Скачать или смотреть CUBA: CUBAN BOY CUSTODY BATTLE: PROTESTS

(2 Apr 2000) Spanish/Nat
Tens of thousands of people paid tribute on Saturday to the men who launched the Cuban Revolution more than four decades ago as they rallied to demand the repatriation of Elian Gonzalez.
Gonzalez is the 6-year-boy who was rescued when his mother and ten others drowned trying to get by boat from Cuba to the United States last November.
He has since become the focus of an international custody battle between American relatives who want to keep him in the U-S and his father in Cuba who wants to take him home.
With the historic yacht Granma towering behind him, Raul Castro, younger brother of President Fidel Castro and head of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces was, on Saturday, likening the revolutionary battle to the fight for little Elian.
Tens of thousands of people flocked to Niquero in Cuba's Granma Province on Saturday to pay tribute to the men who launched the Cuban Revolution.
They were also there to show support for the fight to have Elian Gonzalez returned home.
Demonstrators wore T-shirts showing Elian's portrait and waved red, white and blue Cuban flags as protestors shouted messages from the stage.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"Cubans, we will not give the imperialists any respite, we do not trust them in the slightest. There will be no tranquillity here until Elian returns, we will not give up the fight. Our triumph will be the return of Elian."
SUPER CAPTION: Protestor
The Elian Gonzalez custody battle has almost taken on a life of its own.
What was once a cross-border custody battle is now the cause of high-level political discussions and highly-charged protests in both Cuba and the United States.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"Against that monster who has brain-washed you, the hands of Juan Miguel (Elian's father) will save you, and the Cuban people will go with him full of love and euphoria, and when you return in glory, the 'Granma' will return to its rightful port in history."
SUPER CAPTION: Protestor
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"Liberty for Elian! Down with the Cuban Adjustment Act! Down with the lies! Long live Fidel! Long live Raul! Long live Almeida!"
SUPER CAPTION: Protestor
The demonstrators held their rally on the shore of the community of Niquero where the Granma landed on Dec. 2, 1956.
The Granma was commanded by Fidel Castro and carried 82 armed men.
In the years that followed, the guerrilla fighters waged war on the troops of dictator Fulgencio Batista, declaring victory on Jan. 1, 1959 when Batista fled the country.
Castro noted the importance that Cuba's younger generations have played in the communist government's battle to secure Elian's return from the United States, where the boy's Miami relatives are fighting for permanent custody.
As a father and the grandfather of eight children - including a boy who just turned six, the same age as Elian - Castro said he sympathized with the little boy's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.
SOUNDBITE: (Spanish)
"Miami is not the United States, and the Mafia that calls itself the Cuban American Foundation does not represent the Cuban community there. We do not blame the majority of Cubans who live in Miami, who themselves are often victims of the atmosphere of ideological terror, and even physical violence, which has been practised for many years by the so called Foundation in defense of their annexationist politics. Today's fight will not end with the return of Elian, we will continue, united, with powerful weapons of ideas, until the end of the Cuban Adjustment Act, and the end of the Torricelli Amendment, and the end of the Helms Burton act."

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