Re: Elian's rescue

["Johannes Schneider" <Johannes.Schneider@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>I hear Elian has been rescued by the FBI. Of course, that was the easy
>and predictable part. Now, it seems, a tiresome and protracted struggle
>awaits to take him back home to Cuba. There will be "hearings",
>blackmail, attempts at bribery, judicial-ideological and mediatic
>terrorism, what have you.
>
>
>João Paulo
>
Here is an account from the BBC site:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_722000/722591.stm

US federal agents have seized six-year-old Cuban shipwreck survivor Elian 
Gonzalez in
a pre-dawn raid from the home of his relatives in Miami.
A swat team of about 25 officers broke down the door of the home of the boy's 
uncle,
Lazaro Gonzalez, and re-emerged seconds later with the boy wrapped in a blanket.

The moment that Elian was snatched

 They bundled the screaming boy into a vehicle and drove him away in an 
unmarked car
under cover of darkness, as people outside the house shouted protests.

Chaotic scenes followed outside the house as the officers retreated. Pepper 
spray was
used to keep back the crowd.

The US Justice Department said Elian had been safely removed from the Miami 
house and
was on his way to a reunion with his father. It was unclear where the reunion 
would
take place.

The White House has issued a statement saying that President Clinton supported 
the
operation to seize the boy.

Elian has been at the centre of a bitter custody battle between his Miami 
relatives
and his Cuban father since he was shipwrecked off the Florida coast last 
November.




Family grief: Elian's cousin Marisleysis Gonzalez (right) weeps

 Donato Dalrymple, one of the fisherman who rescued Elian last year, was in the 
home
at the time of the snatch.

He said federal agents pointed guns at the family and shouted: "Give me the boy 
or
I'll shoot you!"

As they left, the officers are reported to have shouted "Bingo! Bingo!" as a 
signal
that they had the boy.

Anger

There were angry scenes on Saturday morning as members of Miami's Cuban exile
community threw stones at federal officers.


We're going to close Miami


Protester outside the house
 Supporters of Elian's Miami family have been expressing their anger and grief 
outside
the home.

Mr Dalrymple said: "They took this kid like a hostage in the night time. They 
should
let him come out with dignity."

A man in the crowd promised civil disobedience. "We're going to close Miami," 
he said.

Some protesters were tearing up US flags. Other members of the Cuban exile 
community
tried to stop them.

The mayor of Miami, Joe Carollo, described the federal action as shameful and
unnecessary.

Talks fail

The move to seize Elian comes after the apparent failure of late-night 
negotiations on
a compromise solution that might have allowed some form of joint custody between
Elian's Miami family and his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.

The US authorities had made clear a forceful seizure of Elian was a possibility 
if
last-minute efforts to reunite him with his father through negotiation failed.

US Attorney-General Janet Reno had said that any government action would be 
measured
and reasonable in order to spare the boy any more trauma.

Our correspondent reports that Cuban leaders believe the operation will have 
caused
Elian everlasting emotional damage.