Just FYI! Children in Cuba belong to the government, not their parents.
Link Elián's Future in a Totalitarian State
by Berit Kjos
"All other things being equal, children belong with their parents. But all other things have not been equal in Cuba since 1959. All other things can never be equal in a country that treats children -- by law -- as political raw material to be exploited by the state. In the civilized world, parents are entrusted with the freedom of shaping their children's values and guiding their education. But in Castro's Caribbean paradise, parents who try to raise their children according to the dictates of conscience have been punished with impoverishment, imprisonment -- and worse." Jeff Jacoby, "If Elián Returns To Cuba, Misery Awaits."
"The problem is that Cuban laws criminalize free speech and free assembly and undercut defendants’ rights to a fair trial.” Human Rights Watch, October 1998.
“Cuba took firm action against nonviolent government critics as the year progressed with surveillance, harassment, and intimidation.” Human Rights Watch, December 1998
"Law No. 88... is so restrictive that a Cuban could now be imprisoned for up to five years for merely writing a letter abroad complaining about food shortages." Human Rights Watch, October 1999
To people who have never known tyranny, it makes sense to "send the child back to his father." Few realize that the traditional American view of what’s "best for the child” doesn’t apply in Elián Gonzales’ native land. In totalitarian countries such as Cuba, parents and children have only one right: to follow the government plan. They must learn Communist ideology, obey oppressive rules, and serve "the state" -- an impersonal and heartless system that enforces absolute compliance.
In a practical sense, Elián’s guiding “father” would be Fidel Castro. His atrocious human rights record show that Cuban children belong to the state, not to parents. Elián’s biological father would be forced to participate in Castro’s primary political plan for the little boy: to purge every trace of capitalist, anti-communist sentiment from his mind and heart and make him a compliant little communist -- one who willingly echoes Castro's hatred for the free world.
This is no empty threat. In the article "Education In Elián’s Cuba: What Americans Don’t Know," Agustín Blázquez writes:
"The education that children like Elián González receive in Cuba from kindergarten on is geared to create a new type of human being. Implicit in the 1976 Cuban constitution is an all-encompassing structure to educate and mold children. Parents do not have the authority to deviate from this structure....
"Beginning in preschool, children are taught songs and poems praising the revolution and Castro, establishing a personality cult around his figure. Also, belief in God is discouraged. They are taught instead, to believe in Castro....
"Compositions and essays, primarily of political content, at the fourth and fifth-grade level concentrate on 'Yankee imperialism' and on denouncing Castro's 'enemies,' fostering intolerance and extreme hatred toward anybody who wants democracy."
This brainwashing process demands punishment for non-compliance, and children who refuse to conform are used as examples to intimidate others. If parents dare to express their displeasure, their children suffer. Mr. Blázquez cites an incident that shows how a child suffered because a grandmother dared report her observations about Cuba:
"Pura Castilla, a Cuba Free Press independent journalist, recalls with bitterness that nine years ago, when her grandson became 7 and Castro’s regime automatically stopped giving him milk, he commented, 'Mother, the only milk left was for my little brother. The milkman said that there is no more milk for me.'"