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I remember those days very well. Our N.H. Senator Bob Smith* was involved in negotiations to help the boy stay. Janet Reno will go down in history as one of our worst Attorney Generals. The Easter raid photos shook the country, especially those already disposed to distrust the U.S. Govt. and its agents. Ruby Ridge and Waco were within recent memory too. It was simply shocking. Of course, we will never know what Elian would have been like if he grew up and went to school under the care of his family and the Cuban community in the U.S.
* I was a campaign volunteer for him and knew him well.
I don't care where he grew up, he was raised by his father, which is the right thing to do. Bash Janet Reno all you want, but she did the right thing here.
BTW, Cubans have a longer life expectancy than Americans. Thanks to living in Cuba, he will likely live a longer life than he would have in Miami.
I remember it happening and that it happened. Think it was at the end of the 90s. I didn't follow it any and honestly didn't care because I had more urgent matters in my own life like trying to survive daily mental, emotional and physical abuse (think they would probably call it "bullying" nowdays) in junior high school (compulsory prison sentence).
Poor kid! Imagine what he went through, watching an entire boatload of people, including his mother, drown, then somehow managing to float along in an inner tube to FL without becoming shark food, while becoming dehydrated and hungry. Finally finds some stability in a relative's home, then becoming a political football between two countries. The kid probably needed trauma therapy (which I'm sure Cuba doesn't offer), but instead, he became the rope in a huge international tug of war.
Anyone know what he's up to, these days? What's his profession? Does he have a family?
Miami's Cuban exile community went wrong in this highly emotional case.
Plus, Janet Reno, which I believe passed away, had no love lost for Cubans Americans, and she was hated unanimously by all Cuban-Americans.
The father, that had previouly abandoned him and her mother, claimed the kid and used him to live like royalty in Cuba. That's why people in Cuba do hate him tremendously and they are always keeping track of him, from a protocol house, to high end resorts, etc.
But Raul does not like his brother's toys, so that might be the reason why they are packing him to Miami.
I was at Havana vacationing at that time and there were big "spontaneous" demonstration of "working people" chanting "que devuelvan a Elian".
Last edited by farinello; 09-12-2017 at 03:48 AM..
Of course I remember it, but then again, that is what I do, remember pictures, incidents, people who were once major players who have dropped brightness in the picture, things like that.
Basically, the picture of the agent with the, what did he have an MP-5 (doing it from my memory of the newspaper picture) was rather a "nice" example of being set up by the press........but that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
Anyhow, my memory is very picture oriented, such as for years, from childhood, how I knew "four airliners in the desert, hijacked" until years later when the Net could identify them as Dawson Field.
Good (and might I add accurate) photography....it is what keeps things in memory. I mean, does anyone remember the assassination of Gerald Bull? Probably not because if that story made the front page, there probably weren't any terrific pictures.
Of course I remember it, but then again, that is what I do, remember pictures, incidents, people who were once major players who have dropped brightness in the picture, things like that.
Basically, the picture of the agent with the, what did he have an MP-5 (doing it from my memory of the newspaper picture) was rather a "nice" example of being set up by the press........but that's just my opinion. I could be wrong.
Anyhow, my memory is very picture oriented, such as for years, from childhood, how I knew "four airliners in the desert, hijacked" until years later when the Net could identify them as Dawson Field.
Good (and might I add accurate) photography....it is what keeps things in memory. I mean, does anyone remember the assassination of Gerald Bull? Probably not because if that story made the front page, there probably weren't any terrific pictures.
I very much remember that assassination. There were a lot of implications to that event, a few of which were covered in the movie about him. From a scientific point of view, Bull was doing work that eventually would have had large effects reducing the costs of getting satellites and supplies into orbit. In a way, his cannons were the direct descendents of Jules Verne's cannon in 'From the Earth to the Moon."
I do. Fascinating case, but one that I think the courts got right. The father had more rights to the child than the child's relatives in the USA did, even if the father lived in a state that has an economic/financial model at odds with the USA. Note, I don't think that its that odd that many people--especially people who have been poor all of their lives--support the Cuban regime (and I'm talking about many people in Cuba, too, which includes some of my family members). Its not my cup of tea, but it is for some others.
OK, so back to Elian, himself; does anyone know how he's doing? He went through a lot, it must have been tough on him, and very confusing, along with traumatic, as I mentioned earlier. He's an adult now; anyone know what his life is like? What profession he chose, does he have a family?
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