Elian's Father Speaks On 60 Minutes (Dan Rather interview April 2000)

Elian's Father Speaks On 60 Minutes
Transcript of segment featuring Dan Rather's exclusive interview
with Juan Miguel Gonzalez April 16, 2000

NEW YORK

(CBS) Juan Miguel Gonzalez, the father of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, sat down with CBS News Anchor Dan Rather for his first and only television interview since coming to the United States two weeks ago to claim his son.

When the interview was conducted, there were no Cuban government personnel in the room, in the house, or on the grounds – only Juan Miguel and the CBS News crew.

Consistent with CBS News practice, no questions or areas of questions were submitted in advance, nor was there any such request from Juan Miguel or his lawyers.

The attorney for Juan Miguel said that no questions were out of bounds. And CBS News made it clear that Dan Rather would ask any and all questions he felt appropriate.

The following is the script of a 60 Minutes segment broadcast Sunday based on this interview and a separate interview with writer Ann Louise Bardach:

RATHER: How is your son? How is Elian?

JUAN MIGUEL: Actually, all I can tell you at this point is what I have been able to see on television. Because, despite the fact that I have been here for 10 days, I have only been able to speak to him on the telephone on 2 occasions. RATHER: Do you consider that he has been kidnapped?

JUAN MIGUEL: Yes... and the law hasn't done anything about it.

NARRATION: Juan Miguel Gonzalez is still upset by the videotape that he saw on TV last week.... a tape released by the Miami family members who are holding Elian... in which the boy tells his father he doesn't want to go back with him to Cuba.

RATHER: I know you've seen this videotape, but with your permission I want to show it to you again. Have you watch it, and tell us your reaction to the videotape please.

JUAN MIGUEL: This is child abuse and mistreatment what they're doing to this boy. And it is something that has been induced because these aren't the boy's true feelings. That's not the way this boy feels. And I know I'm right in saying that we have to take him back immediately because what they're doing is making this child suffer. The way they're abusing him, turning him against his father.

RATHER: Tell me what you felt, not just in your head but also your heart when you saw and heard on that videotape your son say, "Papa, you can stay here but I don't want to go to Cuba."

JUAN MIGUEL: Well, I can tell you that above all, despite everything I was feeling, and everything I was suffering at that moment, I saw the betrayal inside my boy -- that they made him do these things. Actually, he's suffering more here amongst them than he suffered in the sea.

RATHER: I want to ask you something man to man. After you saw that videotape for the first time, did you weep?

JUAN MIGUEL: I'm going to tell you the truth. I don't have any tears left. I've cried too much. During this whole period of time, I've cried a lot and suffered greatly and I'm still in pain. To tell you the truth, I have no tears left. I have -- I don't know -- I've run dry.

RATHER: Ah, but a father never dries up?

NARRATION: The last time Juan Miguel saw his son in person was the day before his former wife Elizabeth took him in a small, leaky, aluminum boat with 12 other Cubans so she could start a new life in the United States -- a trip Juan Miguel says he knew nothing about. Eleven people didn't make it, including Elian's mother Elizabeth.

RATHER: What has your son told you about the boat trip?

JUAN MIGUEL: On the 26th, when he left the hospital he told me Daddy, Dad, I saw when Mom was lost, I saw it when she died, I saw it when she disappeared in the sea. And I lost my books, I lost my backpack with my school books in it and my uniform and I said to him, little guy, the backpack with the school books and the uniform -- I'm keeping those safely at home so that when you return you can go back to school. Don't worry.

NARRATION: But because of the soap opera and media circus swirling around Elian, Juan Miguel says his son is confused and lost. And he blames his Miami relatives.

JUAN MIGUEL: He hasn't had time to mourn for and to feel for the death of his mother. The first thing that a psychologist would say to a child who has gone through something like this would be that you have to experience the reality -- what happened. The way they've manipulated him and handled it and he holds the belief -- so that he doesn't want to go back to Cuba and he holds the belief that his mother is someplace around here, that someday she'll appear here. That's abusive. Everything they've done with him has been abusive.

NARRATION: Probably no North-American reporter knows as much about the Gonzalez family as writer Ann Louise Bardach, who spent time with them in Cuba. In the new issue of George Magazine she writes about the reason she says Elian's mother Elizabeth was leaving Cuba -- to be together with her boyfriend in Miami.

RATHER: When Elian's mother sought to come to the United States, how much, if anything, did that have to do with politics?

BARDACH: I don't get the feeling it had much at all to do with that and I base that on a letter that, a five-page letter that was found after everybody drowned.

RATHER: And this five-page letter, basically a love letter.

BARDACH: Yes it is, it is.

RATHER: There are any number of people who say, listen, Juan Miguel, whatever else you think about him, he is a loving caring father. And then there are those who say don't kid yourself. This guy's an apologist quote unquote for Fidel Castro, a true believer in the revolution and he's being puppeteered by Fidel Castro. Where is the truth in all that?

BARDACH: Well, there's no question that Fidel Castro runs that island. I think what happened here is that a kind of regular normal guy who's fairly unpolitical -- has been politicized by this drama.

RATHER: Let me ask you about the Miami relatives. However one describes them, the Miami relatives say that they are representing the best interests of the deceased mother and of the child. And, they speak for them. What do we make of that?

BARDACH: Well, it's a little odd, because according to the friends and family of Elizabeth, Elizabeth never met the Miami relatives. She never laid eyes on them.

RATHER: None of them?

BARDACH: None of them. Ever. That's what the friends and family say. That she had no idea. And never in 1000 years was she going to come and call them or contact them.

NARRATION: Those same relatives, says Juan Miguel Gonzalez, are now trying to destroy his reputation with lies and slander.

RATHER: Yesterday and today the relatives who are keeping Elian in Miami at the moment put out information that you had abused his mother and you had abused him. I want to give you a chance to respond to that. Is there any truth to that and if so tell me about it.

JUAN MIGUEL: Well, I'm not saying that as a father -- that with my son -- at certain times every father -- when a child does something mischievous, well you could always spank your own son. But hurt him, I never hurt him and I never hurt his mother either.

RATHER: Are you or are you not saying these are lies?

JUAN MIGUEL: They are lies totally.

NARRATION: Juan Miguel says he will remain in the United States with his new wife and their baby until he gets Elian back. He says this is about family, not politics.

RATHER: Then why are they saying these things?

JUAN MIGUEL: Well, imagine, I'm explaining it to you. They're describing me that way to achieve their objective -- which is to keep the child. It's nothing else.

RATHER: Let me give you the argument that these relatives in Miami and other people make. They say, number one, you're not your own man. That you are a puppet at the end of Fidel Castro's strings. That's one of the accusations they make.

JUAN MIGUEL: Why do you have to mix in Fidel Castro into all of this. It's just me claiming my son. It's my son and not Fidel Castro's. It's a way of bringing in Fidel Castro and making it political.

NARRATION: Juan Miguel says he wants to take Elian back to his home in Cardenas, a small working class town with dirt streets and horse-drawn carriages. It is a poor community, but Juan Miguel, who is a member of the Communist party, makes a decent living there as a cashier at a nearby resort.

RATHER: Tell me why it wouldn't be best for you to say okay I'll, I'll stay in the USA, I'll stay here with my child, where there is freedom and may be more opportunity for him. Why not do that in the best interest of the child?

JUAN MIGUEL: Well, what do you call freedom and opportunity?

RATHER: But the question is, what do you consider to be liberty and opportunity?

JUAN MIGUEL: I ask you what's freedom? Well, freedom is for example, in Cuba, where education and health care is free. Or is it the way it is here? Which of the two is freedom? For example, here when parents send their children to school they have to worry about violence. A child could be shot at school. In Cuba, things like that don't happen. So you can go to work and not worry. Which of the two is freedom?

BARDACH: There's no disputing the fact that this Elian Gonzales is a gift from God to Fidel Castro. I mean this has been a tremendous boon to him and that's indisputable. Previous to this, he was dealing with dissident issues, human rights issues, economic problems. Suddenly he's got all this international support, all of Latin America. I think Fidel Castro is a very savvy shrewd long-term player. He recognized early on this could be a big win for him and he's played it for everything it has.

RATHER: The child himself? Do you put the child in the winners' category or loser's category?

BARDACH: The child, I think, is a big loser. Here's a completely traumatized child who has just watched his mother drown- has survived a terrible ordeal. You'd think he should be reunited with the surviving parent immediately for stability. And he's living in a house which at best we could call the Truman Show of Elian Gonzalez. Where he has cameras on him 24 hours a day and he has people outside the house chanting, you know, anti-Castro, anti-Cuba and even anti-father things. So he's being filled with strident passions, rather than people. You know, saying let's work this out.

RATHER: Many of the Cubans in Miami say that your wife died so Elian could live in the United States. Do you think that's true and if so what do you think about that?

JUAN MIGUEL: That's not the reality, that's not true. First of all, none of the people that are saying that know the boy's mother. Who better than I, who knew his mother specifically, could say that. None of those that are speaking in her name knew her.

RATHER: I want to ask you this, are you convinced that your son wants to go back to Cuba?

JUAN MIGUEL: Of course.

RATHER: Has he told you that?

JUAN MIGUEL: He's told me so. What they're doing is putting a bunch of toys in front of a 6 year old. He can't decide for himself. The one that decides for him is me -- his father. Unfortunately, he lost his mother, the only one that can speak for him, and the only one that truly knows him -- is me. I'm his father. I'm the one who truly knows him. The only one who can say who my son is what he likes and what he dislikes. That's me. None of them have the right to speak for him.

RATHER: And, if little Elian is watching and listening to the broadcast what do you want to say to him?

JUAN MIGUEL: Well, give him a big kiss and tell him not to worry -- he'll be with me soon. That I love him very much. He will be with me soon and he shouldn't worry.

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