On January 14, more than 100,000 people marched in Cuba to demand that the United States government immediately return six-year-old Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba. Despite calls by Elian's father and the Cuban government for the child's safe return, and despite a US Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) decision on January 6 that Elian should be repatriated, the boy is still being held by relatives in Miami who are mobilising right-wing Cubans and other reactionary forces in the US to ensure that Elian does not get home.
The following is abridged from a statement presented to the Marxism 2000 conference in Sydney in January.
On November 25, Elian Gonzalez was found floating in an inner tube off the coast of Florida. His mother, along with Elian and 10 other Cubans, had tried to make the crossing from Cuba to Miami in order to illegally enter the US. Apart from Elian, the others, including his mother, died when the boat sank.
In spite of the fact that Elian's father and his grandparents from both sides of his family demanded that he be returned to Cuba, the US INS placed him in the custody of his great uncle in Miami.
There is no reason under US law that he should not be returned home at once. Under an accord between Cuba and the US, any Cubans intercepted at sea by US authorities should automatically be sent back to Cuba. Also, there is no reason under US law that Elian's great uncle rather than his father should be recognised as his legal guardian.
There would simply be no issue about Elian's fate were it not for the fact that he is Cuban. He is simply being used as a political football in the US government's continuing war against Cuba. For propaganda value he has been paraded in front of television cameras, having been told to give a thumbs up sign, draped in the US flag, and been taken to Disneyland and given a birthday party. He has been given presents and even promised a $2 million trust fund in order to encourage him to want to stay with his great uncle.
Refugees have traditionally been used as pawns in the US propaganda war against Cuba. The US has used the images of Cubans trying to get to the US from Cuba in makeshift rafts and boats as proof that people were fleeing the Communist dictatorship in Cuba. In fact, most people leave Cuba for the US simply because the US is a wealthier country, in large part because the US has spent the last four decades trying to destroy the Cuban economy.
The US has also encouraged Cubans to come to the US by illegal and dangerous ocean crossings. Almost all those who try to enter legally by applying for residency visas or even tourist visas are refused. At the same time, any Cuban who makes it to the US illegally, in stark contrast to those from any other country, are automatically given resident status. This costs hundreds of lives in comparison to simply giving them visas and allowing them to take a plane to the US, but it provides the images that the US wants for its propaganda war.
Abusing the rights of children and others is nothing new in the battle that the US is conducting against Cuba. Attempts to crush Cuba's endeavour to build socialism have included all sorts of indiscriminate measures that have not only harmed but killed many Cuban children in the past. As well as encouraging the dangerous boat crossings to Miami that have claimed many lives, the US has used biological warfare, such as the spreading of dengue fever, carried out terrorist attacks in Cuba, and prevented medical and other life-saving supplies reaching Cuba through the economic blockade.
While the use of one particular child as a political football is consistent with the US's continuing actions against Cuba. All Cuban children and adults have a right to live without the threats and attacks on their rights and their lives carried out by US imperialism.
Return Elian Gonzalez to his home! End the US imperialist blockade of Cuba!