Catching up with Elian

The Beeb has done a sweet little piece on how well Elian Gonzalez and his father are doing 5 years after their ordeal- you remember, the tortuous fight to return Elian to the father and Presidente who loved him, the fight to wrest him from the clutches of relatives in Miami who were using him to draw attention to the supposed plight of Cubans, in a disgusting display of political opportunism.  Finally, father Juan Miguel and La Barba Selvaje were joined in the fight by Janet Reno, who sent a SWAT team into rescue the little tyke from the evil uncle because "she heard that there were guns in the house" (cue the twilight zone music and let your mind wander to Waco: "We heard that they were molesting children...").  We think that a Cuban should speak to this so we defer to Babalu Blog:

The Elian saga is over.
At 5:00 P.M. EDT, he is on his way back to the tropical worker's paradise. For those of us who love and cherish freedom and who truly know what this country stands for, it is the final nail in the coffin made board by board since April 22, 2000, at 5:15AM. It is a sad day indeed. For some, it will be a relief not to hear another word about the little kid. Still others are very happy at the result. Bill Clinton, Janet Reno and their stormtroopers are happy—sig heil, Bill and Janet! Keep those safeties on! Ruby Ridge, Waco, Miami: one more victory for the omnipotent state!
—The communists and their fellow travelers, hiding behind Oprahized touchy-feely, liberal hypocrisy, are happy.
—The Useful Idiots—the misguided and moronic left—are happy. Lenin was right.
—The infamous Christian (?) “reverend” Joan Brown Campbell is happy. Joan, Jesus is so proud! He's got a special place reserved just for you...
—Greg Craig is happy—and a little richer thanks to the aforementioned “reverend.”
 —Kendall Coffey is happy—the albatross is finally off his back. That pepper spray you smell is the aroma of your failure.
 —Fidel Castro is very happy (one more victory for La Revolución—socialismo o muerte, venceremos! It is a superior system, damn it!) And he continues to rule Cuba, continues to imprison, continues to murder and continues to silence dissent 41 years and counting...
—Juan Miguel is really, really happy—he won't be losing his neck in a sugarcane field or in a prison thanks to what he's done to his little boy.

In fact Juan Miguel has done very well for himself.  According the aforementioned BBC article, he lives in one of the more comfortable houses in Cardenas, has a seat in the national assembly as of 2001, and still works as a waiter at a local tourist resort.  As for Elian, he is a normal little boy.  Everyone says so.  His great aunt, who misses her family in Miami and has no way to contact them, says that Elian

Elian appears unaffected by the ordeal. "He's so like his mother," she says. "Very calm. Very quiet. He was always like that."

Yes, Haydee, so maybe someday he will die trying to get his child to freedom and a better life.  Did we mention that his mother tied him to an inner tube to keep him from drowning before she herself perished with ten others off the coast of Florida?  or as the BBC puts it

His mother, and 10 other people attempting to enter the US as illegal immigrants, drowned.

By the way, her name was Elizabet Brontons.

Comments

[Seton Motley]

The insistence of the Media to perpetually prop up the Castro regime never ceases to disgust me.

Keep in mind, folks, that Castro is once again relevant, as he is now mentoring Venezuelan thug Hugo Chavez, who has money (via bountiful oil reserves) with which to support himself and his Communistic endeavors.

He is, of course, tossing a few scheckels to Fidel for the assistance.

The Soviets fell, Communism has (yet) not.

[Juan Paxety]

Another thing the BBC has wrong - Cubans escaping to the U.S. are not illegal immigrants - they are refugees under the law - a wholly different thing.

[bbmoe]

After reading enough of what the BBC passes off as reporting, saying the BBC got it wrong is kind of like saying "chauffeur-driven limosine." No one drives their own limo and the Beeb doesn't get it right. You'll find in these posts that we use BBC as a reference sparingly and only when we want to highlight the outrageous slant. In this case they were not only wrong factually but revealed their deep antipathy toward anyone who would want to escape the "Worker's Paradise." For them, Mexicans, are "economic refugees" but Cubans are illegals.
Oh, Juan, you got me going...

[Noel]

Now that you mention it, I don't recall hearing Miss Brontons' name. I do recall Clinton saying she was merely an economic refugee; in other words, she was 'only in it for the money'. The man is True Scum.

I'll be adding your excellent blog to my blogroll.