Castro condemns US for Elian tragedy
On December 23, Cuban president Fidel Castro gave a speech to the school children outside the United States Interests Section in Havana, in which he condemned US immigration policy towards Cuba for encouraging illegal emigration. The speech, during a march to demand the return of six-year-old Elian Gonzalez to Cuba, appears here abridged.
You know that a little boy, Elian, is being held kidnapped in the United States. Just imagine for a minute, what it would be like if any one of you were taken away, a tragedy like what happened to this boy who lost his mother at sea due to the hostility of the government of that powerful country that encourages illegal travel, careless about the death of men, women and children.
Our country places no limits on families who want to emigrate. As the United States is a country that has plundered the world, there are often people and families from poor countries, sometimes influenced by the advertising from the so-called consumer societies, who dream of going to that rich country.
The policy pursued by the revolution is that anyone who wants to leave our country and go somewhere else can do so if they are given permission to enter the other country. Our country does not prevent any family from emigrating because the construction of a revolutionary and just society is a voluntary and free decision.
Limited visas
Our country is not at fault if there are people who leave illegally. Why do they leave illegally? Because the US Interests Section [the US diplomatic mission in Cuba] grants only a limited number of visas, 20,000 a year.
Many people are not given visas to migrate legally because they are not professionals or do not have great skills, or because they have criminal records. And so these people leave by illegal means, without a visa, and they are welcome in the United States. A law is applied to them that gives those who arrive illegally the right to residence. And as soon as they arrive, they are even given permission to work.
The US authorities do not care what happens to them. We have insisted that they stop encouraging people to leave illegally. Their law only applies to Cuba, and not to any other country in the world. It gives them the chance to spread propaganda, to tell lies, and as a result, many people have risked or lost their lives.
When we signed the migratory agreements, they promised they would not encourage illegal emigration but they have not kept that promise. They continued to encourage illegal emigration. People are dying because of this law which encourages illegal migration. That is what causes tragic incidents like the one we are discussing now.
In this case the boat trip on which little Elian was taken away was prepared by a criminal. He had gone to the United States illegally, stayed there for three or four months, and then came back illegally as well. He was caught, and spent some time in jail, perhaps three or four months.
He became a stepfather to Elian. He built a flimsy boat and forced and intimidated the boy's mother into co-operating with him. They headed out to sea on that flimsy boat — the mother and the child with other people who had paid US$1000 each.
They left on the morning of November 22. A Cuban coast guard cutter spotted them, and tried to persuade them not to make the trip. This is always done; they do not use force to intercept the boat, because the use of force could lead to an accident, and there were women and children on board. In the end, if our coast guards fail to persuade people to turn back, they alert the US Coast Guard that a boat is headed their way.
No information
There was no further news between midday on November 22, when the coast guard cutter accompanied them to the 12-mile limit, and November 25. The news arrived on the afternoon of November 25 that a boat with 14 people on board had sunk, that two adults had survived, and that some fishermen had found a boy tied to an inner tube.
No reporters have questioned the two adult survivors. The US authorities in Florida must know who organised this misadventure, how it was done and the day the boat sank, because they have the testimony of the two surviving adults. There was already talk of alien smuggling in a Miami newspaper before we had any details. The US government does not want to tell us anything.
We have tried to find out if Elian's mother wanted to leave the country but as far as we know she had never applied to leave the country legally. And she could have been granted a US visa for she had relatives there, she was a worker who supported a household, and so she would have met all the requirements.
Actually, there is not the slightest evidence that the mother wished to go to the United States, and she could have done it legally accompanied by her son, if the father gave his consent. The one who would not have received a visa, because of his criminal record, was the man who posed as a stepfather.
It is always hard when a child leaves, but we respect the rights of parents, which is something that the US authorities do not do with the children of Cubans. Although it hurts us greatly, we respect the rights of the father or mother, and we do not in any way obstruct the right of a family to legally take their children out of the country. We prove our respect for this right every year, because every year, there are parents and families who travel to the United States with their children by legal and safe means.
On the other hand, over there, they are holding this child, failing to respect the father's right of parental authority, his right as the only surviving parent. The child lost his mother, and now he has only his father, who has been a loving father, and has always truly cared for him. This stands out clear in all the documents and everyone in Cardenas [Elian's home town] knows it, every child in his son's school, all the teachers, all the neighbours. But the boy has not been returned to his father.
Instead, he was handed over to a distant relative who had only seen the child once in his life, and he has been taken over by the whole gang of Cuba's enemies there, the biggest thugs in that country.
Hypocrisy
They talk about a child who arrived there, and how they want him to be happy. What hypocrisy, when at the same time they are waging a relentless economic war against us, trying to starve our people to death, including our children.
In Elian's case, there is not just one injustice, there are at least three aggravating factors: the voyage was illegal; the action was an alien smuggling operation organised by a criminal who caused the death of 11 people, including children, and the tragedy suffered by this child.
Now the [US] authorities cannot figure out what to do and they are going around in circles, their opinions divided; they still have not come to a decision. Meanwhile, the boy has been the target of such vulgar manoeuvres! They are trying to buy his innocence with sophisticated toys, all kinds of junk, taking him to Disneyworld.
Often, they do not even let him talk to his father. The boy's father and maternal and paternal grandparents have repeatedly complained that they are not allowed to talk to the boy.
A month has passed, and now [the US authorities] keep coming up with something new every day, out of fear for the counter-revolutionaries over there. It is for fear of these people that the matter has not been resolved, and it seems they are challenging us to a long struggle.
If it is a long struggle, they should know the price they will have to pay for a long struggle, as the world continues to witness what our people are made of, as we continue to demonstrate our morale, our conscience, our reason and our strength.