The National Network on Cuba
of which USA/Cuba InfoMed is member
Urges you to...
Demand the Immediate Return of Elian Gonzalez to His Family in Cuba
December 5, 1999
Whereas the recent drowning of ten Cuban citizens has created tremendous emotional pain for the Cuban people, and
Whereas among those who lost their lives was the mother of Elián González, a Cuban boy whose sixth birthday is today and miraculously survived by hanging onto an inner tube for several hours in international waters off the coast of Miami before he was found, rescued, and brought to the United States, and
Whereas this vulnerable Cuban child was taken from his home without the consent or knowledge of his father or four grandparents in Cuba, and
Whereas the father and grandparents of Elián González upon learning of Elián's tragic situation immediately declared and demanded from the United States authorities in the strongest terms possible the immediate repatriation of their child and return to his home, and
Whereas the child already suffering the traumas of the shipwreck, maternal loss, and separation from all that is familiar and dear to him has now fallen prey to exploitation by the media and by special interests groups in the United States, and
Whereas the refusal to return Elián González to his rightful parent and grandparents constitutes a flagrant violation of the best interests of the child and the legal and natural rights of Elián's father, and
Whereas Article 16 (3) of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes that "The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State", and
Whereas, the United States' detention of the child constitutes a clear violation of the United States immigration agreement with Cuba, and
Whereas the United States has a legal tradition that in situations like the one presently involving Elián González recognizes and affirms that the best interests of the child are dependent on complete access to the love, protection, and care of the parents, and
Whereas the so-called protection and care said to be provided to Elián by relatives who are strangers constitute the kidnapping of a vulnerable child and a gross violation of the parental rights of Elián González's father and grandparents, and
Whereas the United States recognizes children have a natural right not only to their parents but to their home and cultural communities, and
Whereas the kidnapping of Elián with total disregard for his emotional trauma constitutes child abuse.
Therefore, be it resolved that at the US-Cuba 2000 Conference of the National Network on Cuba, meeting in the City of Seattle, Washington this fifth day of December 1999, resolves to demand from the United States government that Elián González be immediately returned to his legal and rightful parent and grandparents in Cuba without any further legal or judicial delays, and
Furthermore, this national body hereby constitutes itself into the first of many committees to be formed throughout the United States to launch a worldwide campaign to appeal to the United States Administration, to the United States Congress, and to international human rights organizations to demand the immediate return of Elián González to his father, to his grandparents, and to his home country.
The U.S. National Network on Cuba (NNOC)
PRESS RELEASE
Delegates to the US-Cuba 2000 Conference Demand Release of Cuban Child
Seattle, Washington -- December 5, 1999. 250 delegates from different organizations, comprising the National Network on Cuba, approved by unanimity a resolution demanding the immediate release of Elián González, a Cuban child, retained in Miami after a shipwreck in international waters off the coast of Florida.
The National Network on Cuba is integrated by organizations such as the Cuban American Alliance Education Fund, a nation-wide organization of Cuban Americans that educates the public at large on issues related to hardships caused by current United States-Cuba relations. The Alliance is a vehicle for the development of mutually beneficial engagements which promote understanding and human compassion.
Delegates at The US-Cuba 2000 Conference discussed in workshops and plenary sessions, topics related to the Cuban economy, youth, women, religion, education and health. Conference attendees will form committees throughout the U.S. to launch a worldwide campaign appealing to legislators and international human rights organizations for the prompt release and return of Elian to his father, grandparents and his country.
URGENT ACTION ALERT -- DEMAND THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF ELIAN GONZALEZ!
1) PLEASE CALL OR FAX THE STATE AND JUSTICE DEPARTMENTS RIGHT AWAY!!! We've heard that the State Department is "furious" with immigration officials for paroling and detaining Elián, which violated US accords and precipitated a major setback in US/Cuba relations. Right now State is considering whether to overrule the Justice Department (which oversees immigration) and send Elián home. Let's pressure them both IMMEDIATELY to send Elián back home to his family in Cuba!
DEPARTMENT OF STATE [2201 C Street, NW, Washington DC 20520]: SECRETARY MADELEINE ALBRIGHT phone 202/647-5291; fax 202/261-8577
CHARLES SHAPIRO, CUBA DESK: phone 202/647-9273; fax 202/736-4476
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE [Pennsylvania Ave, NW, #5111, DC 20530]: SECRETARY JANET RENO phone 202/514-2001; fax 202/307-6777
Tell them that the best gift we can give Elián for his sixth birthday is to send him home to his family, to the home and community he knows and loves. Talking points are listed below.
2) Call your Congressional representatives in the House and Senate; urge them to pressure State and Justice for Elián's release and repatriation. Congressional switchboard: 202/225-3121.
3) Hold a press conference to denounce the detention of Elian and demand his return to his home.
4) Be prepared to organize direct action in your community if Elian is not immediately released.
1) Elián was picked up in international waters and taken to Florida for emergency medical treatment. Then he should have been immediately returned to his surviving natural father in Cuba. Cuban law, US law, and international law all mandate this. If Elián had come from any other country but Cuba, he would immediately have been sent home.
2) There was no reason for the Immigration Service to issue Elián "parole" and thereby detain him in the US, except for the machinations of the right-wing Cuban-American community in Miami, including the Cuban-American National Foundation, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and others. They have shamelessly exploited the boy for their own political purposes. We are outraged that the US government has once again fallen prey to their extremist influence.
3) In detaining Elián in the US, our government is violating its own immigration accords with Cuba. This act of bad faith threatens to undo any progress which has been made in the area of US/Cuba relations -- as can be seen by the escalating protests from Cuba.
4) Elián's mother was enticed by a Miami smuggler; she paid the smuggler $1000 to put herself and her son on that dangerous speedboat. Countless lives have been lost as US interests have continued to entice Cubans to emigrate illegally. Cuba has strong laws against this sort of trafficking in human lives; but the US has persisted in encouraging illegal and perilous emigration by raft or speedboat across the Florida straits. This must stop!
5) Elián was taken from his home without the consent or knowledge of his father or his four grandparents in Cuba; they immediately demanded, and continue to demand, that US authorities send him home. Elián's father, who lives in Cárdenas and works in the tourist industry in Varadero, is an upstanding citizen with a decent income. This is not a case of a boy being rescued from an abusive situation; it's a kidnaping, plain and simple.
6) Some in the US have said that the boy should stay in the US-- 'to honor the dead mother's dying wishes.' But she risked the boy's life in shark-infested waters to kidnap him to Miami; and even her parents -- Elián's maternal grandparents -- are insisting that the boy be brought home to live with his family.
7) Elián's arrival in the US is being used as yet another way to malign Cuba in the US media. We must not allow the many lies being told about Cuba to go uncontested, and we must not let those lies determine the boy's future. We know that Elián would have a good life in Cuba -- with fewer material goods, but with a loving family, and with his basic human rights assured. As Lesbia Cánova, Cuban Deputy Minister of Education, said, "Elián deserves to live where he will have free health care; and to be able to study in a classroom where there are no drugs, no weapons; where students and teachers are not being murdered..."
JUSTICE AND DECENCY DEMAND THAT WE UPHOLD THE LAW AND BASIC FAMILY VALUES -- AND RETURN ELIAN TO HIS FAMILY IN CUBA!
The perfidious idea to corrupt and buy off not only the child's innocent conscience but also that of his honest father and selfless family living in Cuba has not been abandoned.
Elián's father personally told me that in one of the first communications with the house where his boy is being kept since the abduction, they openly tried to bribe him so he hung up the phone deeply outraged.
We have learned from intelligence sources that the Cuban-American extremist mob was intent on putting a heavy pressure on him and on offering two million dollars if he traveled to Miami to claim the child, urging him to establish his residence in America with the boy.
On November 29, that is, the same day we met in my office nine days ago, he told me that he would neither travel to the United States nor negotiate or accept to discuss his rights over the child at corrupted courts in Miami.
I had summoned him to learn his exact position. I also wanted to know what kind of a man he was. I asked him many questions and we had an in-depth discussion. Although he was still deeply affected I had the perception that he was sincere and stood firm; that gave me confidence. He was the only person with the right to decide on the future of the child. He had requested our support and pinned all his hopes on the revolutionary government.
The battle for Elián began that same evening.
Seven days after the conversation I have described, when our people had already undertaken that titanic struggle, a dispatch from EFE in Washington dated December 6 read as follows: "U.S. democratic Congressman Robert Menéndez advocated today that the father of the Cuban child Elián González, whose custody has given rise to a new confrontation with the United States, is allowed to travel to Florida to claim custody of his son.
"Why is it that the father and his immediate family are not allowed to come to the United States for our legal system to determine what is in the child's best interest?' This was the question raised by Menéndez, of Cuban origin, in a written statement.
"According to Menéndez, once in the United States Elián González's father would have the possibility to submit to a U.S. court the documents certifying his right to the child's custody", the dispatch added.
We found this press dispatch highly suspicious because nobody from Elián's family in Cuba had requested permission to travel to the United States. Now, this man, one of the most notorious Congressmen representing the extremist mob that is keeping Elián kidnapped, Why was he so persistent?
Today, December 8, a few hours before this rally, an AFP dispatch issued at 3:30 p.m. in Washington reported the following: "The United States indicated this Wednesday that it will respond to Cuba, at the very latest on Thursday, on the case of the "little rafter", the Cuban child Elián González, and advanced that its decision would take into account the father's rights.
"The Immigration and Naturalization Service needs to contact González, the child's father,to establish according to standard procedure his will and his rights in the case', said State Department spokesman James Foley.
"The spokesman indicated that 'the INS rules recognize the parents' rights to claim parental authority in an immigration procedure.
"Foley pointed out that Washington will be contacting the Cuban authorities this same Wednesday or certainly tomorrow, at the latest'.
"According to the spokesman, Washington is willing to grant a visa to the child's father for him to contact the Immigration and Naturalization Service in the U.S. but he also said that 'the INS would be offered the opportunity to meet with González in Cuba'".
This same evening, when Elián's father was informed about the content of this cable, he said that he will neither accept to travel to the United States nor is he willing to meet with any U.S. government official if it is not to let him know the day, the time and the way that the child will be returned to Cuba. It is a logical reaction, for the man is already exhausted.
Tens of national and foreign journalists keep calling him day and night. His wife is ill and the three-month-old baby she is breastfeeding has also been ill for two days now.
It is really ignoble that that traumatized child subjected to unbearable pressures remains in such condition one day, one hour and one minute more than is indispensable to immediately return him to his country and family. We have spent the whole afternoon waiting for contacts requested by the U.S. State Department, both in Washington and Havana, and announced for 3:00 p.m. There has been no contact whatsoever until this instant when I am drafting this message and you are at that rally.
In our view, it is unquestionable that at the moment the President of the United States is trying to find the right solution to the situation created. He gave such an example yesterday in announcing the return of the kidnapped and the kidnappers intercepted on board the "Albacora" yacht. But, that country is involved in an election campaign and the votes of the Florida State are very much sought after, so the President is under heavy pressure from circles of the U.S. extreme right.
We have just received news that the terrorist group intercepted while on its way to Marguerite island to murder me with powerful weapons --which were the property of that influential mob, just like the boat they used-- was acquitted and relieved of all charges by a U.S. federal court. Some of the most prominent leaders of that organization whose participation in the events was beyond all doubt were not even presented in court.
This shows that under the circumstances the courts in that country, which would have Elián's fate in their hands, are not very reliable. At this moment, we cannot be certain that justice would be made or that a humane attitude would be assumed to allow the immediate recognition of the rights of Elián's father and to take into account the terrible suffering that both the family and the boy have been putting up with for thirteen dreadful days.
We do not wish to humiliate the United States government, not at all, nor have we issued any kind of ultimatum. We simply stated that our people were so irritated and enraged that in less than 72 hours irrepressible protests would break out in Cuba and the world against such an abominable episode. That movement is already underway, just as we had foreseen, and it will not stop until the child, Elián is back in Cuba.
A formula that is worthy and honorable for both sides should be worked out leaving no space to suspicion, manipulation, dishonesty or deceit and avoiding any delay in the child's return. Then, I am sure that both Elián's father and our people will immediately support it.
Fidel
We were enraged when -- just two days after the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) announced the only correct conclusion regarding little Elián González, that he needs to go home to his father -- Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) [of Helms/Burton infamy] subpoenaed the six-year-old to testify before the House Committee on Government Reform, which he chairs. The February 10 hearing would delay Elián's return by almost a month. If the INS does not enforce its decision to send Elián home by January 14, their inaction will open space for even more outrageous stunts to prolong the shameful kidnapping of Elián.
The people who are responsible for detaining Elián in Miami have already kept him for more than six weeks, when he should have been home grieving his mother's death, celebrating his birthday and Christmas and Three Kings' Day with his family. They are so shameless that they are now pulling the boy right into the center of their political tug-of-war -- taking him to the demonstrations, parading him in front of the TV cameras with the subpoena in his hands -- which is sure to cause him irreparable psychological damage. They are also shamelessly exploiting Elián as a poster child for their fundraising: we've heard that they've already raised $2 million for their mean-spirited agenda. One of the great-uncles has quit his job in an auto body shop and is living off the political pimping of Elián. More important, much of that money will surely will go to Dan Burton, and to other right-wingers who are lining up to pay tribute to the boy, to pay them for their "congressional services"... (We've heard that 80-93% of Burton's campaign money comes from out of state, much of it from Florida... He's a shining example of 'free-market democracy' in action!)
For the past six weeks, church and community activists across the US have been protesting to demand Elián's return to his father in Cuba. The protests have received a great deal of sympathetic media attention. Major newspapers -- including the NY Times, the Bergen (NJ) Record and the NY Daily News -- continue to editorialize for Elián's return. The White House, the Attorney General, and the INS have been flooded with calls and faxes demanding that Elián go home, and thousands of people have been leafleted about this issue. Justice and morality demand that we keep working until Elián is allowed to return to his father, to his family, to his home!!
Administration: We all need to call/fax the Justice Department and the White House right away, to answer Burton's move with a huge cry of outrage, to tell the Administration: "You said the right thing, but now you must DO the right thing. The longer Elián stays in Miami, the more he is being traumatized by this ghastly tug-of-war. The CANF will only escalate its efforts to bribe and brainwash Elián to detach himself from his father and family who are just 90 miles away. What greater damage can be done to a six-year-old child: and why are you allowing it to happen? PLEASE: BE COMPASSIONATE. BE DECISIVE. BE RESPONSIBLE. SHUT DOWN THE CIRCUS, AND SEND THE BOY HOME -- IMMEDIATELY!"
PLEASE CONTACT:
PHONE: FAX: Attorney General Janet Reno 202/514-2001 202/307-6777 President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore 202/456-1111 202/456-2461 Secretary of State Madeleine Albright 202/647-5291 202/261-8577 INS Commissioner Doris Meissner 202/514-1900 202/305-4823
Congress: We need to ensure that there's a strong movement in the Congress to expose Burton's maneuver for the shameful stunt it is. A number of House members have already been active. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) sent a letter to President Clinton and Janet Reno on 1/6, signed by 16 members of Congress and 10 civil rights leaders, urging that Elián go home without delay. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) has written op/ed pieces for the NY Daily News, and has offered to take the boy home himself! Rep. José Serrano (D-NY) has written to the White House. WE NEED MANY MORE SUCH LETTERS. Call/fax your rep; ask him/her to contact Reno and Clinton, to denounce Burton's delaying tactics and his abuse of Congressional power, and to demand that Elián go home now!
In the Senate, we similarly need to mobilize the majority to oppose the extremist position of the Helms/Lott/Coverdell bloc who are maneuvering to get US citizenship for the boy. Call/fax your senators; ask them to distance themselves from Jesse Helms, and to support enforcement of the INS decision to send Elián home! [Congressional switchboard: 202/225-3121.]
Demonstrations: Civil disobedience actions are being planned January 11-13 in cities around the US, in nationally coordinated days of protest to denounce the continued detention of Elián. Demonstrators are planning to be arrested in New York and San Diego on Tuesday, in San Francisco on Wednesday; demonstrations are being planned in Houston, Pittsburgh, Albuquerque, Denver, Seattle, northern New Jersey, and other US cities. Discussion is under way about planning a national day of civil disobedience and emergency action in Washington. We call on our friends in the US and in other countries to join the protests, which will continue until Elián's return!
Thanks for your good work -- call us with any questions -- let's keep the pressure on! WE MUST NOT RELAX OUR EFFORTS UNTIL ELIAN IS HOME IN HIS FATHER'S ARMS!
Here is a sample letter that can be modified to be sent to officials:
AN OPEN LETTER
TO: Attorney General Janet Reno
INS Commissioner Doris Meissner
FROM: Ellen P. Bernstein, psychotherapist and IFCO grants administrator
DATE: January 7, 2000, at midnight
YOU SAID THE RIGHT THING; NOW YOU HAVE TO DO THE RIGHT THING!
You were right to decide that Elián González should go home. You were right to say that he belongs with his father and his family.
But in allowing a delay -- even just a week-long delay -- you left a loophole big enough to belie your compassion for the boy and your responsibility to uphold the law. And now the rabid dog Dan Burton and his cohorts are taking full and triumphal advantage of the space you gave them.
The worst part of this is seeing how that poor little boy is being abused and traumatized by being placed right in the center of the circus that grows crazier every day in Miami -- and in Washington.
The people in Miami who are detaining Elián have complained, preposterously, that Elián's father was being coerced. BUT THEY ARE COERCING ELIAN: bribing him with toys and puppies, brainwashing a traumatized and grieving boy who's barely six years old -- trying to convince him to detach himself from his only surviving parent, from his loving father and grandparents and his home. What greater damage can they inflict on this child? And why are you allowing it to continue?When I saw that the people detaining Elián had brought this grieving child to Disney World and put him on a boat ride -- imagine, a boat ride, just three weeks after he watched his mother drown and then drifted for 48 hours in the high seas, clinging to an inner tube, wondering if he would ever be found -- I was furious with them, because it was clear that they were not the least bit concerned for his welfare or his feelings. Even they had to admit that they had terrified him.
But now I'm furious with you -- because in allowing a delay, you have opened a space for the Dan Burtons and Jesse Helmses and Ileanas and Lincolns -- the folks who are so rabid in their ideology that they have no sense or compassion on this issue -- to continue to exploit and abuse little Elián for their own extremist ends.
AND EVERY DAY THAT THAT BOY STAYS IN MIAMI, AWAY FROM HIS FATHER AND FAMILY AND FRIENDS, EVERY DAY THAT HIS GRIEVING PROCESS IS POSTPONED, EVERY DAY THAT HE IS PARADED IN FRONT OF THE MIAMI MANIACS AS THE POSTER CHILD FOR THEIR VENOMOUS POLITICS AND THEIR SHALLOW MATERIALISM -- HE IS GOING TO BE MORE AND MORE TRAUMATIZED, AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE WILL LAST LONG INTO HIS LIFE -- AND YOU WILL HAVE ALLOWED THAT TO HAPPEN.
PLEASE: BE COMPASSIONATE. BE DECISIVE. BE RESPONSIBLE. SHUT DOWN THE CIRCUS; CALL OFF THE DELAY; AND SEND THAT POOR BOY HOME TO HIS DADDY -- IMMEDIATELY!
Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization IFCO/Pastors for Peace
402 W 145th St., NYC, NY 10031 212-926-5757;
fax: 212-926-5842
web: http://www.ifconews.org
Colleagues:
As it is known, last November the 25th, the five years old Cuban boy ELIAN GONZALEZ was illegally taken to the U.S. under very dangerous circumstances to his life and against his father's will. His closest family - the father and 4 grand-parents, all of them living in Cuba- have been repeatedly claiming for his immediate return.
His departure from Cuba is a direct consequence of the sustained hostility by the U.S. government against the island for more than 40 years; of the U.S. embargo , strengthened by the Torricelli and the Helms-Burton Acts and of those same actions directed to stimulate illegal emigration, further privileged by the gloomy-famous Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, an unmistakable reminiscence of the Cold War period.
The Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the President of the United States himself, have recognized the father's right to have his son returned. In spite of that, and of the exigencies of the public opinion in Cuba, as well as that of the international community in favor of the return, reasons and interests of electoral and domestic policies in the U.S. are interposed, which unfortunately present an obstacle to the solution of such a genuine humanitarian case.
In such circumstances, the Cuban academic community, and particularly that of the University of Havana- which maintains tight professional links with professors and researchers in that country, is appealing to you to exhort you to intercede before the U.S. government officials who are responsible in that matter- the President, the U.S. Congress, the Supreme Court and the Immigration and Naturalization Service- supporting the fair demand by the family members of the boy ELIAN GONZALEZ, a request which the people of Cuba has made its own, and which has become a matter of conscience, that the boy should be returned immediately to his family life and to his homeland.
On behalf of the Academic Community of the University of Havana,
Dr. Juan Vela Valdés Rector
Dr. Eugenio Espinosa Martínez Profesor Titular FLACSO-CUBA
Edificio Varona Universidad de La Habana San Lázaro y L Vedado. Habana 4. 10400 Cuba
Telefax:537-335772 537-781975
E-mail: eugenio@flacso.uh.cu
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