The mayor, like so many of those crazed exiles in Miami, was in his efforts to keep Elian in Florida behaving little better than a thug.
These people held a little boy as hostage for their politics. That is simply contemptible.
Elian had a loving father, extended family, and friends in Cuba, but this bunch broke the laws and ignored court orders in their adopted country to abuse the boy psychologically and put him in an impossible situation.
The entire shabby set of events was the result of a stupid set of American policies. America, as a way of getting at Castro, gave virtually automatic green cards to any Cuban who made it into American waters.
This thoughtless policy caused many poor people, including the boy's mother, to try reaching the U.S. in pathetic wrecks, putting their lives at risk on the high seas.
In effect, the American policy was responsible for her death and the deaths of many others.
If you want to understand just how peculiar this American policy was - it has since been altered - just consider the efforts of poor Haitians to reach the U.S. a few years back. They were all turned back, and none were given green cards. They were trying to leave horrors behind to improve their lives, but they didn’t happen to be running from the right hated government. The terrors and hideous poverty of Haiti were just fine.
The same groups who held Elian hostage and abused his affection for his father included people who had been part of CIA-sponsored anti-Castro terror groups in the 1960s. There were huge training camps and tons of supplies and millions of dollars supplied to people who did stuff like shoot up ships in Cuban harbors, plant bombs in Cuban hotels, and blow up the odd airline. The scale of operations made bin Laden’s little camp in the mountains look like a boy-scout operation.
Their terror operations included activities in the U.S. There were a number of violent incidents, including a Miami newsman, writing things that were unacceptable to them, who had his legs blown off.
More than one student of the Kennedy assassination has concluded that some of the most violent of these people were responsible for the president’s death. The assassination clearly was about trying to catapult the United States into an invasion of Cuba. Kennedy became hated by these groups after his agreement to end the Cuban Missile Crisis including a promise not to again invade Cuba.
American policy over Cuba this last 45 years has caused an immense amount of misery, violence, and waste. But some of these exiles still try to exact concessions through American politics, and the silly politicians encourage them.
