----- Original Message ----- From: Jose G. Perez <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Cuba S� List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Marxism List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, April 14, 2000 6:31 PM Subject: The shift in bourgeois opinion on the Eli�n case > There are more indications tonight (Friday night) that after this week's > performance, "establishment" opinion has shifted rapidly towards bringing > the Eli�n Gonz�lez case to a conclusion by returning the boy to his father, > who is in Washington. > > The Federal Appeals Court has given the mafia lawyers until 9 p.m. > tonight to respond to the government's brief, filed only at 11 am today, in > response to their original Thursday motion for an emergency stay to prevent > Eli�n Gonz�lez from going home to Cuba. > > As people know, Reno originally seized on this motion as a pretext to > cease even a pretense of trying actively to reunite Eli�n with his dad, but > today she reversed course and has taken the offensive against the relatives > in the courtroom battle, asking the appeals court to order L�zaro to hand > over the child. > > Nevertheless, the three major networks' coverage tonight all had a > similar "spin" -- that Reno had made absolutely no headway in softening the > recalcitrance of the distant relatives with her appeasement and that she > would have to take enforcement action. > > One network reported that the president had talked to Reno for 20 > minutes about the case today, the first time that I know of that > consultations between the White House and Justice on this matter have been > openly admitted. Another, that there was disappointment, demoralization and > dismay at the Justice Department over Reno's capitulation yesterday when she > refused to enforce the deadline she had set. > > There is even a shift in the terminology that is being used to talk > about the case. A Reuters dispatch from Washington tonight says the U.S. > government is asking the courts to require the "release" of the Cuban boy. > "U.S. officials said the Miami relatives were exploiting and manipulating > the 6-year-old child." > > The most significant indication is the appeal courts demand for a gusano > counterbrief tonight. It is virtually unheard of for appeals courts to work > overtime except is very rare types of cases, such as death penalty appeals > and challenges. Otherwise they work at a very leisurely pace. Somebody lit a > fire under the honorable judges in Atlanta. > > The Reuters report cited earlier notes that the INS is also now saying > that L�zaro Gonz�lez has broken the law, something it could not bring itself > to say yesterday: > > "We are at a stage when Lazaro Gonzalez has failed to comply with an INS > order so we have now moved to implement an enforcement action plan,'' INS > spokeswoman Maria Cardona said. ''He has broken the law.'' > > Cardona strongly criticized the Miami relatives for releasing a home video > on Thursday in which the boy told his father he did not want to go back to > Cuba. > > "I think it was the most appalling child manipulation and child > exploitation,'' Cardona said. "I thought it was shameful. If we needed > another reason to immediately move to reunite Elian with his father, this > was certainly it.'' > > The full dispatch is at the following URL: > > http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h > /nm/20000414/ts/elian_leadall.html > > The two lines need to be glued back together for it to work.] > > Meanwhile, in another 11th-hour desperation move, the Cuban American > National Foundation has filed suit in Washington D.C. seeking to enjoin the > INS and Justice Department from "deporting" Eli�n. > > The suit is a transparent play for sympathy in Hispanic communities and > the CANF is claiming it is patterned after similar actions brought on behalf > of Haitian and Central American refugees. > > This is a total load of bull because no one has proposed *deporting* > Eli�n. Rather, what the Miami relatives have been trying to do is prevent > his return to his home and family. > > It is also total bull because unlike some other Latin American > countries, Cuba is governed by the rule of law. There are no kidnappings, > disappearances, corpses dumped on the side of the road and there haven't > been any for 41 years, since the Batista dictatorship was overthrown. Cuba > is probably the ONLY country in the region, nay, in the HEMISPHERE that can > make this claim. Nor are people in Cuba under the constant threat of being > gunned down by trigger-happy cops as happens routinely in every major > American city. Nor does Cuba have nearly 1% of its population in prison, as > does the United States of America. > > Contrary to the stories put out in the United States, people aren't > imprisoned in Cuba for criticizing the government. If that were true, > virtually the entire population, including 99% of the Communist Party would > be behind bars, for people criticize the government all the time in Cuba, so > much so that sometimes it seems like criticizing the government is the > number one sport on the island. > > But it is true that Cuba severely restricts the democratic rights of > enemies of the revolution. People can hold counterrevolutionary opinions and > discuss them with their friends, but that is about it. Any attempt to > organize an actual movement against the revolution is illegal. As a small > country that has been under siege for four decades from the most powerful > nation on the planet, many Cubans consider this an elementary measure of > self-defense, to not allow pro-capitalist forces to openly organize a fifth > column within the island. > > Friends of Cuba brought up with the traditions (which in many cases are > really myths or, at the very most, rarely achieved aspirations) of American > democracy often find it hard to agree that a measure like banning organizing > against the revolution could possibly be justified. But before joining the > gusano chorus of denunciations of Cuba, we do well to remember that in the > United States, too, under the "Lincoln regime," the revolutionary, > democratic side, the North, suspended habeas corpus and imprisoned newspaper > publishers and even the elected mayor of Baltimore for carrying out what the > Cubans would call "counterrevolutionary propaganda." > > It must be admitted that the right to organize against the government is > only one of countless rights Americans enjoy that people in Cuba don't have. > Children, for example, don't have the right to go to bed hungry. They don't > have the right not to receive medical care because their parents can't > afford it (parents, too, have been stripped of this right). Children don't > have the right to lead the nightly newscasts by being massacred in their > schools, roasted to death by the attorney general, or gunned down in > gangland drug wars. > > In fact, not only are children denied these rights, adults don't have > them either, not even senior citizens. > > And as if that weren't enough, nobody in Cuba has the right to become > fabulously wealthy. It is said that American millionaires get that way by a > lot of sweat and hard work and it is true, but it is mostly the work and > hard sweat of others. In Cuba you don't get the right to set up a private > little dictatorship called a "business" where your word is law and must be > followed without question by everyone working there and you get to keep the > lion's share of what the business makes. Instead, Cuba is working towards > having workers participate ever more fully in the running of the places > where they work. That's terribly undemocratic I realize, and this is, of > course, the right that most upsets gusano millionaires like the Mas family, > which runs the CANF. Cuban workers are denied the most basic right on any > worker under capitalism, the right to be exploited. > > Jos� > > _____________________________________________ > NetZero - Defenders of the Free World > Click here for FREE Internet Access and Email > http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html
