BIENVENIDOS A GRANMA INTERNACIONALMORE THAN A WEEKLY

April 23, 2000

Victory is not complete
in
the case of Elián, warns Fidel


P
RESIDENT Fidel Castro warned last night, Saturday April 22, that victory is still not complete in the case of Elián González, because it's not clear what the counterrevolutionary Miami mafia is capable of doing after losing the boy it had kidnapped.



Over 40,000 Cubans 
ga
thered in Jagüey Grande, Matanzas province, to celebrate the 39th anniversary of the victory at the Bay of Pigs.

He made this statement during a speech in the town of Jagüey Grande, Matanzas province, in a ceremony marking the 39th anniversary of the defeat of the mercenary invasion at the Bay of Pigs.

He added that the struggle will also continue against unjust laws such as the Cuban Adjustment Act, the Helms-Burton Act, the Torricelli Act and the United States’ economic blockade against Cuba, which he termed genocidal.

Fidel noted
that U.S. President
William Clinton had acted nobly in this case, thus doing a  service not only to the boy but also to the United States itself. He also praised the efforts of U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno and Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner, and recognized the role played by U.S. public opinion.

The leader of the Revolution called April 22, the day Elián was returned to his father, as truly critical and serious, because the child’s father, Juan Miguel González, would not accept any more delays in achieving the reunion with his son, and had announced the decision to travel to Miami with his wife and baby son to take charge of Elián. That posed a potential danger for them, and the Miami mafia could have created an impossible situation for the U.S. government.

Fidel stated that it was a day of truce between the United States and Cuba, perhaps the only such day in the last 41 years.

Regarding the ruling of the Atlanta six-year-old child had the authority to request asylum on his own. "What would become of the fathers in the Third World if that position becomes generalized!" he warned.

As for the court's ruling that the child could not leave the United States until the final decision regarding that alleged right to request asylum is issued, he called it unnecessary since Juan Miguel had already said that he was willing to wait until the process is completed. 

“That prohibition was not needed," he said, adding that the ones who were violating the law and defying U.S. authorities were the kidnapping relatives, who had been blackmailing the government of the most powerful nation in the world, with the support of the Miami mafia, which considers itself immune.

Regarding the recent situation in Miami in the case of Elián, he said that it was chaotic and that there was even an attempt to convince the child to reject his father. There were psychologists working on him as if the were training a dog, he commented.

He expressed the hope that now no one would block the issuance of visas for a group of children chosen to travel with their teachers and a group of Cuban experts, to help in Elián's reinsertion into his natural environment.


ANTI-CUBA RESOLUTION IN
GENEVA ENCOURAGED THE MAFIA


Fidel stated that the resolution against Cuba in the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva had encouraged the Miami Mafia. There is a close connection between this and the Elián case, he said.

He discussed the servile attitude toward the United States displayed by the Czech Republic. "That hurts us, not because the were accusing us without justification, which has happened man times over the last 41 years, but because it further incited the Miami Mafia and endangered Elián's life."

A large part of his speech was devoted to recalling incidents during the April 1961 invasion by mercenary forces from the United States, which tried to set up a beachhead in order to ask for help from the Organization of American States (OAS) and U.S. military forces. He praised the valor of the Cuban fighters, who in 68 consecutive hours of fighting defeated the invading force.

 


ABOUT GRANMA INTERNATIONAL ONLINE
Spanish | French | Portuguese | German | Italian | Javier Sotomayor | Magazines
2_logo2.jpg (5843 bytes)
© Copyright. 1996-1999. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. GRANMA INTERNATIONAL/ ONLINE EDITION

original url, now not working, was:
http://www.granmacu/ingles/abr3/giron2.html

ALSO please read this from Juventud Rebelde:
ELIAN, A Victory shared with the American people:
http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs1229.html