Elian Gonzalez saga emerges as issue in presidential campaign
Jun. 20, 2008 04:33 PM
McClatchy Newspapers
MIAMI - Standing in the front yard of the house where immigration agents seized Elian Gonzalez, the child rafter's great-uncle and great-aunt detailed plans for a protest Saturday when Barack Obama will speak to a mayors' conference.

Delfin Gonzalez, who called Friday's news conference at the Elian Little Havana house, said he, his sister Caridad and other Gonzalez family members were upset that among the presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee's advisers are two men who helped return the child to Cuba eight years ago.

Obama's foreign policy adviser Greg Craig represented Elian's father in the custody battle. Eric Holder, a member of Obama's vice presidential search committee, was deputy attorney general when then-Attorney General Janet Reno ordered the then-6-year-old boy seized.
"My fear is that those who collaborated with the Cuba's communist government and made a great mistake with a defenseless child will make the same mistake again against this nation that is facing danger from terrorism," Delfin Gonzalez told reporters at the small one-story house that immigration agents raided April 22, 2000. It now also serves as a museum detailing the boy's odyssey.

Speaking from a waterfront park along the St. John's River in Jacksonville, Fla., Obama briefly responded to the flap:

"That was eight years ago and obviously it was a wrenching situation for the families, but I'm running for president in 2008 and my focus is: how do we create a Cuba policy that will create political freedom on that island and allow the people who live there to prosper. That's not what we have right now," he said. He referred to his "extensive approach" to Cuba policy that he outlined in an address to the Cuban American National Foundation.

In his May 23 speech at a foundation luncheon, Obama repeated his intention to use "direct diplomacy" to bring change in Cuba - an allusion that he would be willing to meet with Cuban leader Raul Castro. He also wants to lift President Bush's 2004 travel restrictions that limit exiles to one trip to Cuba every three years instead of annually to visit relatives.

Delfin Gonzalez deplored Obama's position.

"It's a great mistake because by going to Cuba they supply the money that the Cuban regime needs to continue repressing the people," he said.

Delfin and Caridad Gonzalez said they plan to join the Vigilia Mambisa protest starting at noon in front of the InterContinental Hotel in downtown Miami where Obama plans to address the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Miami Mayor Manny Diaz is the group's incoming president. Before being elected mayor, Diaz belonged to the legal team representing Elian's Miami relatives.

Delfin Gonzalez, a supporter of presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, said that the Republican Party did not put him up to denouncing Obama's advisors.

Asked why Elian's other great-uncle, Lazaro, and Lazaro's daughter Marisleysis were not on hand for Friday's news conference, Delfin said they could not attend because they were working but that they supported the protest .








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