Cuban justice minister says father should speak for Elian
By John Rice, Associated Press, 04/21/00
HAVANA -- Cuba's justice minister said Friday that 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez has no right to seek political asylum and U.S. officials should act quickly to reunite him with his father.
"A minor of that age does not have the mental, or of course the legal capacity for a political decision of that nature," Roberto Diaz Sotolongo said in an interview with The Associated Press. "The son has to speak through the mouth of his father."
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta on Wednesday issued a ruling suggesting that U.S. officials should take the Cuban child's wishes into account. That was the latest dramatic development in the legal process that has kept Elian in the United States since he was rescued from a shipwreck that killed his mother in late November.
Diaz Sotolongo said the U.S. government has failed to swiftly enforce its own rulings in the case that Elian belongs with his father.
"We would have liked that there was much more prompt action... The declarations of the (U.S.) government have been in accordance with the law. What has been lacking ... is the quickness in taking a decision."
The minister's comments were in line with Cuban government statements, but far more measured than comments at mass rallies, where speakers have ridiculed the delay in removing Elian from the great-uncle in Miami who is fighting to keep the child in the United States.
At a nationally televised rally Thursday, Communist student leader Hassan Perez labeled great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez a "vulgar and common delinquent.
"How can you explain that the attorney general of that country is trembling" to demand the law be carried out, Perez said.
The Atlanta court decision barred Elian from returning to Cuba until resolution of a legal battle over his Miami relatives' attempts to seek political asylum for him.
But that does not impede the boy's return to his father's custody, pending "whatever other process," Diaz Sotolongo noted. U.S. officials have taken the same position on the court ruling.
Asked what he would do in the place of U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, who is responsible for carrying out the law and faces a potentially explosive situation around the Miami house, he insisted, "there are sufficient means to ensure compliance.... the normal ones that are used in such cases."
