Fidel Castro took an active role in May Day festivities for the first time in years Monday, marching in the parade and ending a speech with a cell-phone call to Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who is fighting to bring his son, Elian, home to Cuba.
Published:
3 May 2000 y., Wednesday
Castro traded his black boots for white tennis shoes, grasped a red, white and blue Cuban flag and led hundreds of thousands of people through the streets of Havana. With a white T-shirt peeking out from his traditional olive green uniform, the 73-year-old leader who has ruled this island for 41 years guided a sea of chanting, flag-waving men, women and children from Havana's sprawling Plaza of the Revolution to the U.S. Interests Section almost two miles away. The scene was reminiscent of Castro in his early years in power, after the revolution that triumphed on New Year's Day 1959. During his speech, Castro linked Elian's case to Cuba's struggle against the U.S. trade embargo and international
criticism of the island's human-rights record. He accused a "Cuban-American terrorist mob" of fighting to keep the shipwreck survivor in the United States.
Castro said he is not convinced that an appeals court in Atlanta, which has set a May 11 hearing in the case, will rule in favor of Elian's father. Father and son are staying in the United States pending the hearing on a request by their Miami relatives for a political asylum hearing for the boy.
The gathering this year was also unusual in that it was being described as an "open tribune" - the government term used to describe the mass concentrations regularly held to press for Elian's return to Cuba.
Elian's case has absorbed Cubans and their government since Nov. 25, when the boy was found floating on an inner tube off the Florida coast following a boating accident that killed his mother and 10 others.
The castaway quickly found himself at the center of an international custody battle. His anti-communist Miami relatives are fighting to keep him in the United States, while his father is demanding to take the boy back to Cuba. Elian was reunited with his father in Washington last week after a dramatic raid of the Miami relatives' home. Armed agents whisked the boy away and flew him to his dad. The raid has been bitterly criticized by the Miami relatives and many of their supporters in South Florida's large Cuban-American community, as well as by conservative members of Congress.
Šaltinis:
nandotimes.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
The use of animals in scientific experiments could soon be reduced by new legislation, approved by the Agriculture Committee on Monday, which strives to strike the right balance between improving animal welfare and assisting research against diseases.
more »
EU holidaymakers travelling by plane or train are protected by a whole range of consumer rights.
more »
The European Commission welcomes the European Parliament voting in favour of a regulation on rights of passengers travelling by sea and by inland waterways.
more »
Mobile phones, computers, TVs - we like them but where do they go when we are finished with them? In the worst case they can be dismantled by hand for scrap by children in developing countries.
more »
Following the death of President Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas, on 28 June Lithuanian Embassies abroad opened the door for people, who want to sign the Condolence Book.
more »
Passengers will enjoy easier access to information about their rights when travelling by rail or air thanks to a Europe-wide publicity campaign in 23 languages launched by the European Commission today.
more »
Lithuania has been grieved by the heartbreaking news about the decease of Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas, former President, Prime Minister, Signatory to the Act of Independence, and the first Head of State of Lithuania after the Restoration of Independence.
more »
We have lost a warm person and a prominent politician who had been at the wheel of state at challenging and difficult stages in the history of Lithuania.
more »
Europe's financial and economic crisis is increasingly becoming a social crisis too, and is testing European solidarity to the limit.
more »
In a move to enforce a style of dress they believe is in accordance with sharia law, the authorities in the Muslim Indonesian province of West Aceh are handing out long skirts to women wearing tight pants.
more »