Miami Area Mayor Warns of Elian Unrest
Updated 1:49 PM ET March 29, 2000
By Jane Sutton
MIAMI (Reuters) - Miami's county mayor warned on Wednesday that civil unrest and even bloodshed could erupt in the city if the U.S. Justice Department took Cuban shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez from his relatives here and sent him back to his father in Cuba.
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Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas angrily accused the federal authorities of provoking the Cuban American community. He told a news conference that if unrest broke out, local authorities would hold President Clinton and his Attorney General Janet Reno responsible.
Local law enforcement officers would not cooperate with the federal authorities if Elian's parole was revoked, Penelas and other mayors from the Greater Miami area said.
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Tensions were running high on Wednesday in the city, home to a large Cuban American community as the Justice Department said it was prepared to revoke Elian's temporary permission to remain in the United States on Thursday morning if the boy's Miami relatives refuse to guarantee to hand over the 6-year-old if their legal appeal to keep him in the country fails.
The mayors also appealed for calm. But asked by reporters if they were sending a mixed message that could incite civil unrest, Penelas said: "The federal government is provoking the community. They are tossing fuel to the fire."
"We do not condone inappropriate behavior, but I have a responsibility to tell the federal government when they've gone too far. And they've gone to far."
The boy, whose mother drowned along with 10 other people on an ill-fated migrant voyage from Cuba, has been staying with his great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez in Miami since he was picked up at sea off Florida last Nov. 25. His father in Cuba has repeatedly said he wants him back, but his great-uncle is fighting an Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) ruling that he should be returned to the communist-run island.
Lazaro Gonzalez was due to meet INS officials in Miami at 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT) on Wednesday. But in an interview with the Telemundo TV network, Gonzalez said he would not voluntarily turn over Elian.
"I won't cooperate in anything. The boy lives in my house and they'll have to go find him there. I'm not going to deliver him to any immigration office," he said.
Penelas called the Justice Department's handling of the case a "provocation" to the Miami area's 800,000-strong Cuban community.
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"If the Justice Department's handling of this matter, if their continued provocation in the form of unjustified threats to revoke the boy's parole leads to civil unrest and violence, we are holding the government responsible, and specifically Janet Reno and the President of the United States for anything that may occur," he said.
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Cuban exile groups said they would begin a campaign of civil disobedience including a human chain around the home where Elian is staying, a traffic slowdown at Miami's airport and protests across this tense city if the government moves to send the boy back to Cuba.
Miami Mayor Joe Carollo said, "The Miami-Dade Police Department will not be part of snatching Elian Gonzalez from his Miami family to go back to Castro's Cuba."
Although Penelas and other mayors on one hand appealed for the Cuban community to be calm, they also accused the federal government of provocation and said they could not be responsible for what happened.
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"They are provoking this community to an extent that I nor anyone else can control. If blood is shed on the streets of this community as a result of what the Justice Department does, yes, I will hold them responsible," he said.
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The protracted and bitter custody battle over Elian has become a cause celebre on both sides of the Florida strait, pitting members of an extended family against each other and firing up old enmity between Cuba's President Fidel Castro, and anti-communist exile Cubans in Miami.
Castro, 73, and in power for four decades, has launched a national crusade to get Elian back to his father, tourism worker Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
Last week, a federal judge dismissed the Miami relatives' demand that Elian receive a political asylum hearing and upheld the INS's January ruling that the boy belongs with his father. They appealed the ruling to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, which set a timetable ending with oral arguments the week of May 8.
With the tensions mounting in recent days, crowds of supporters have gathered outside the Little Havana home where Elian has been living, and pledged to form a human chain to prevent his removal.
INS officials have insisted they wish to avoid forcibly taking Elian from the Gonzalez home so as not to risk further traumatizing him or provoking unrest in Miami. Immigration experts said the first move was likely to be a direct order to the relatives to surrender him.
Updated 1:49 PM ET March 29, 2000
By Jane Sutton
MIAMI (Reuters) - Miami's county mayor warned on Wednesday that civil unrest and even bloodshed could erupt in the city if the U.S. Justice Department took Cuban shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez from his relatives here and sent him back to his father in Cuba.
****************************************
Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas angrily accused the federal authorities of provoking the Cuban American community. He told a news conference that if unrest broke out, local authorities would hold President Clinton and his Attorney General Janet Reno responsible.
Local law enforcement officers would not cooperate with the federal authorities if Elian's parole was revoked, Penelas and other mayors from the Greater Miami area said.
****************************************
Tensions were running high on Wednesday in the city, home to a large Cuban American community as the Justice Department said it was prepared to revoke Elian's temporary permission to remain in the United States on Thursday morning if the boy's Miami relatives refuse to guarantee to hand over the 6-year-old if their legal appeal to keep him in the country fails.
The mayors also appealed for calm. But asked by reporters if they were sending a mixed message that could incite civil unrest, Penelas said: "The federal government is provoking the community. They are tossing fuel to the fire."
"We do not condone inappropriate behavior, but I have a responsibility to tell the federal government when they've gone too far. And they've gone to far."
The boy, whose mother drowned along with 10 other people on an ill-fated migrant voyage from Cuba, has been staying with his great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez in Miami since he was picked up at sea off Florida last Nov. 25. His father in Cuba has repeatedly said he wants him back, but his great-uncle is fighting an Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) ruling that he should be returned to the communist-run island.
Lazaro Gonzalez was due to meet INS officials in Miami at 4 p.m. EST (2100 GMT) on Wednesday. But in an interview with the Telemundo TV network, Gonzalez said he would not voluntarily turn over Elian.
"I won't cooperate in anything. The boy lives in my house and they'll have to go find him there. I'm not going to deliver him to any immigration office," he said.
Penelas called the Justice Department's handling of the case a "provocation" to the Miami area's 800,000-strong Cuban community.
****************************************
"If the Justice Department's handling of this matter, if their continued provocation in the form of unjustified threats to revoke the boy's parole leads to civil unrest and violence, we are holding the government responsible, and specifically Janet Reno and the President of the United States for anything that may occur," he said.
****************************************
Cuban exile groups said they would begin a campaign of civil disobedience including a human chain around the home where Elian is staying, a traffic slowdown at Miami's airport and protests across this tense city if the government moves to send the boy back to Cuba.
Miami Mayor Joe Carollo said, "The Miami-Dade Police Department will not be part of snatching Elian Gonzalez from his Miami family to go back to Castro's Cuba."
Although Penelas and other mayors on one hand appealed for the Cuban community to be calm, they also accused the federal government of provocation and said they could not be responsible for what happened.
****************************************
"They are provoking this community to an extent that I nor anyone else can control. If blood is shed on the streets of this community as a result of what the Justice Department does, yes, I will hold them responsible," he said.
****************************************
The protracted and bitter custody battle over Elian has become a cause celebre on both sides of the Florida strait, pitting members of an extended family against each other and firing up old enmity between Cuba's President Fidel Castro, and anti-communist exile Cubans in Miami.
Castro, 73, and in power for four decades, has launched a national crusade to get Elian back to his father, tourism worker Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
Last week, a federal judge dismissed the Miami relatives' demand that Elian receive a political asylum hearing and upheld the INS's January ruling that the boy belongs with his father. They appealed the ruling to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, which set a timetable ending with oral arguments the week of May 8.
With the tensions mounting in recent days, crowds of supporters have gathered outside the Little Havana home where Elian has been living, and pledged to form a human chain to prevent his removal.
INS officials have insisted they wish to avoid forcibly taking Elian from the Gonzalez home so as not to risk further traumatizing him or provoking unrest in Miami. Immigration experts said the first move was likely to be a direct order to the relatives to surrender him.