L-I: Cuba would raid unarmed

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

APRIL 27, 09:32 EDT

Castro: Guns Not Needed for Raids

By JOHN RICE
Associated Press Writer




HAVANA (AP) — Cuban President Fidel Castro says if his agents had raided 
a house to
retrieve Elian Gonzalez, they would have gone unarmed — though he refused 
to directly
criticize U.S. officials for using guns.

``You can see obviously that the people were well-trained,'' Castro said 
Wednesday,
referring to photos of the raid Saturday that took the 6-year-old child from 
the Miami
house of his great-uncle. ``They did it well.''

He noted that U.S. officials used weapons in Saturday's raid because of reports 
that
there might be weapons in or near the house.

But in Cuba, he said, ``we do it with unarmed people. That is within our 
idiosyncrasy
and our habit that one has to risk one's life.'' He said Cuban border guards 
were
trained to board vessels unarmed.

Such a practice in the United States might cause anarchy ``if the marshals 
renounced
their arms and were sent on an operation at a house where there were armed 
people,''
the Cuban leader said.

Castro also suggested U.S. officials erred by allowing photos of the raid, 
saying they
should have foreseen they would be used in ``a war of images'' by the Miami 
family
fighting to keep Elian in the United States against the wishes of his father.

In Washington, a top State Department official called Castro's actions in the 
Gonzalez
case ``absolutely deplorable'' and said the United States will persist in its 
attempts
to isolate Cuba.

Assistant Secretary of State Peter Romero accused the Cuban leader of trying to 
use
the boy's misfortune to create ``a diplomatic-political clash'' with the United
States. ``He manipulated this for complete domestic purposes,'' Romero said 
Wednesday.

Romero's comments were the most strident by an administration official since 
Elian
arrived in South Florida last November after being rescued at sea during an 
ill-fated
boat trip that claimed the life of his mother.

In the five months since Elian's arrival on U.S. soil, Castro has organized a 
series
of mass anti-American demonstrations demanding the boy's return to the island. 
He also
ordered the construction of an anti-American monument near the U.S. diplomatic 
mission
in Havana.

On Wednesday, Elian's former kindergarten teacher and a cousin flew to the 
United
States to join the boy with his father, stepmother and baby brother at the Wye 
River
conference center in Maryland.

Elian had stayed with a great-uncle in Miami since being rescued from the 
shipwreck in
late November. A federal court has ordered him kept in the United States until 
the
Miami family's attempt to seek political asylum for him is resolved.

Four of Elian's classmates and four of their parents also applied for U.S. visas
Wednesday in Havana. U.S. officials have said the visas would be expedited.

Castro criticized the U.S. refusal to authorize the full 31-person team of 
students,
teachers and medical specialists Cuba had proposed to help the boy overcome his 
ordeal
and rebuild bonds with Cuban friends and teachers.

``I don't understand any of that, nor can it be understood,'' Castro said of 
the U.S.
decision. He complained that the visas approved included ``not a single 
specialist,
not a single psychologist, not a single psychiatrist.''

Castro spoke after visiting a special boarding school created in a two-story 
house in
Havana where officials plan to have Elian and his classmates stay for at least 
three
months after the boy's return.

In interviews broadcast Wednesday night by Cuban state television, cousin 
Yasmany
Betancourt, 10, promised to give Elian ``a kiss and a very strong hug.''

He said the two would play with toy cars, draw and make faces.

Teacher Agueda Fleitas said she was bringing ``a whole series of materials'' so 
that
Elian could catch up with schoolmates. ``He's behind,'' she said. ``We are 
going well
prepared to advance as much as possible.''

Cuban television broadcast parts of a 41-minute videotape with greetings from
schoolmates and neighbors, as well as relatives displaying pet dogs and birds 
and
playing baseball.

``We send you many kisses,'' said his first grade teacher, Yamilin Morales 
Delgado.

``A very big hug,'' added his best friend, Hanser Munoz Pedroso.

University of Havana psychologist Aurora Garcia, a proposed member of the team, 
said
the idea was to help the boy restore relations with friends while curing 
psychological
wounds caused by the stress of recent months.

She ridiculed critics in the United States who portrayed the proposed team ``as 
a kind
of evil commando.''

``They speak of programming as if Elian were a computer,'' she said




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