ELIAN GONZALEZ CONTROVERSY CONTINUES

The Elian Gonzalez story continues to grow more and more sordid. Much debate and controversy has surrounded the reports of Elian’s grandmothers’ visit with him last week.  One of the women, speaking on Cuban television after the visit, said she bit his tongue and unzipped his pants “to see how much he had grown.”  The remarks have caused shock throughout the Cuban community in Miami, which has stated that such actions are not part of Cuban custom.  The statements have led to two investigations, one by the Miami Beach police and the other by the Florida Department of Children and Families.

In other developments, as politicians seem increasingly unwilling to take up proposed citizenship legislation, support for keeping Elian in the US seems to be growing in some quarters.  The nun who hosted the meeting with the grandmothers, who initially favored returning Elian to Cuba, has twice met with congressional leaders to argue that he should remain.  Also, the president of the Global Peace Initiative, a nonprofit organization that seeks to find solutions for regional conflicts, recently returned from Cuba and announced that Elian’s father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, is clearly under the control of the Cuban government.

According to Elian’s Miami family, which is hoping for a meeting with Attorney General Janet Reno, they have new evidence affecting the decision on Elian.  A spokesperson for the Cuban American National Foundation, which is arranging the meeting, stated that Elian’s father called Miami before Elian was found and asked the family there to take care of him. 

One final note, it was recently revealed that Lazaro Gonzalez, Elian’s great-uncle who has been spearheading the effort to keep the boy in Miami, has been convicted at least two times of driving while intoxicated, and that another uncle, Delfin Gonzalez, has also been convicted of the same offense.