his son would fail in an effort to move his son to a poor support situation. Even without the drama surrounding his recently deceased mother who died getting him out of a horrible situation.
Many times the courts have ruled against placing a child with a circumspect parent while giving him to other relatives who are of sound mind or stable situation.
“...Elian Gonzalez was the last case in my memory when Fathers Rights ever became a cause. Just crickets now....”
Ain’t that the truth.
The US has been blamed for many things, but to deny someone their cultural context, thats new.
” I will never forgive them”
I agree wholeheartedly with your heartbreaking sentiments which you clarified so well. How can anyone forgive Clinton and Holder for such depravity?
This should be required reading for anyone who has the godforsaken notion that Elian should have been returned to godless communist Cuba.
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/elian/cousin.htm
I adopted my handle “aelian nation” in sad recognition of what this country did to this poor boy whose mother died so he could be free.
From what I recall, his father was the custodial parent and the mother and her boyfriend attempted to take him to the US.
Do you have any copies of the records showing that Elian’s father intially wanted him to stay in the U.S.? If I see proof of this, I might change my view, but I have never heard this.
The bottom line is, if we, as Americans, do not believe in the most basic right of a parent to raise his his/her own child, we might as well throw out all our Constitutional rights (though the Democrats are already doing a good job of trampling them), and stop claiming any sort of moral high ground.
And spare me the “gas chamber” nonsense. His propaganda value has made him one of Cuba’s elites, so he isn’t suffering, much less dead. Plus, I’m not sure any Jewish parent in a Nazi contolled land would have demanded his child be returned from America to face a gas chamber.
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