Decline Triggered 15 Years Ago
For the past quarter century, much of the best coverage of the Caribbean and Latin America has come from the insightful penmanship and expertise of Tim Padgett. That has particularly been so since he joined Time Magazine in 1996. He now also contributes gems for the Miami-based "WLRN Public Radio and Television." This past Sunday -- June 28th -- marked the 15th anniversary of a seminal event in U.S.-Cuban history, one that Mr. Padgett has minutely covered. That was the day when Cuba came out victorious in the tug-of-war that returned 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez to Cuba with his father. On Sunday, June 28th, Tim Padgett penned a major article entitled "How The Battle Over Elian Gonzalez Helped Change U.S. Cuba Policy." Mr. Padgett believes, correctly, that the Elian Gonzalez saga, which dominated both U. S. and international news at the time, enlightened Americans to the fact that Cuban extremists in Miami, many of whom fled the Cuban Revolution's victory over the U.S.-backed Batista dictatorship, believed they could defy the U. S. government in their anti-Castro fanaticism, which included U.S.-backed assassination attempts against Cuban leaders and U.S.-tolerated terrorist acts, including the bombing of a child-laden Cuban civilian plane that killed all 73 people on board and was heralded in the Miami media as "the biggest blow yet against Castro." The American citizens -- programmed to vilify Revolutionary Cuba and sanitize the gross brutality famously perpetrated by Batista's Cuba and the Cuban exiles -- capitulated for decades to the Cuban narrative dictated by the Cuban extremists in Miami. That began to change, according to the knowledgeable Tim Padgett, 15 years ago when Elian Gonzalez finally raised American eyebrows.
This Alan Diaz/AP photo remains seared on the psyche of Americans...and Cuban-Americans. It captured the frightful moment when armed U. S. agents forcefully removed the traumatized 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez from a closet in a home in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. Cuban-American politicians had believed they could over-rule the U. S. government and keep Elian in Miami instead of allowing him to return to Cuba with his father. Elian had washed up on Florida's shore on an inner-tube after his mother had drowned at sea. One of the many U. S. laws related only to Cubans permits any Cuban who touches U. S. soil to remain, with instant benefits. But in Elian's case the U. S. government ruled that his sole remaining parent, his father, had the right to take Elian back to Cuba. The Bush dynasty and all Republican administrations since the 1950s had strongly aligned with Cuban extremists, whether in Havana or Miami. But the Elian saga evolved in the administration of Bill Clinton, a Democrat. Cuban extremists in Miami had never had any trouble with Republicans and they weren't prepared for the forceful removal of Elian. In his June 28th article, Tim Padgett wrote: "By refusing to hand the boy over, Cuban-Americans had hoped to humiliate Castro." That motive, and not the best interests of the boy, eventually began to dawn on Americans who had earlier shamefully accepted such things as the bombing of the child-laden Cuban airplane as "the biggest blow yet against Castro!" Tim Padgett concluded: "In its wake, he {Elian} left a Cuban-American community in disarray. It backfired badly. The world called Miami a banana republic."
The sheer terror on the face of 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez 15 years ago shed a new light on the U.S.-Cuban conundrum as it defined the good guys and the bad guys. Tim Padgett's 15th anniversary recap pointed out that it even changed the minds of some Little Havana hardliners who realized that, maybe, Banana Republic power on U. S. soil had some restrictions, after all, when it came to "humiliating Castro."
"The Raid, the Reunion, and the Fallout" of the Elian Gonzalez saga is considered by some to be Fidel Castro's third most important victory over the Batistianos, right behind the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 and the Bay of Pigs win in 1961. The Elian fallout has been far more subtle and gradual but Tim Padgett's analysis pinpoints how it helped grease the way for President Obama in 2015 to at least attempt to right some of the major wrongs of America's Cuban policy. Yet, it should be noted that Elian's experience in Miami occurred during a Democratic presidency, Mr. Clinton's, and the current efforts to bring sanity to U.S.-Cuban relations is taking place during a Democratic presidency, Mr. Obama's. Since the 1950s all Republican administrations have fully supported the most extreme elements of the Batista rule in Cuba and the Batistiano rule in Miami. That will not change post-Obama with the next Republican administration, whether that comes in 2017 or later. {Disclosure: I am a lifelong democracy-loving conservative Republican, but I am not too pleased with the right-wing dominance of the Republican Party}
Speaking of Elian Gonzalez, he is now 21-years-old and finishing off his engineering degree. He is shown above taking a selfie with his fiancee, also a college student. Jim Avila of ABC-TV News recently reported on Elian's life in Cuba. He is happy, focused, and anxious to start a young family. He has traveled abroad but Avila asked him, "Where would you most like to go?" He replied in Spanish, "Los Estados Unidos"/"The United States." Avila asked him why. He then said in broken English, "I want to give my love to the American people." Yet, America has allowed Cuban-exile extremists to harm young Cubans like Elian.
This ABC News photo captured the now 21-year-old Elian Gonzalez showing off one of his prized possessions -- a copy of Jose Marti's "La Edad de Ora." It was a gift from his friend Fidel Castro, whose handwriting dominated the title page. Young Cubans like Elian are fascinated by the United States and have no ill feelings towards Americans. Yet, in 1962 Cuban-exile extremists teamed with right-wing Republicans to impose a harsh embargo on Cuba after a bevy of assassination attempts and the 1961 Bay of Pigs attack failed to overthrow the island's revolutionary government. Declassified U. S. documents reveal that the purpose of the embargo was to starve and deprive the Cuban people to entice them to rise up and overthrow their government. Some 53 years later, in 2015, the embargo is still in place and still with that mandate: To starve and deprive the Cuban people to entice them to rise up and overthrow their government, presumably to return a second or third generation of benevolent Batistianos to power, a rule that once again would allow rich Americans to rob the island blind. Elian Gonzalez and young Cubans like him have suffered, and are suffering, because of an archaic Cuban policy dictated by right-wing Republicans and Cuban-American extremists who still benefit from efforts to starve and deprive Cubans.
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Despite the efforts of good people such as President Barack Obama, the cruel U. S. embargo against Cuba has been in effect since 1962 -- 53 years! This image reflects the fact that -- in the year 2015 -- President Obama is being forced by right-wing zealots in the U. S. Congress to enforce the embargo that he and the entire world opposes, as reflected by a vote in the United Nations each October. This image embarrasses America's best democracy-loving friends all around the world. Unfortunately, it still does not embarrass enough Americans. In America's two-party political system, it is also unfortunate that no legitimate Republican presidential candidate has the guts or the integrity to denounce the embargo.
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