Elian's grandmothers welcomed back to Cuba
Scores turn out for government-sponsored parade
By John Rice, Associated Press, 01/30/00
HAVANA - Elian Gonzalez's grandmothers arrived back to Cuba on Sunday without the child they had hoped to bring home, but they were greeted as heroes nonetheless with an enormous government-organized parade through the streets of the Cuban capital.
"We are leaving but Elian is still here,'' said the 6-year-old boy's paternal grandmother, Mariela Quintana, as she wrapped up her campaign for the child's return to Cuba. Quintana spoke before departing with maternal grandmother Raquel Rodriguez on a private plane from Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.
"He will never be happy (in the United States) because he grew up in Cuba,'' she said. "He is a Cuban boy. He has a father. He has four grandparents and an entire family back there.''
As the women arrived, crowds clutching Cuban flags lined the 16-mile route of their motorcade through Havana. Government television and radio stations repeatedly broadcast the route and newspapers published schedules for special buses to take people to it.
Even the national soccer championship game, which had been scheduled for Sunday in Havana, was postponed for a week so players and spectators could attend the event.
The grandmothers were returning after "brave and extraordinary work in the United States, overcoming great obstacles and transmitting a persuasive message to the U.S. people,'' said a government statement published on the front pages of all newspapers here Sunday.
Elian was found floating in an inner tube off the Florida coast on Nov. 25 after a boat wreck that killed his mother and 10 other people. He has been staying with a great-uncle in Florida ever since. His Florida relatives are seeking to keep Elian in the United States, while his father and other relatives in Cuba are fighting to get him back.
The little boy also is caught in the midst of a major propaganda battle between Fidel Castro's communist government and Cuban-American exile groups. Some of the exile groups have complained that the boy should not return to his father because it would be a victory for the Cuban leader.
The struggle over Elian has become one of the largest government campaigns in recent Cuban history, with daily events, some drawing massive crowds, to demand the child's return to his father.
Since the two grandmothers left Havana on Jan. 21, the government has given increasingly massive television and newspaper coverage to their tour of the United States, crediting them with helping sway U.S. public opinion toward Elian's return.
"The heroic behavior of these humble and good-natured grandmothers has gained the respect, the admiration of the people who will await them with a warm and massive reception,'' the government's statement said.
The women - until recently obscure housewives from the provincial city of Cardenas - have found themselves on worldwide television meeting congressmen, senators and U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.
"We think we have a step forward but still my grandson is here,'' Rodriguez, the maternal grandmother, said before leaving Washington.
"I would like to thank the American people and the Cuban Americans who are here and who have helped us,'' she said. "We would like to remind them to keep helping us, because Elian is still here.''
The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has ruled Elian should be returned to his father. But officials are awaiting the outcome of a federal court challenge filed by Miami relatives before trying to return the boy.
U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler will hear arguments Feb. 22 on whether the Miami relatives' lawsuit should be dismissed.
Elian Gonzalez smiles as he arrives for his first day of school at Lincoln-Marti School in Miami on Jan. 4. (AP Photo)
