Now 16, Elian Gonzalez shown at Cuba youth meeting

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Now 16, Elian Gonzalez shown at Cuba youth meeting
The Associated Press
Monday, April 5, 2010; 4:55 PM

HAVANA -- Cuba has released photos of one-time exile cause celebre Elian Gonzalez wearing an olive-green military school uniform and attending a Young Communist Union congress.

Gonzalez, now 16 with closely cropped black hair, is shown serious-faced with fellow youth delegates during last weekend's congress at a sprawling and drab convention center in western Havana. The images were posted Monday on Cuban government Web sites, then widely picked up by electronic, state-controlled media.

When he was 5, Elian was found floating off the coast of Florida in an inner tube after his mother and others fleeing Cuba drowned trying to reach the U.S. Elian's father, who was separated from his mother, had remained in Cuba.

U.S. immigration officials ruled the boy should return to Cuba over the objections of his Miami relatives and other Cuban exiles, creating a national furor that caused even presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore to weigh in on the matter.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/05/AR2010040503594.html

[myrna minx]

1. Yikes - he's 16?

That makes me feel really old.

[TheDebbieDee]

4. Kids.....They grow up so fast!

I'd love to see what he looks like now.

[CatWoman]

6. all you have to do is ask

:)

look below

:)

[flamingdem]

2. Imagine, he could be wearing a pile of gold chains and driving a ? in Miami

Well I'm not really sure what kind of car would be appropriate had Elain stayed with his distant relatives who plied him with cell phones and other capitalist goodies.

[LiberalFighter]

18. Been involved in drugs and shot in a drive by.

That would had played good in Cuba. Thank goodness he went back to Cuba.

[CatWoman]

3. look at how handsome he is

[TheDebbieDee]

5. Wowser! I have a thing for men in uniform........

[jaysunb]

7. Calm down Cougar...

:rofl:

[CatWoman]

10. I've got a piece of candy with his name on it!!

:hi:

:)

[Bette Noir]

9. Too young for me, but, yes, he's a looker.

[XemaSab]

11. Rrrrowr

:D

[Crunchy Frog]

12. Looks so much like his dad.

[proteus_lives]

13. And look at what a good little soldier they're turning him into.

:eyes:

[Hassin Bin Sober]

44. Why do you hate the troops?

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[nealmhughes]

49. Lots of school systems use a variety of Boy/Girl Scout or sailor or militaresque uniforms.

It is only uncommon in the US and Canada and the UK.

The theory is that it makes the children feel as if they are part of an organization beyond "just students."

[canoeist52]

14. Wow looks just like one of our boy scouts in class A uniform.

[Judi Lynn]

19. Here are more photos of this unusual kid:

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org.nyud.net:8090/elian/Elizabeth-Brotons-elian.jpg

Elizabeth Brotons, mother and son.

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org.nyud.net:8090/elian/elian-ileana.jpg

In the arms of two Cuban "exile" Congresscritters,
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, and Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Miami

http://www.siporcuba.it.nyud.net:8090/Yadira%20Garcia%20Elian%20Gonzalez%20y%20su%20padre.jpg

With dad, and paternal grandmother in Cuba

http://www.henkelsandmccoy.com.nyud.net:8090/Timeline/PublishingImages/2000Elian-fatherandson.jpg http://image.guardian.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2000/04/24/elian5.jpg http://www.walterlippmann.com.nyud.net:8090/Elian226ThuWyeElianYPapa.jpeg

http://news.bbc.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/olmedia/805000/images/_809605_elian_laugh300.jpg http://image.guardian.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2000/04/24/elian6.jpg http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com.nyud.net:8090/images/2000/06/28/image210463g.jpg

http://www.foxnews.com.nyud.net:8090/photoessay/photoessay_4255_images/0616081714_M_061608_elian_gonzalez10.jpg http://www.cubaheadlines.com.nyud.net:8090/files/cubaheadlines.com/imagenes/elian%20y%20otros%20estudiantes.jpg http://www.foxnews.com.nyud.net:8090/images/380800/1_61_061608_elian_gonzalez2.jpg http://u.univision.com.nyud.net:8090/contentroot/locales/art/images/12mia/WLTV/2008/06/elian_gonzalez_3.jpg

http://inplacenews.files.wordpress.com.nyud.net:8090/2008/06/610x.jpg

http://www.foxnews.com.nyud.net:8090/photoessay/photoessay_4255_images/0616081114_M_061608_elian_gonzalez3.jpg http://www.allhatnocattle.net.nyud.net:8090/elian-gonzales.jpg

http://www.cubadebate.cu.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/gala-10-aniversario-de-batalla-de-ideas-elian-02.jpg

[malaise]

24. Those are lovely

Thanks

[Cal Carpenter]

30. Wow, that poor child. Look what those bad commies have done

A lovely, loving family, a caring community, regular haircuts. He looks miserable and destitute. We best get him back here to eat McDonalds and have no health care. LOL.



(great pics, Judi!)

[Judi Lynn]

34. Ha! He is a wreck, isn't he? Thank you, Cal Carpenter. n/t

[Starry Messenger]

43. rofl

:thumbsup:

[Crunchy Frog]

38. I loved those reunification with "Papa" pictures.

You could see how much love there was between father and son.

[Lilyeye]

26. Wow his handsome :-)

[butterfly77]

31. He still looks the same..

[PopSixSquish]

35. He's a Very Good-Lookin Kid

and I'm glad that he was returned to his father. Those Miami relatives were something else. My mother, the former kindergarden teacher, was absolutely livid at the video which they produced showing a 5 year old Elian saying he wanted to stay in the US. She said that no 5 year old could understand what the hell he was being forced to say and that it reminded her of the POW videos.

[roguevalley]

37. looks like his dad. his dad is handsome too. Lord, I almost didn't

live through the drama before his dad took him home. What a long time ago that was.

[bluestateguy]

8. I wish him well, I really do

But I cannot help but think that if Bill Clinton had done the cold, calculating, political thing and simply kept the boy here in the US, enough Cuban-Americans in Florida would have voted for Gore in 2000, and he would have won Florida by enough votes that Bush would not have been able to steal the state, and the election.

It would have been unfortunate for the one boy. But with Gore we would have had no Iraq War, maybe no 9/11, no pissing away of the Clinton surpluses on reckless taxcuts, no NCLB and quite possibly no economic meltdown in 2008. Many more lives would have been improved.

[Crunchy Frog]

15. I already didn't vote for Gore, largely based on the position he took

on this issue. I just couldn't see supporting someone who was defending kidnapping for the sake of naked political calculation. I wasn't in Florida, so my vote didn't matter, but I can't help wondering if some Florida voters reacted the same way I did. Maybe he would have done better if he could have looked more like he was standing up for principles.

[monmouth]

16. According to my neighbor, who is a Cuban exile, the Miami family

were nutzos. The boy was definitely better off with his dad. He looks mature and serious. No video games and hanging out for this young man or many of the Cuban youth..

[StevieM]

17. Interesting analysis. But let's suppose Al Gore had become president after the 2000 election

The GOP wouldn't have stopped their despicable tactics. The American people didn't see through them as well then as they do now. And even now their tactics still work sometimes--for example, ACORN is gone.

So eventually they would have come back to power. And you know that with every loss the Republican answer is to move further to the right. So maybe electing Al Gore in 2000 would have meant George Allen becoming president in 2008. By the same token, maybe electing Barack Obama in 2008 will lead to the election of Paul Ryan in 2020 (an absolutely terrifying thought--much worse the GW Bush).

You never know in this country. Everything is complicated by the relentless drive to achieve the word "conservative."

One more thought. If Clinton had done that, how would the base have reacted? Maybe more liberals would have stayed home or voted for Nader. Meanwhile, Cuban-Americans might have continued voting Republican anyway.

Steve

[Hippo_Tron]

22. Bush had to have 9/11 happen to do a lot of what he did

If 9/11 had happened under Gore this would be a fundamentally different country.

[Crunchy Frog]

39. If 9/11 had happened under Gore

he would have been executed for treason.

[LynneSin]

47. I don't know if 9/11 would have happened under Gore - I think he would have read the memos on 8/6

the one that said "Terrorists plan to fly planes into buildings" and would have taken action then on how to prevent that.

And if he hadn't gotten that far he would have at least called the local airforce to perhaps prevent some of the planes from hitting.

[jberryhill]

25. And lose the vote of every divorced father....

Clinton didn't have a choice here.

No, divorced mom doesn't get to run off to another country with the child and have the child stay there whether she makes it or not.

[Kahuna]

20. Boy, is he handsome. nt

[Hippo_Tron]

21. Dumb question, why did the mother take her son and leave in the first place?

I was young at the time and didn't really know much about this. Did anybody ever figure that one out?

[Judi Lynn]

28. It was learned when American journalists, like Ann Louise Bardach traveled back and forth

to Cuba trying to put all the pieces together for books, and magazine articles, speaking with family members, neighbors, friends living in Cuba and family members of all parties living in the U.S., as well.

Elizabeth Broton, Elian's mother and Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez got a divorce, but shared custody of their son, with the father getting the kid on weekends, and taking him back and forth to school during the week.

Elizabeth was living with an ex-con, Lázaro "Rafa" Munero, (her former husband had been a policeman at one time) who had gone back and forth to Miami multiple times, and had a job in a Miami car wash, etc. His sister and her husband who lived in Miami, with whom he had stayed, said he missed Elizabeth, and wanted her to come to live with him in Miami.

Elizabeth took Elian WITHOUT asking his permission to take him away from Cuba. He was desperate when he realized the child was gone.

Lazaro took an old boat and installed an old motor, and got a group together including his mother, father, his brother stayed behind, Arianne Horta and Nivaldo Fernandez who were living together (the man was still married to someone else) Ariana was going to bring her daughter, (decided against it at the very last moment and returned the child to stay with the grandmother) and others. Fourteen people were in the boat, which went down.

Elizabeth bound Elian (his name is a combination of "Elizabeth" and "Juan") to a large innertube with ropes, so he could float as the boat was coming apart. At some point Elizabeth and Lázaro and everyone but Ariana and Nivaldo perished. The couple floated ashore somewhere north along the coast eventually, and Elian was picked up by two fishermen who were fishing for the "Dolphin" FISH, not the mammal critter. (Some of the dumber Miamians didn't catch the difference and spun the story into believing holy Dolphins from heaven looked after the floating boy and saved him from harm until he was found by the fishermen.)

(Ariana and Nivaldo lived in South Florida, he was given a job working in a car dealership, which he hated, as he had been a chef in Cuba, and Ariana herself had a job which paid her little. In an interview they expressed shock that it took all their money from their jobs to pay for their apartment and a few groceries. Ariana said she was saving what she could to buy gifts to take with them if and when they could get a plane to Cuba. They didn't get many interviews, the press simply was NOT interested in them, although their own stories were certainly terrifying, as well.)

Of the two fishermen, Sam Ciancio, the one who actually DID jump into the water and rescue the child, and hand him to the other guy, his cousin, Donato Dalrumple, in the boat, stayed out of the limelight, while Donato became the camera hog and stood in front of the cameras for the next months, claiming HE singlehandedly was the savior of the child. He was available for interviews, speeches, you name it.

Sam Ciancio, himself, after Elian returned to Cuba, went there, on the invitation of Elian's family, and had a nice visit with them out of the noise, the pushing, shoving, shrieking, flag waving in Miami.

Throughout the stay in Miami political figures came and went, the US House Republicans wanted to drag the kid to Washington, they tried to ennact legislation to make him a citizen immediately, a US Senator from New Hampshire, Republican Bob Smith comandeered a US military plane to deliver the Miami family to the closest US base to where they had taken Elian under federal court order to meet his dad, his brother, his step-mother, and where the Cuban government later flew his schoolmates, a teacher, his little cousin, and a doctor so they could continue his school lessons while he waited for the final court judgement so he could go to his home with his family, his two grandmothers, 2 grandfathers, many cousins, aunts, uncles, neighbors, schoolmates and teachers.

A _Bush family friend, Senator Mel Hernandez paid for a trip for Elian and his "surrogate mother" Marisleysis Gonzalez (the daughter of Elian's father's uncle Lázaro Gonzalez, or his father's cousin, or his own 2nd cousin) to Disneyworld. He also gave him a Labrador Retriever puppy. The local Cuban "exile" Congresspeople brought all kinds of gifts and posed for photo ops with him, what a treat.

Crowds surround the little house in "Little Havana" night and day. At some point when they understood the U.S. government meant to return the child to his father, they started getting ugly. It was known that Cuban tough-guy terrorists (one of them, Orlando Bosch who had co-authored a mid-flight bombing of a Cubana airliner, killing 73 people on board, including the Cuban National Fencing Team, was staying in the house immediately behind the house where Elian was being kept. They thoroughly intended to get physical when the government came to get Elian, and the young woman (2nd cousin to Elian) implied threats about it to the US Attorney General Janet Reno on the phone.

That's precisely why the federal agents arrived in the middle of the night when the crowd had thinned out and there weren't so many people to get through to LEGALLY retrieve the kid. He was NOT kidnapped. The family had been holding him illegally at that point.

Some people believed the sharpshooters in the neighboring house might also be there to pick off Juan Miguel if he got bold enough to go there in person to take his own son home.

Back in Cuba measures are taken, and it's completely understandable, to keep this kid safe, and protected until he has grown to adulthood. Since it's known (and bragged about, as well) that certain Cuban "exile" terrorists DO go into Cuba on personal missions, like murdering people they hate, a lot of people don't want to leave the door open to allowing this young man a sitting duck until he is old enough to know what he wants to do regarding where he chooses to live. Everyone knows to what extremes they've already resorted in order to win the challenge over who gets Elian!

If you are intersted in more on the story, read Cuba Confidential, Love and Vengeance in Miami and Havana by Ann Louise Bardach who has researched the whole story in depth.
http://images.salon.com.nyud.net:8090/books/int/2003/01/28/bardach/story.jpg

[Crunchy Frog]

40. She was following after a boyfriend who was a professional smuggler.

Basically chasing after dick, and bringing her young child along for the ride.

[Tailormyst]

23. Wow he is a very handsome young man.

[tammywammy]

29. He is indeed. n/t

[zbiker]

27. i noticed that

the report said
"Elian and his father are closely watched by state authorities, who restrict their contact with the international press."
pretty much says it all right there

[superduperfarleft]

51. See post #28.

It's more likely to offer protection from Cuban-exile terrorists.

[zbiker]

52. ummm, I'm not

convinced, i suspect it is far more likely that he is kept in seclusion for other reasons, the little power struggle over the child was considered a great coup in cuba and if he were being exposed to influences other than what the cuban government wanted things could easily go awry. god forbid he grow up and have a mind of his own

[superduperfarleft]

54. The "power struggle" was entirely initiated by the wackos in Miami.

You can't blame Cuba for taking an opportunity to take a shot at the US, but this never would've been a big deal if the Miami Cubans and the right-wing hadn't made such a huge stink out of this.

Anyway, why should this kid have a camera in his face 24/7? He's been through enough, and there's nothing nefarious about wanting him to grow up out of the spotlight.

[The abyss]

32. Judi – sorry this one got moved!

Good story and interesting update on an event many choose to forget.

Sorry it wound up in GD. It deserved better.

[Judi Lynn]

33. Thank you, The abyss. He was front-page news in the US for months.

I appreciated seeing the DU'ers comments on how the rage generated by losing their control of Elian fanned the fire which got a lot of the Miami rabble so wild they and the right-wing even more determined to keep a Democrat out of the White House as long as possible.

That hurt the entire country.

Miami "exiles" were also involved in storming the vote-counting center in Miami Dade and shutting it down, along with those ugly, hatefilled beasties from Tom DeLay's office, etc. in the Brooks Brothers physical assault on the 2000 Presidential election in Florida.

Thanks for the message, The abyss.

[wisteria]

36. I always felt he belonged with his father. I just hope he is happy now. n/t

[protocol rv]

42. That's a good question

It must be like being a child movie star, no? Or maybe like being the son of the emperor of Japan?

[Crunchy Frog]

41. I remember that whole thing so well.

The first time I realized just how lunatic the lunatic fringe was in this country, and just how far the looney Repuke politicians were willing to go to accommodate them.

First time I began to feel that this country was having a collective nervous breakdown. Also when I first became aware of FOX News, and realized that it wasn't news but RW propoganda. Realized the same thing about most of the rest of the MSM at the same time.

I guess it was the beginning of my political awakening.

I really think that the kid is in a much more sane environment in Cuba than he would have been in Miami, even though I do acknowledge the relative lack of political freedom. It's not like the level of freedom in Miami is much to write home about though.

[LynneSin]

48. In some ways I wanted Elian to stay in the country but those Miami relatives were so loopy

they were not the type of relatives that should be raising that boy. Ultimately I felt it was better he be returned to his father in Cuba where perhaps he had less liberties but family members that truly loved him for who he was and not as a publicity stunt than to be a tourist attraction/cash cow for those nut job distant relatives in Miami.

[seabeyond]

50. just the very simplist of denying a father his son made no sense and angered me.

for me, there is no justification to keep the son from a father. no rationality or logic in that at all. i could not grasp an argument in doing that.

[Exultant Democracy]

45. Good looks and fame, we could easly be looking at a future Cuban president.

[MellowDem]

46. If the Castro brothers ever give it up. nt

[proteus_lives]

53. Shhh. We're not supposed to mention that Cuba is a dictatorship.

Spoils the illusion that many DUers foster.

[JI7]

55. i remember how much i hated the stupid family that tried to kidnap him and idiot politicians

who wanted to grant him instant US Citizenship.