< back
ELIAN GONZALEZ UPDATE
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata said recently that the Elian Gonzalez situation has become too politically charged, and that politics should not play a role in the case.  During a visit to Cuba, the Commissioner said that the “fundamental consideration” in the decision on his fate should be “the best interests of the child.”  Ogata was in Cuba to persuade Castro to sign the US treaty on refugees. 
The US has been using its actions to reunite Elian with his father to pressure the Cuban government to allow reunification of Cubans with family in the US.  US authorities believe that there are hundreds of Cubans who have visas allowing them to immigrate to the US but cannot leave Cuba because they lack the necessary exit visas to leave Cuba.  
This is expected to be just one of many topics discussed during the upcoming biannual meeting on migration between the US and Cuba.  Cuban representatives are expected to raise their concern that US immigrant policy toward Cuba encourages Cubans to risk their lives. 
On another note, many Cuban-Americans were angered this week by photographs of Elian Gonzales wearing the scarf of the Young Pioneers, an organization to which all Cuban schoolchildren are expected to belong. Many view the organization as a critical tool for communist indoctrination and feat that Elian is already being brainwashed.