Dear Editor,
My family was totally dismayed at the recent suggestions by Al Gore that the law doesn't apply to the case of Elian Gonzalez, and when Cuban American National Foundation's Jorge Maas claimed in the national media that other non-Cuban Spanish speaking American voting citizens see this issue in the same light, we had to speak out!
NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER from the truth!
The fact is that WE DO NOT agree with the Cuban American foundation on this issue or any other issue concerning Cuba and Central and South America.
These lawless right-wing individuals in Miami are not representative of all Spanish speakers who will vote in the coming election. I for one support Al Gore's run for the presidency but now have doubts about his integrity. And as you clearly state there is no alternative to vote for.
The Cuban American Foundation has as its goal the ouster of Fidel Castro and six-year-old Elian Gonzalez is just another way to accomplish that goal.
They are so transparent. They have no real love for this boy. Their hatred of the Cuban ruler is what really drives them on! Judging by what they're doing to this little boy do they really think that we non-Cubans would support them? Are they the future of a free Cuba? We don't think so!
By the way just about everything I buy these days is made in China? Aren't they still communist? We trade with China why not with Cuba?
Six-year-old Elian has a father and he is the only one who can speak for that boy. If the distant relatives in Miami want to keep him, then they should seek to legally adopt him. But they know they can't so instead have decided to just hold Elian until they get their way. This is wrong!
It is about time that the Cuban right in Miami stopped dictating the policies of this country towards Cuba and the rest of Central and South America. They do not speak for all Spanish-speaking citizens of the United States and we are going to let all the politicians know this on election day!
FC
Rockaway, New York
2 April 2000
This whole Elian thing is getting kind of old. What if your child was kidnapped by your wife and something happened to her. Would you want the child to be with some relatives that showered him/her with gifts or with the legal parent?
Send this little child back with his father ASAP.
RT
4 April 2000
The Justice Department and the INS are both wrong in sending Elian back to Cuba to his father. Where is the stand for the home of the brave and the free? Why shouldn't we offer Elian political asylum? We should! Instead of sending Elian back to becoming a Castro subject and still being away from his “Dad,” who's supposed to be so caring about the boy. Send Janet Reno to Cuba instead.
JK
26 March 2000
Dear WSWS,
It would be significant to note the role the unions have played in Al Gore's move to back the right-wing Cuban exiles in Miami.
On March 23, labor leaders submitted the name of rabid anti-Castro, Cuban-American Congressman Robert Menendez to Al Gore as a presidential running mate.
Communications Workers of America (CWA), the National Teachers Union and Electrical Workers International Brotherhood are among the unions backing this move.
According to the report published on EFE via COMTEX, Loretta Bowen, the main liaison between the CWA and Congress, said she will launch within two weeks an all-out campaign on behalf of her union in support of Menendez for vice president.
The labor leaders backing Menendez believe that a Hispanic on the ticket would offset the influence that the Bush brothers have both in Texas and in Florida with mostly Cuban-Americans.
LM
1 April 2000