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Cuban struggle heats up

'Battle of the masses' demands Elián's return

By Teresa Gutierrez

On Dec. 20, Cuban President Fidel Castro launched the "second stage of the battle of the masses" to bring Elián González home to Cuba by calling for the street protests to resume throughout Cuba. Fidel said, "The destiny of Elián is uncertain. What begins today is the second stage of the battle of the masses."

For almost a month the young Cuban child Elián González has been held in custody in the U.S. with distant relatives. Elián was taken in with the complicity of the U.S. government by his great-uncle and -aunt, who he had never met.

The U.S. Coast Guard picked up Elián near Florida in international waters on Nov. 25 after the boat he was on capsized. His mother and several others on board were attempting to leave Cuba without authorization. Elián's mother and seven others died on the voyage.

Despite a worldwide clamor demanding that the child be returned immediately to his father in Cuba--Juan González--the boy remains in Miami. International law is clear on such matters and the refusal of the U.S. government to comply with the law is another illustration of how this government acts as a brazen international outlaw.

On Dec. 15, demonstrations, many organized by the Emergency Committee to Demand the Return of Elián to His Father in Cuba, were held throughout the U.S. Protests were held in New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco and elsewhere.

Over 2 million Cubans have also taken to the streets throughout Cuba in almost daily protests to demand Elián's return in mobilizations called the "March of the Combative People." Demonstrations included a march of a thousand women in Cardenás--the boy's home--at the Plaza de las Madres. There was also a mobilization of students from Elián's school.

On Elián's sixth birthday on Dec. 6--while he was being held in the U.S.--an enormous cake was made in the shape of Cuba with the Cuban flag. These words decorated the cake: "We are waiting for you, Elián."

The demonstrations in Cuba have been militant and defiant. Many of them have taken place right in front of the U.S. Interests Section as well as in the province where the U.S. Guantanamo naval base is located.

Around the world: `Return Elián!'

The cry for the child's return to Cuba has been joined by voices around the world. The governments of the People's Republic of China and Russia have both said the child should be returned.

Calls for the return of Elián to his home have also come from the League of Women of the African National Congress in South Africa; Bolivia's Assembly of Human Rights; and many other human rights groups from Hungary to Nicaragua.

Nonetheless, the U.S. government continues to stall the case and hold the child in what amounts to out and out kidnapping.

The State Department initially took the position that the federal government would not interfere in the case. Representatives said that the case was a custody issue and should be resolved in Florida state courts. That position was so preposterous, U.S. officials had to quickly retract it and turned the case over to the federal government.

On Dec. 13, the U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service met with the boy's father in Cardenás, a town just east of Havana, where Elián and his father reside. The INS demanded proof that Juan González was indeed the boy's father. Such proof was not demanded of the alleged relatives in Miami, noted a progressive North American journalist living in Cuba.

Then on Dec. 16, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said that she hoped that a decision would be reached by year's end, holding out the hope that Elián would be returned home in time for the New Year.

Cuban, international and U.S. law all clearly stipulate that a deserted child should be returned to the remaining living parent. UNICEF spokespeople said that the U.S. government has breached three articles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The convention, ratified by 191 countries, has not been ratified by the U.S.

In addition, in 1995 Cuba and the U.S. signed a Migratory Agreement that states that Cuban nationals picked up by the U.S. in international waters will be returned immediately to Cuba.

Instead, the case of Elián González was made a cause celebre. Why? Because both the U.S. and what is left of the counter-revolutionary Cuban Americans in Miami are using the case for political purposes.

Progressives in the U.S. point out that the case of Elián has absolutely nothing to do with concern for the child's welfare. Anyone who pays attention to U.S. immigration policies knows that if this child were from Haiti or Mexico, she or he would have been returned back to those countries in a New York minute. The U.S. government would not have cared one iota if the child had been returned or not.

But Elián is from Cuba. And the U.S. is at war with Cuba. It has been at war with Cuba since 1959 when this tiny country only 90 miles away stood up against U.S. imperialism and defended the poor and the oppressed. Since then, Cuba has refused to do the bidding of the big bankers or the Pentagon.

The U.S. government puts forth the voice of the reactionary Cuban-Americans in Miami as a legitimate voice. Unlike any other immigrant community, the U.S. has propped up the rabid right-wing Cuban Americans who are used as tools against the Cuban Revolution.

The sole concern of the Cuban-Americans, who mostly come from the former Cuban ruling class that were ousted in 1959, has been to recapture the wealth that was expropriated from them by the popular revolution and turned over to the masses.

Under the direction of the Central Intelligence Agency, Cuban-American mercenaries have carried out genocidal attacks on the people of Cuba. One such group, the so-called Brothers to the Rescue, carried out several armed attacks against Cuba, including placing bombs in Cuban tourist areas.

Is it any wonder that the people of Cuba are deeply offended by the images of Cuban American National Foundation T-shirts forced onto Elián? Is it any wonder that the image of Elián getting a Brothers to the Rescue Christmas ornament is totally repugnant? Not just to the Cuban people but for all justice-loving people everywhere.

The cynical images of Elián broadcast by the Disney-owned media at Disney World--a cheap advertising stunt exploiting a yound child--should only serve to remind everyone of the many labor protests in recent years that have exposed Disney's brutal sweatshops. While many workers throughout Central America and the Caribbean toil in such sweatshops, Cuba has permanently eradicated this kind of exploitation.

Nothing the U.S. has to offer Elián can begin to compare with what he will have in Cuba when he is returned. In Cuba, Elián will know genuine solidarity. He will be guaranteed free health care and education. He will have the good fortune to live under a system that puts people before profits.

Elián may not be able to have all the material things available to some in the U.S., but he will never have to go to school in fear that a Columbine incident may occur. That happens in the U.S., not socialist Cuba.

Elián should be returned home to his father in Cuba now.

Copyright © 1999 workers.org