Some Miami relatives of Elián González plan a protest Saturday at the
hotel where Barack Obama is scheduled to address the nation's mayors.
Posted on Sat, Jun. 21, 2008
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@MiamiHerald.com
Standing in the front yard of the house where immigration agents seized
Elián González, the child rafter's great-uncle and great-aunt detailed
plans for a protest Saturday when Barack Obama will speak to a mayors'
conference.
Delfín González, who called Friday's news conference at the Elián Little
Havana house, said he, his sister Caridad and other González family
members were upset that among the presumptive Democratic Party
presidential nominee's advisors are two men who helped return the child
to Cuba eight years ago.
Obama's foreign policy adviser Greg Craig represented Elián'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,'' Delfín 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 Jacksonville's St. John's River,
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 Raúl 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.
Delfín 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.
Delfín and Caridad González said they plan to join the Vigília Mambísa
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 Elián's
Miami relatives.
Delfín 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.
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