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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 April - 3 May 2000 Issue No. 479 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 April - 3 May 2000 Issue No. 479
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Special Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters All's well that ends well
By Lamis AndoniThe saga of Elian Gonzalez -- the six-year-old Cuban boy found shipwrecked off the Florida coast and snatched Saturday from his US relatives in a commando-like raid to be reunited with his father -- has prompted a national debate about American policy on Cuba.
The use of Elian by Cuban-American exiles to further their struggle against Cuban President Fidel Castro appears to have backfired. Instead of rejuvenating the cause, the Miami protests and an outright refusal to hand over Elian to his father have created a backlash in public opinion and generated widespread revulsion among Americans. Many analysts now believe that the "Elian affair" is decidedly undermining American support for the four-decade embargo against Cuba and for laws that gives preferential treatment to Cuban immigrants in the US.
But both the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates, George W Bush and Vice President Al Gore, have so far endorsed the hawkish anti-Havana stands in order to secure the crucial votes of the strong Miami-based Cuban-American community. Bowing to right-wing Cuban American organisations, Vice President Gore dissented from President Bill Clinton, who has supported returning the boy to his father since it was made clear that he was capable of caring for him.
Gore's gambit, many commentators have warned, might prove self-defeating, since Cuban-American organisations tend to favour Republicans. The vice president, however, appears to be hoping for a repeat of the 1996 elections, when the Clinton-Gore campaign secured a Florida victory partly by pandering to the Cuban exiles. Clinton made inroads in the entrenched pro-Republican Cuban-American community by signing the Helms-Burton Law, which bars US companies from doing business with Cuba.
As soon as Elian was plucked from the Atlantic last November after surviving two days clinging to an inner tube, his tragedy became ammunition for the Cuban community, led by the conservative National Cuba Foundation, in their battle against Castro. The lone survivor of a capsised boat carrying his mother and 10 other Cubans to America, Elian has become a potent symbol of an aging political struggle. Keeping the little boy in America emerged as a catalyst for tightening the noose on Castro and preempting a steadily growing campaign to end the US ban on ties with the tiny island.
Had Elian been of any other nationality, he would have been immediately returned to his father. At the same time that the "Elian affair" erupted, a court in Miami granted temporary custody of a child, kidnapped by his American mother, to his Jordanian father; both father and child went back to Jordan. In a more explosive case, two Haitian political refugees who had escaped to America during the Duvallier dictatorship were deported, while their American-born child was kept in the US in accordance with tough immigration laws.
The immigration laws that separated the Haitian couple from their child make exception for Cubans, who can obtain political asylum with relative ease. The politically-motivated distinction is embodied in the Cuba Adjustment Act, which grants residency to any Cuban who has spent a year in the US and claims to be the target of political persecution at home. In contrast, the general law requires strict evidence of such allegations by any other refugees.
Preserving this "privilege" is at the heart of the Elian case and the motivation behind leaders of the Cuban-American community who have funded the court appeal by the Elian's paternal great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, demanding the boy be granted political refugee status. The appeal, scheduled for a hearing on 11 May, ostensibly prevents his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, from leaving the country with his son and family pending the verdict.
The ruling puts one of the America's last Cold War-era relics to the test. If the court denies Elian refugee status, it would deal a crippling blow to the Cuba Adjustment Act and could also deepen the crack in the wall erected by an embargo that has failed to unsettle the leadership of Fidel Castro and served only to inflict social and economic hardship on the Cuban population. Restrictions on trade and cultural contacts have been eased over the last few years, while the embargo has been increasingly challenged by American activists, tourists and businessmen flocking annually to Havana.
Meanwhile, Clinton will still have to deal with a rising right-wing opposition that has been mobilising support around the controversial pre-dawn raid. Elian was extracted from the arms of Donato Darymple, one of the fishermen who saved him, hiding in the closet at Lazaro Gonzalez's home in Little Havana. A picture showing an FBI agent, in full gear, pointing a gun -- albeit to the side -- and facing a frightened Elian has prompted Republicans to condemn the raid. But if the tide continues to turn against the embargo against Cuba and the dubious influence of the anti-Castro movement, Clinton might well end his term by piercing a hole in the most enduring legacy of America's Cold War policies.
