>Fra: Blazing Star [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] >Sendt: 22. januar 2000 21:00 >Til: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Emne: unum: Elian still held hostage by USA > > >(VISIT HTTP://WWW.APBNEWS.COM) > >Awaiting Elian's Return > >An Anguished Hometown Wants Its Son Back > >Commentary from the North Shore of Cuba > >Jan. 21, 2000 > >By Chip Beck/APBnews.com > >VARADERO, Cuba (APBnews.com) -- As palpable a >presence as the warm tropical sun or sound of the >surf, the memory of Elian Gonzalez permeates this >seaside resort community as well as the neighboring >town of Cardenas. > >Here, on the north-central shoreline of Cuba, is >where the 6-year-old grew up. It also was the place >from where he suddenly disappeared two months ago, >only to survive a boat wreck at sea and become the >subject of one of the world's most acrimonious cases >of parental abduction. > >Wandering the sidewalk cafes, shops and beaches of >this idyllic vacation spot, a U.S. visitor is quickly >struck by the pervasive sense of loss and anguish the >people feel as a result of the political war that >separates Elian, now in Florida, from his father, >Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who is here. > >Gardens, lakes and families > >For the last 11 years, Gonzalez has worked as a >security guard at Parque Josone, a public botanical >gardens that includes a lake with rowboats, two plush >restaurants and acres of lushly landscaped grounds >where the locals come to relax, sip coffee and >discuss the news. Favored by families with small >children, the grounds have a friendly, wholesome >feeling about them. > >As such, the park stands in stark contrast to the >hyperbolic claims of many in Florida's Cuban exile >community that Elian must be taken from his father in >order to be "rescued" from the horrors of growing up >in Cuba. > >In fact, while wandering the park, one can't help but >wish more children in the United States had such >pleasant and positive surroundings to grow up in. > >According to Leonid Martinez, one of the Gonzalez's >co-workers who has known the family for years, young >Elian regularly came to the gardens with his father >before he started school -- playing in the park as >his father taught him about plants and tools and >animals and the ways of nature. > >His favorite places > >Elian's father's co-workers and friends at Parque >JosoneVirtually all of the park staff members, as >well as workers in nearby restaurants, know the >little boy. Several pointed out his favorite places >-- one of them being a grove of trees near a >picturesque curved bridge in the park. > >He liked to sit in the rowboats and run through the >trees, several remembered. It was, another one said, >the place where Elian dreamed. The first-grader is >known to have loved flying kites in the sea breezes >and often leaped and slashed the air with a wooden >sword carved for him by one of his grandfathers. > >Five of Gonzalez's other co-workers, Omar Rosada, >Idorkis Jimenez, Gustavo Zamora, Mario Padron, and >Rigoberto Mesa, scoffed at suggestions by what they >called the "Miami mafia" -- that Elian would be >persecuted when he returns to Cuba. > >"There will only be joy in our hearts when he >returns," said one. > >A man with a broken heart > >"Right now, Juan Miguel is a man with a broken >heart," said Martinez, describing why the father is >not working at his job. The intense international >attention has only added to the stress and depression >he feels over his son's absence, said several >co-workers. > >As the case of Elian approaches the end of its eighth >week as a cause celebre in Cuba, details are still >murky about what launched the boy on the fateful >journey that ended up in Miami, as a controversy >brews involving the highest levels of government in >two countries. > >U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and the >Cuban-American National Foundation in Miami have >painted Elian's mother as a saint who died trying to >get her son to America for ideological reasons. >New details > >But APBnews.com interviews with top Cuban officials >such as National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon, >neighbors and people who worked with Elian's father >for years provide a somewhat different picture of >that journey. > >Gonzalez and his ex-wife, Elisabet Brotons, were >described by neighbors and co-workers as good parents >who were friendly to each other even after their >divorce. When their son was born, they lovingly >constructed his name -- Elian -- from letters taken >from both their own names: the first three letters of >Elisabet and last two letters of Juan. They doted on >the boy, as did both sets of maternal and paternal >grandparents. > >Like her husband, Brotons, 29, worked in Varadero, an >expanding sprawl of 4- and 5-star hotels vying to >rival Cancun as a major tourist mecca, where she >worked as a hotel maid. > >Mother's new lover > >It is widely believed here that Elian's troubles >began as a result of his mother's new romantic >involvement with Lazaro Munero Garcia, who ultimately >organized the voyage in which he, Brotons and nine >other people died. > >In Havana, Ministry of External Relations official >Luis Abierno told APBnews.com that Garcia was a >Cuban-American who had entered Cuba illegally in 1999 >and had been fined and jailed. > >Shortly after his release, Garcia began plans to >smuggle a boatload of Cubans, including Elian's >mother, illegally into the United States, Abierno >said. Garcia reportedly charged $1,000 a head for the >trip, much like Mexican body-smugglers along the Rio >Grande or Chinese "snakeheads" who smuggle illegal >immigrants in shipboard containers. > >Garcia recruited 13 adults, convincing them that he >could get them from the northern shore of Cuba and >across the open sea to Florida in a battered 16-foot >aluminum boat in which they would pack themselves >shoulder to shoulder. > >The boy's sudden disappearance > >In Cardenas and Varadero, friends of Gonzalez said >that young Elian was with his father most of the week >of Nov. 15 to 19. His mother took him for the >weekend, a routine event. She is said to have told >Gonzalez that she might take the boy on a camping or >picnicking trip over the weekend. > >But on Monday morning, when one of the grandmothers >went to Brotons' house to take Elian to school, she >found both the mother and boy missing. Brotons had >taken the boy with her, making him the 14th passenger >in the crammed aluminum boat. Shortly before dawn on >Sunday, the craft cast off from Cardenas on its >smuggling run around the island and across the >Florida Straits. > >The boat had a series of engine problems and by >Tuesday was somewhere in the Straits when it >capsized, spilling its human load into the chilly, >shark-infested waters. > >Brotons and several others grabbed onto one of the >boat's two inflated inner tubes and put her son on >top of the tube. As they floated in the water over >two days, the surviving passengers dropped off, one >by one, disappearing below the waves. > >One can only imagine what thoughts, what terror, what >regrets went through the woman's mind in the middle >of a trackless seascape as she realized she was going >to die and used the final moments before >unconsciousness to lash her son in his position out >of the water on top of the tube. > >Before she slipped underwater, Brotons also put a >cover over his body to protect him from the sun. >Those final acts of a loving mother were the reason >Elian lived. > >For the rest of two days, he drifted and bobbed on >the Gulf Steam currents. Authorities believe that for >much of that time, the dead body of another passenger >also trailed nearby, attached to the tube by a length >of the same rope Elian's mother had used to secure >him. > >On the morning of Nov. 25 -- Thanksgiving -- two >fisherman came upon the dehydrated and shivering boy >about three miles from Miami and pulled him to >safety. > >Elian's first call: his father > >High-ranking Cuban government officials told >APBnews.com that after Elian was rescued and turned >over to U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service >(INS), the first person the young boy wanted to call >was his father. > >When Gonzalez received that call, he was both >overjoyed at knowing his missing son was alive, and >bewildered by what had happened, according to >friends. He told INS he wanted his son returned. When >asked by INS if he had any relatives in Miami who >might look after the boy until he could be put on a >plane, Gonzalez gave them the phone numbers of his >aunts and uncles, thinking they would help the boy >return safely home. > >Instead, they held the boy in Miami. > >$2 million? > >According to the Cuban Interests Section -- the >equivalent of the Cuban embassy -- in Washington, as >well as officials in Havana, the Gonzalez's relatives >in Miami allegedly were offered as much as $2 million >by foundations connected with Cuban-American >lobbyists to pay for legal expenses and other costs >involved in making young Elian the centerpiece of an >anti-Castro publicity campaign. > >A representative and lawyers for the Miami Gonzalez >family have not responded to APBnews.com requests for >a comment about the payment allegations. > >A spokesman for Ros-Lehtinen said her office had no >data about such an arrangement and speculated that it >was misinformation. Mauricio Tamargo said the >congresswoman would support whatever legal decision >was made after the boy "had a fair hearing." > >The family members Elian is staying with in Miami >have twice petitioned INS to grant the boy asylum >because they claim that Cuba is a repressive country >that would be harmful to him. > >INS has rejected those arguments and ruled that Elian >must be sent back to his home. > >Two days ago, the Miami relatives filed a federal >lawsuit in what has become a vicious battle to >prevent a 6-year-old boy from returning to this place >on the north shore where his favorite park, his >father, his family and a loving, caring community >await him. > >Chip Beck, an APBnews.com senior analyst, is a former >senior operations officer and U.S. Navy Commander who >retired from the CIA in 1993 ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). > > (c)Copyright 2000 APB Online, Inc. 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