Latest News from Cuba

CSPE Links

Elian is taken by force by American federal agents

On 25 November 1999 Elian was found floating on an inner tube off the Florida coast after the boat taking him from Cuba sank killing his mother and 10 other people. Following his rescue Elian lived with his great-uncle in Miami's Little Havana district. His relatives in the US said he was better off with them than returning to Cuba.

The dispute over Elian sparked mass demonstrations in Cuba and the USA. In Cuba the government led one of the largest mass campaigns in the country's recent history. The international media took a huge interest in Elian's plight. Both sides accused the other of using Elian as a propaganda tool for their own political purposes.

Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, flew to the US on 6 April, accompanied by his wife and baby son, to take Elian back home. President Fidel Castro bid farewell to him at the airport in Havana. American Attorney General Janet Reno has vowed to reunite father and son in line with the law.

Anti-Castro supporters formed a human chain around Elian's great-uncle's house in Little Havana, determined to stop the boy being taken away. But in the early hours of Saturday 22 April, US federal agents stormed the Little Havana house and seized Elian. He had been hiding in a cupboard with the fisherman who rescued him from the sea. Elian was taken away crying and screaming, after five months in Little Havana. Elian was finally reunited with his father and returned to Cuba.