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Agents Snatch Elian From Miami Relatives
By Margarita Martin-Hidalgo
MIAMI (Reuters) - Armed U.S. agents stormed the home of the Miami relatives
of Cuban castaway Elian Gonzalez on Saturday and snatched the crying 6-year-old
boy in a stunning predawn raid aimed at reuniting Elian with his father.
Agents battered down the door and charged into the home of the relatives who
defied government orders to give up custody of the boy. They then whisked Elian
away in a white van, setting off chaos in the streets outside the house where
Cuban American protesters have been keeping vigil.
An armed and helmeted agent grabbed the boy from the arms of Donato Dalrymple,
one of the fishermen who rescued Elian from the Atlantic Ocean five months ago,
as the two huddled in a closet.
Other armed agents held the Miami relatives at bay, witnesses said.
Pepper spray and tear gas were released outside the home, choking protesters,
witnesses said.
``They took this kid like a hostage in the nighttime,'' Dalrymple said. ``He (Elian)
was shouting, 'que pasa, que pasa' (what's happening), 'help me, help me.' They
ripped him from my arms. They held the family with guns in the living room.''
``They're animals,'' a weeping Marisleysis Gonzalez, the boy's cousin,
shouted to protesters after the raid.
The U.S. agents took the boy at about 5:15 a.m. EDT, using surprise and the
cover of darkness to end a long and bitter standoff between the boy's Miami
relatives, who have said the motherless child should not have to grow up under
communism in Cuba, and the U.S. government, which has insisted he should be
reunited with his father.
Elian has been living in the Little Havana home of his great-uncle Lazaro
Gonzalez since last November when he survived the sinking of a migrant smuggling
boat in which his mother and 10 others died.
His rescue touched off a ferocious international custody fight with Cold War
overtones, pitting the Florida relatives, backed by hard-line anti-communist
Cuban exiles, against Elian's father Juan Miguel Gonzalez, supported by Cuban
President Fidel Castro.
The U.S. Justice Department issued a brief statement early Saturday saying
the boy had been safely removed from the home and was on his way to a reunion
with his father. The boy was being flown to Andrews Air Force Base near
Washington. It was unclear where the reunion would take place.
U.S. authorities tried late Friday to broker a last-minute deal for the Miami
relatives to turn over the boy peacefully to his father, who traveled to the
United States more than two weeks ago to reclaim his son.
Only about four dozen Cuban American protesters were keeping vigil outside
the home when authorities launched the lightning raid. The demonstrators threw
chairs and other objects at the van carrying Elian away and wept openly in the
streets.
The crowd swelled to several hundred people moments after the boy was taken away
as angry residents of the tense Little Havana neighborhood poured into the
streets.
Miami police cordoned off the neighborhood to keep the crowd under control.
As news spread through Miami and people spilled onto the streets, police in riot
gear took up positions at intersections.
It was shortly after 5 a.m. EDT when three white vans moved quickly through
the cramped streets of Little Havana, each appearing to contain a half dozen or
more agents, witnesses said.
As the vans neared the house, protesters yelled: ``They're coming. They're
coming to pick up the kid.''
Agents yelled ``Bingo, Bingo'' as they left the house with Elian, the boy
held tightly in the arms of a female agent. Agents wearing helmets with eye
shields yelled at the crowd: ''Stay behind the barricades.''
``This is a disgrace,'' said Leo Acosta, 23. ``The American government is
going to look like a joke to the rest of the world.''
Dalrymple said an agent, heavily armed and wearing a riot helmet and goggles,
snatched the boy from his arms as the two hid in a closet.
``The whole world is watching,'' one weeping protester said.
U.S. authorities spent weeks trying to arrange a peaceful transfer of Elian
from Lazaro Gonzalez to his father but were thwarted at every turn.
This week, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that Elian
would have to stay in the United States pending the outcome of an appeal filed
by the Miami relatives to a Miami federal court decision backing a U.S.
government decision to return the boy to his father.
Late Thursday, President Clinton said the ruling removed the last remaining
objection to the reunion of father and son. But the Miami relatives still
insisted the boy would not be handed over without conditions.
The predawn seizure stunned Cuban Americans who had been demonstrating for
weeks outside the home, vowing they would not allow U.S. agents to take the boy.
Witnesses said some of the small crowd of protesters tried to form a ``human
chain'' to prevent the seizure but were rebuffed by tear gas, pepper spray and
armed law enforcement officers who kept them behind police barricades.
``They said they were going to do this in a sensitive way. What does this do
to this little boy? What have they done to this boy?'' said Dalrymple. ``He lost
his mother, and now this.''
Miami's Cuban American Mayor Joe Carollo said. ``This was not a military
camp, this was not a military bunker. This is a plain home of decent,
hard-working people. There was no need for this.''
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