Miami Protesters Rage at Clinton over Elian Reunion
Margarita Martin-Hildago
April 21, 2000
MIAMI (Reuters) - Cuban American protesters denounced President
Clinton on Friday for urging the reunion of Cuban castaway Elian
Gonzalez and his father and said they would try to stop U.S.
agents from removing Elian from his Miami home.
About 60 Cuban exiles demonstrated at the Little Havana home of
Elian's great-uncle Lazaro, who has been looking after the
6-year-old since he survived a migrant boat sinking last November
in which his mother and 10 others died.
The exiles, who support Elian's Miami relatives in their bid to
prevent the U.S. government from returning the boy to
communist-ruled Cuba, waved Cuban and U.S. flags and posters
attacking the Clinton administration.
One poster depicted Attorney General Janet Reno as the devil and
another read: "Clinton, Craig, Fidel, you made a deal in hell!"
-- referring to Greg Craig, the lawyer representing Elian's
father, and Cuba's President Fidel Castro.
"We can expect anything from a president who did not know how to
respect the White House, who used it like a motel," said Luis
Fernandez, 56. "If I had to give my life for the boy, I will. I
will fight with my teeth."
On Thursday Clinton said there was "no conceivable argument"
against a reunion of father and son after a federal appeals court
ruled that the boy should remain in the United States pending the
Miami relatives' appeals.
The White House said Friday it was time for the relatives to hand
the boy over to his father but said no decision had yet been
taken to
remove him against their will.
Both a Florida family court and a U.S. District court in Miami
have rejected the relatives' legal attempts to prevent the boy's
return to Cuba.
The great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, appealed the federal court
decision to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, asking
for a political asylum hearing for the boy. That court this week
ordered Elian to stay in the United States pending appeals.
The Miami relatives, backed by hard-line anti-communist exile
groups, say Elian would have a better future in the United
States. His father, Cuban tourism worker Juan Miguel Gonzalez,
traveled to Washington more than two weeks ago to reclaim his son
and take him back to Cuba. Some of the Little Havana
demonstrators who have kept a constant vigil at the modest home
where Elian has been living said they believe Clinton has made a
deal with Castro.
Loli Garcia, 58, said she believed the U.S. president was using
Elian to pay legal fees he owes to Craig, one of the lawyers who
successfully defended Clinton against impeachment in the Monica
Lewinsky scandal and who now is representing Elian's father.
"Castro pays for the law debt and Clinton gives him the boy," she
said.
Jose Basulto, founder of the exile group Brothers to the Rescue,
said he and other community leaders have urged Cuban Americans to
remain peaceful. But he said he feared demonstrators will be
provoked by Cuban government agitators and agents of the Clinton
administration. "They (the administration) would like the news
story to be about the violence and not about the betrayal and the
crime against the boy," Basulto said.
The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reported Friday that a group of
ex-soldiers was quietly guarding the Gonzalez home to prevent
U.S. agents from taking Elian.
The group, calling itself Cuban People's Dignity Movement and
equipped with radio scanners and a dog, was maintaining a 24-hour
watch on the home, the newspaper said.
"We fought on the beaches of Korea, the rice fields of Vietnam
and the sands of Iraq," the newspaper quoted one member of the
group as saying. "And we are willing to sacrifice our lives to
make sure Elian stays in this country."
The Miami relatives have said they will not willingly turn Elian
over to the government but will not resist if U.S. agents come to
the house to take the boy. Some protesters have vowed to form a
"human chain" to keep authorities out while others said they did
not expect a violent confrontation. "I do not know how I am going
to react," Rebecca Rodriguez said. "I do not think I will be
violent but they are going to have to walk over me."
####
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