Original subtitles

If I stay here, I'’ll die.

Of hunger, of want.

Are you going alone or with your family?

With the whole family, of course.

I remember that day very vividly,

it was Thanksgiving.

It was pitch black to the north

and to the east was like this,

this ray of light coming up where the sun was starting to come up.

They called me the fisherman, but, I really hadn'’t been out fishing a lot.

My cousin Sam, he's more of a fisherman than me.

He said, look for seaweed, look for debris,

anything that was floating on the ocean surface.

Maybe like three miles off the coast

I said to him, like that inner tube right there?

He said, yeah, go over there.

I said to my cousin, look, it's a sick joke.

We thought it was a doll tied to an inner tube.

We thought it was like a joke, you know?

We'’re rocking all over the boat

and all of a sudden I see the hand move.

He goes, "hurry, go, go, go, go!"

Before I could blink my eyes my cousin's not on the boat any longer,

he's in the water

and he's screaming, "It's a baby!"

When I got underneath him, he reached over, he grabbed me by the neck

and I tried to kick my way back to the boat.

I'’m trying not to fall into the water and he's trying to push up

and I just grabbed this child and I held him in my arms.

And then my cousin got on the phone with his wife.

911 what's your emergency?

My husband found a five year old child

and he has him on the boat.

All the local news stations,

they were out there in helicopters, we were thinking,

wow, this is a little bigger than what we thought it was.

Don'’t worry about me, just go ahead with whatever...

It was definitely a... a miracle.

We happened to be at the right place at the right time.

It ain'’t like oh, you'’re a miracle, you were there.

Maybe people believe in it, but I don'’t.

- Do you know this boy? - No

I am Elian Gonzalez.

You may remember me, you may not.

The story of what happened is not written down.

What remains are just people's memories.

What happened to me wasn'’t a movie. It was a true story.

And from the ocean waters off the coast of Florida tonight,

a real life Thanks Giving story to tell you about.

...found him clinging to an inner tube on Thanks Giving.

...part of a group of 13 Cuban rafters. Only two others rescued alive.

Elian's mother is believed to have drowned,

but he has cousins he just met in Miami.

This is the story of a little boy from Cuba whose mother died bringing him

to freedom in the United States.

Or maybe it's the story of a boy shipwrecked in Miami

whose Cuban father just wanted him back.

It was always supposed to be Elian's story

although a lot of other people would try to make it their own.

The first thing that came to my mind, how did he survive by himself

when he's only five?

And the only thing I could properly say is that it's just a miracle,

God wanted him here for freedom.

So he's here.

And he's here and he will get it.

I'’ll never forget. He was sitting there, he was about to have soup.

The first thing I said, was "Don'’t eat that".

So he just looked straight up at me and he's like, "Is it bad?"

And I'’m like, "yes, don'’t eat that we'll get you something better than that."

That moment was our first connection

and then after that he would always ask me for everything.

Every raft that would come from Cuba you would always see it on TV.

So when I saw the press there, to me that was normal. That's what they're there for.

When Elian and his cousin Marisleysis waved goodbye from the hospital

the next day, the story could have ended there.

Another Cuban rafter makes his home in Miami.

Ready to go home.

Like so many Cuban families, the Gonzalez clan

had come apart in the years after Fidel Castro's revolution.

From the small town of Cardenas on Cuba's north coast,

Aunts and Uncles of Elian's father had made their way across the Florida Straits,

settling in the Miami enclaves of Hialeah and Little Havana.

The eldest of Elian's great uncles, Delfin,

had come in the late 1970s, after spending years

as a political prisoner in Castro's jails.

He found a quiet life in the Florida Keys,

where he made his living selling lobster traps.

Delfin's younger brother, Lazero, followed with his wife and two children.

He worked mostly as an auto- body repair man, but struggled to find a steady job.

Lazero's daughter, Marisleysis

had arrived in the United States when she was Elian's age.

At 21, she processed loans at a local bank and dreamed of opening a hair salon.

I'’m told that of all the family members you are the one that Elian

has bonded with most. Do you feel that bond?

I sure do.

Definitely I feel like, he's been my brother since a little kid.

How is the boy doing?

Say hello to the people.

Ola!

Elian, what have you been doing?

Playing with your cousin?

What did you play?

Maybe two days later, I got a call

fromGood Morning America,

and they asked me if I would like to reunite

with Elian Gonzalez. I said, I would love to.

What's your name, Sir?

My name is Donato. Donato Dalrymple.

Some people go out fishing for fish and for treasures, and for me, this is a treasure

in the deep right here. Elian, to see this gift of God,

I believe that's what he really is, to hang out in the water

for that many days, I don'’t know how long it was, but I mean,

he's definitely a gift to God and I'’m really privileged to be next to him, to touch him.

That's awesome, man, that is awesome. What a beautiful kid.

- Yeah. - He is beautiful.

It's weird to think when he grows up...

So if this little boy has to go back to Cuba, it would really break your heart,

wouldn'’t it?

Sorry.

His Mom died for him

and I feel that he deserves to be here,

because that's what his Mom wanted. His Mom is first to me.

We were all so scared to ask him what happened

and then there was that day and he said,

"and I woke up and my mum was not there, she must have drowned. She drowned."

I swallowed real hard and I grind my teeth not to cry,

and I looked at him and I said,

"she is always watching over you,

so don'’t ever say your mom is dead

because she has to always live in your heart."

I was a kid, for me it was a game. I was asleep when they took me.

When we got to the coast, I asked, "Where are we going?"

They say, "we'’re going to see your uncles."

Later, I remember the boat breaking down.

They put me on the inner tube.

I'’d lift my head, look around, and fall asleep again.

My mom kept me giving me water...

She covered me with a blanket...

I remember waking up later

and seeing my Mom and her friend arguing...

When I wake up again, I only see my Mom.

The next time, I don'’t see anyone.

I survived because of my Mom.

There were already rumors on the street they had gone.

But at this point, we didn'’t know anything.

In Cuba, Elian's father, Juan Miguel, hadn'’t known that his ex-wife

and her boyfriend had taken Elian away on a homemade boat,

hoping to start their lives over in the United States.

Frantic to find them,

Juan Miguel and his parents immediately began calling their relatives in Miami.

But almost from the start

the two sides of the family were talking past each other.

What did we tell them as family to do?

Take care of him.

Make sure everything is fine until we can arrange to bring him home.

I thought after everything he'’d been through, losing his mother,

and I as his father claiming him

they would just put the boy on a plane back to Cuba.

I remember my Dad saying that,

"you know Juan Miguel says to take care of him

until he can come over here". At the beginning of everything I always had a picture

in my mind that he was going to come and stay and it was like wow my whole family

is going to be reunited.

Juan Miguel's branch of the family was rooted comfortably in Cuba.

He and his parents were loyal members of the ruling communist party

and Juan Miguel who had remarried,

had a good job at the nearby beach resort of Varadero.

When they needed help they didn'’t hesitate to ask the Cuban government.

No, Juan, Juan Miguel Gonzalez.

I began to check around,

I went to the Party offices, to the government -

asking what I had to do to get my son back.

Our family in Miami always hoped that someday my father would join them there.

At first, they wanted to help us in good faith.

Then the family changed.

Morning, lleana.

How's it going? Good to see you. Hey, Mark, how's it going?

Got some gifts there that the Congresswoman wants to give you.

As soon as Elian's rescue made the local news,

uninvited guests began to descend on the Gonzalez home in Little Havana.

People are literally dying to flee Cuba.

Among the first was Jorge Mas Santos, the head of the most powerful

exile group, the Cuban-American National Foundation.

When we saw this image of this young boy who had lost his mother at sea,

I think the image of everything that Cuban-Americans felt,

I thought the Cuban-American National Foundation

should use this as messaging of a human story, of a human tragedy.

That's why we developed a p�ster and the campaign

to bring attention to something that we need to stop.

This is a typical tragic Miami story that has to do with people

trying to leave Cuba and drowning at sea.

We sent that out to a lot of different media.

All of a sudden it became a national story.

They made T-shirts with Elian's picture on, they disseminated it,

but choosing to highlight Elian it caught the interest of Fidel Castro immediately,

and it made Fidel Castro focus laser beam on Elian and said,

"I am going to use this opportunity to get back at the Miami community",

and he did it perfectly.

On December second, Fidel summoned me to an interview.

Fidel said, "Look, if you decide to go, there's no problem.

We will open all the doors. We'’ll arrange it.

You go with your family and join the boy."

I told him no, I didn'’t want to leave.

I wanted to bring my son back here.

He said, "If that's what you decide,

our whole country will take to the streets to demand your son's return."

There will be millions of people in the streets

demanding the child's freedom.

And they won'’t stop until the boy is returned!

Cuba, yes! Yankee, no!

If they are halfway intelligent,

they will announce the boy's return within 72 hours.

Thank you very much.

NBC News in depth tonight, the struggle over a little boy.

Even his new puppy came from a member of congress.

On Sunday, Castro demanded that the U.S. return the boy within 72 hours.

Nobody has the right to steal a boy from his father.

White house officials clearly don'’t want this dispute

to become a big international incident.

Don'’t forget, that country is in an election campaign, says Castro.

America has determined enemies who hate our values.

We'’ve just begun to fight.

Well, of course, I'’d rather grow up in the United States,

but there may be other considerations there.

Cuban officials are promising twice as many protesters today as this country unites around

the powerful symbol of a six year old child caught between two worids.

What matters to us above all...

is that the boy return,

that he stop suffering.

Whose fault is it that the boy is suffering now?

One more day, one more week? Not ours!

The Elian case was a very important national unifying factor.

It was a moment in the long history

of confrontation between Cuba and the U.S.

The uprising that brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959 overthrew

a brutal dictatorship that was closely allied with the United States.

The revolutionaries promised a more just and democratic society,

even as Castro consolidated his own power quickly and ruthlessly.

Well-off Cubans began fleeing to Miami as soon as the rebels took power

and the exodus continued as Castro confiscated private property

and nationalized American owned oil refineries.

Are you a Communist, Fidel?

Well...

Wait for the history, the history will say what we are.

With Castro drawing closer to the Soviets,

the American Government punished Cuba with an economic embargo.

Then it backed an invasi�n by Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs.

The bitter exiles would blame their defeat on the American's halfhearted support.

But Castro reveled in his victory,

which made him a hero to revolutionaries around the worid

and gave him enemies in Miami and Washington that he would exploit for years to come.

And the worms, the privileged ones, the parasites,

and the children of the parasites -

who want to hoist the shameful flag

of crime and betrayal of the fatherland

should know that they won'’t face little gentlemen.

They are going to face men!

New waves of Cuban refugees poured into Miami.

What are conditions like there now?

- In Cuba? - Yes.

Bad condition. We have no dress, we have no food, we have difficult for all things there.

Where do you plan to settle here in the United States?

In Miami, where my mother live and my sister.

It was really kind of a red-neck town.

It was a southern,

uh, tough, good old boy, white town.

Then into this atmosphere comes thousands of Spanish-speaking refugees,

bringing with them this fire in their hearts from this experience that they have had

having to flee their homeland.

Washington gave the refugees a special status

with an easy path to citizenship.

But the Cubans didn'’t see themselves as immigrants,

they were exiles,

just waiting for the chance to seize their country back from Castro.

We are not here to settle down, we came here

to fight for our freedom to get back to our homeland.

There were hundreds of people who were on the CIA payrolls

who would work a factory-job Monday through Friday

and on weekends they'’d pop in a boat

and blow something up in Cuba and come back and start the factory on Monday.

Eventually they attacked one of the Castro patrol boats and sank it by night.

Hard line exiles also turned violently on anyone they saw

as being soft on the communists.

There was fear. There was actual domestic terrorism

directed at moderate voices in the Cuban community that would say something like,

"gosh, maybe the embargo isn'’t such a great idea."

If you spoke out you took your life in your hands.

There were people getting blown up in their automobiles.

We will keep

uh, sending people into the island to keep the sabotage

and the patriotic agents

against the regime until Cuba be free again.

After years of in-fighting the Miami Cubans found their own

charismatic leader in Jorge Mas Canosa.

A wealthy businessman,

he united the exiles under the political banner

of the Cuban-American National Foundation.

The Cuban-American National Foundation has provided an antidote

to the big lie of Castro's Cuba

With generous political donations in Washington

an influence over voters in a key swing state,

the foundation would gain virtual veto power over U.S. policy toward Cuba.

Reagan, Ra Ra Ra.

Every Presidential candidate would come down to Calle Ocho

and make a speech about how rotten and awful Fidel Castro was,

and we got to preserve the embargo, and it was totally

cynical and shallow and nothing changed.

I saw Castro the other night on televisi�n

and he's not looking good.

You are going to win

and I'’m going to be down here and I'’m going to watch you win.

I don'’t know what capacity. I'’ll either be the greatest developer in the country

or the greatest President that you'’ve had in a long time, I'’m not sure.

Castro's fortunes had fallen dramatically after the toppling of the Berlin wall

and the loss of billions of dollars

in subsidies from the soviet bloc.

The collapse of Cuba's economy tore at the revolutions proud achievements in education

and health and stirred popular discontent.

Castro responded by unleashing a new wave of migrants to the United States.

But he allowed them to leave only aboard whatever rafts

or boats they could build themselves.

Sensing Castro's weakness Mas Canosa tried to ratchet up the pressure from Washington.

While other hard line exiles launched one last wave

of bombings and assassination plots.

But Castro did not fall, and once again

he propped up his regime by assailing his favorite target.

Castro was always looking for someone to blame.

He was always waiting for Mas Canosa

or, someone in the exile community to say something inflammatory.

If Mas Canosa hadn'’t existed Castro could have invented him.

In late 1997, Jorge Mas Canosa died of cancer,

leaving his followers adrift

and his eldest son, Jorge Mas Santos to lead a new generation of Cuban-Americans.

When my father passed away our struggle continued.

My father was a man who'’d always looked forward.

It was going to be tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. Castro's gonna fall tomorrow.

The funeral concessi�n for Jorge Mas Canosa, not his final resting place, however.

That will be Cuba, when Cuba's free.

As the millennium approached,

weakened leaders on both sides of the Florida Straits were scanning the horizon,

looking for something to rally their tired supporters.

Freedom! Freedom!

Down with Fidel!

Down With Clinton!

Down with Communists!

Long live freedom!

Long live Elian!

The cold war never ended in Miami.

A mother died getting her kid out of Cuba, to get him to freedom.

Of course we'’re going to hold that child because we don'’t want him to go back.

Elian will not go, Elian will stay!

We really want him. We need him here.

I think he should stay here with the family.

He's has no future He's got no life in Cuba.

The mother died to be freedom and that is what she want in the last moment.

We have a role to play in protecting freedom

and when people risk everything to come, even if they'’re a five-year old kid

they ought be allowed to stay.

I want him to be a free man,

and a good man in the United States

Relatives of Elian Gonzalez say they saw

a different side to the six-year old.

A boy simply filled with joy and happiness at the Disneyworid visit.

But family spokesman Armando Gutierrez says that Elian showed some lingering signs

of his ordeal and rescue at sea when he went

on the "It's a small worid" water ride.

He was a little bit frightened at one time with the boat

and asked the question "is this boat going to sink?"

Toys for a tot torn between two countries.

Elian Gonzalez has officially captivated a community.

The Memories of when I was with my uncles are very vague.

Everything was confusing.

I didn'’t know the people I was meeting.

I didn'’t want to meet anyone, I'’m shy.

Say hello to the people.

I let my imagination go

I pretended I was Superman, I pretended I was Batman.

I remember I asked for a Batman suit, and they gave me a Batman suit.

I wanted to play baseball - I got a bat.

They made it like a game.

We wanted to give him a life where he felt comfortable and everything was normal.

Then we got him to go to school. He was so happy to go to school.

I remember when they took me to the school...

I didn'’t like the school.

Elian! Elian! Elian!

Elian! Elian! Elian!

Elian won'’t go! Elian won't go!

Elian won'’t go! Elian won't go!

Cubans, come to the park this afternoon

to march to the U.S. Interests Section.

We summoned you to the march and protest in front of the imperial...

They were summonsed by President Fidel Castro for what he calls the second stage

of the battle of the masses.

Thousands demonstrated again in front of the U.S. diplomatic missi�n in Havana.

Fidel asked me to work with Juan Miguel,

helping him to recover his child.

Everybody in this island was on the side of Elian and his father and his family.

If we can keep up the demonstrations,

we will return to this same corner of Cardenas,

but we will be here with Elian.

The boy's father joined other Cubans at a weekend rally

demanding the child be returned.

American immigration officials will interview the father here in Cuba,

give him a chance to assert his rights and prove his paternity.

We had this very unusual circumstance of a father in Cuba

asking for the son to be returned to him.

It was pretty unprecedented.

I mean, typically people

who came to the United States from Cuba, came because they wanted to stay here.

As the immigration service, we had to determine whether this was actually the father,

and since the child had come to the United States with the mother,

whether the father had a relationship with the child.

What was the family's story?

They wanted to come here so I could prove

that he was truly my son.

They wanted to see if I was a concerned father.

They saw that in photographs and videos, in interviews they did-

that I had a truly close

family life with the boy.

The same love I received from my parents as a boy,

I tried to do give to him.

Juan Miguel and Eliza had married as teenagers

and it had taken them years and seven miscarriages before Elian was born.

Strains on the marriage eventually led them to separate,

but they set aside their differences to build a new relationship around the son

they both adored.

We remained close, like siblings.

Although his mother and I were separated,

we celebrated birthdays together, we did everything together.

His sixth birthday was the first one when he wasn'’t by my side.

Happy birthday dear Elian

Happy birthday to you

You'’re so cute! look what I have for you!

What are you thinking today on Elian's birthday?

Well, today, more than ever,

I love and I miss him.

I want him by my side, I want him in my arms. I want him next to me.

Papa... Listen...

Later I'’ll tell you about the school party.

Blow me a kiss.

Take care.

Until soon, little Elian.

We'’ll see you soon.

Yes.

Until soon.

They have no right to the boy.

The only rights to the boy are ours.

As his father, I am demand him back,

I want him here as soon as possible.

What they'’re doing is not good for the boy, nor for right us.

Anyone who has children knows this is not humane.

For me, seeing my cousin on TV

speaking the way he used to speak about us and then seeing Fidel next to him

made me think, "are you for real? Or, you just have to play this role?"

My uncle Delfin said to me "that's probably not even what he really wants to say

so don'’t take it to heart."

Delfin was a person that I listened to

because that was the person that I knew

that experienced...

the torturing of Cuba

when he was in prison.

He would say, "that's how the government works",

they try to destroy the family, they try to keep us apart.

So, I was fighting for both of their freedom because I was hoping

for the day Juan Miguel could meet with Elian here and be free as well.

That's the cousin, the cousin.

What do you want everyone to know about how you'’re feeling right now?

Well, right now I'’m feeling that it would be up to him I would want him to stay

and it's not my decisi�n and it's very hard for me.

So, I just hope they make the right decisi�n.

The case of Elian Gonzalez has been a difficult one, complicated

by the fact that several people other than Elian's father claimed to represent him.

INS has determined

that Elian should be reunited with his father.

And then we said,

by January 14th he is to be turned over to the INS

so that he can be returned to his father.

What did I think at that time? Did I think it would happen? I don'’t know.

Marisleysis, could we ask you about your reaction?

They'’re only letting the Dad decide what's best for the kid and everything like that.

As we all know, when Elian came and found himself lonely in this country

without no family, without his Dad not having the freedom

to get an airplane and come here,

to support his child when he most really needed him, because he couldn'’t even

sit down in a bed because he would fall, I was there and so far as my family

supporting that.

Until then, they didn'’t let us support him and being there for him.

Why aren'’t we given the opportunity, at this point, to speak for him?

His Dad doesn'’t have freedom because otherwise, as a father, as we all know,

we would do the best for our child.

We would have got on an airplane and come to this country

and see how was our kid.

And his words were,

"I haven'’t lost anything there."

What about your son?

The fight was on, the fight was on.

This community has asked for, since day one, the due process of Elian Gonzalez.

With help from Jorge Mas

the family tried to go around the immigration service,

turning to some of the Cuban-American National Foundation's

powerful allies in Washington.

We thought the best way to make sure that the judicial process was followed,

was the issue of subpoena.

This is a federal subpoena, which we believe protects Elian Gonzalez from being

forcibly and illegally removed from the United States back to Cuba.

In Miami, the people celebrated the subpoena, which orders little Elian

to appear before U.S. Congress in an effort to delay his return to Cuba.

Several congressmen

and at least one Senator say they will offer Bills as early as February

to grant Elian Gonzalez permanent U.S. citizenship.

But it's not just Congress. At last night's Republican Presidential debate,

all the candidates demanded that Elian be allowed to stay here,

and his father allowed to join him, if he wishes.

The man ought to be brought to the United States, given a whiff of freedom

so he can see how wonderful our country is.

Why has this become so political?

Because Cuban-Americans are a critical voting block in Florida's Republican

Presidential primary and a lucrative source of campaign money

for both political Parties.

The six year old may have even more politicians as play mates.

I know that this is where he wants to stay and if that is the case,

I will take care of him like if he would be my son.

But I feel that we should have the right

to take his chance to court.

Can you remember when you were six?

There were some days I wanted to run away from home,

and there were other days I wanted my Mommy so bad I couldn'’t stand it.

I think the law has indicated,

and it's certainly I think the experience of most people, that six years old

is too young to speak for themselves.

Under U.S. law, Attorney General, Janet Reno

who had the final say on Elian's immigration case.

She came to it with a unique perspective.

Born and raised in Miami, Reno empathized deeply

with the struggles of Cuba's exiles.

She also had a passi�n for child-welfare issues

which she had handled as a Florida prosecutor

before joining the Clinton administration.

She has devoted her life to making her community safer,

keeping children out of trouble, reducing domestic violence and helping families.

As Reno stepped forward she made no secret of her competing sympathies.

Trying to find a compromise, she set aside the deadline for returning Elian to Cuba

and invited his Miami relatives to plead their case.

Today we have filed

a very significant lawsuit in federal court.

It is the case of Elian Gonzalez versus Janet Reno.

My hope is that people will look at this little boy

and get him into a situation where he can live a normal life

without televisi�n cameras and the worid in his face.

Watch out there. Watch out guys.

Tonight, Lord,

These people, united, lift their lights

and pray that the sacrifice of Elisabeth,

the mother of Elian, our little Moses,

will not have been in vain.

Elian himself had said almost nothing

in public during his time in Miami.

But one night in January,

a camera caught him yelling at a passing airplane

and his words quickly became a point of contention.

Airplane!

Pick me up!

I want you to take me back to Cuba.

No!

The family disputed the initial translation by local televisi�n,

and insisted Elian had really said he didn'’t want to return to Cuba.

He is being manipulated

that is what really concerns me and has been concerning me for a long time.

It has been suggested, in some quarters,

and I'’m going to give you the opportunity to respond,

that the reason you do not come to Miami

is because the Cuban government is afraid that once you get to Miami you will defect.

How do you respond to that?

Who said that? Who said that?

I think I have been extremely clear.

People think or some people that I am under pressure here.

I have always said I haven'’t lost anything in Miami, and sometimes

what I would like to do is go down there with a rifle,

I don'’t know, to get rid of how many people.

Are you serious about that, Sir?

That's obviously a very inflammatory remark.

And what about isn'’t it inflammatory what they are doing with my son?

I did see his anger and I did see his frustration

but as a parent, you get on the first flight you can

and you just come get your child.

He's not allowed to do that.

I had to take care of his child.

My Dad had to shelter his child.

Juan Miguel's frustration should be with the Cuban government not with me,

or, with our family.

Neither Juan Miguel nor the Cuban Government offered any compelling reason

why he couldn'’t just go and get his son.

Cuban officials cited concerns for his safety in Miami,

but the wide spread belief there was that Fidel either feared Juan Miguel would defect

or simply wanted to keep the battle going, for as long as he could.

This was not a simple matter of a parent saying

"I miss my child, I need to bring my child home."

This was going to take time

and there was always the possibility that they would not be able to get him home.

I had been involved in Cuba for almost 40 years,

and if you have been to Cuba and you come to know Cuban people.

You really have a very different view than if

you have only lived in the United States.

The National Council of Churches decided to see

if by our efforts we could get this child

returned to his family in Cuba.

First of all, we needed to win over the American people.

It's a very emotional thing to hear a family talk about the loss of a child.

And I knew that the grandmothers had a passi�n

about getting this little boy back home.

So I had to go to Fidel Castro and I had to ask permissi�n

to take them.

The grandmothers came and we tried to arrange a visit for them with Elian,

who, of course, was in Miami.

And then ensued a back and forth over the terms,

because, in fact, there was such

tensi�n and unresolved issues and disagreement within the family itself.

The only message I bring from the father

is that the boy must return,

And he has no reason to come here, since we grandmothers have come to get the boy.

Since they are now allowed,

they can come to Miami, which is where the boy lives,

and where the Gonzalez family lives.

I beg you to do everything possible

so that the boy is turned over to us, his grandmothers,

so that my daughter can rest in peace.

It was not a negotiation.

It was dictated to them that they must present the boy tomorrow or his status

would be changed and the boy would potentially be sent back to Cuba immediately.

I'’m very concerned what's going to happen tomorrow, because

every night I go to sleep, he tells me,

"Don'’t let them take me back", and I am going to be the one taking him to this house where

I don'’t know what's going to happen and I don'’t have control of.

With local televisi�n stations covering the tug of war live,

Elian met his grandmothers at the home of a Miami nun

who was an old friend of Janet Reno.

I wasn'’t allowed to stay in the room with them

and this was the perfect time for him to tell her

"I want to leave with you", if that is what was in his heart.

If that would have been me, I would have run to my Grandma

and tell her take me.

But he didn'’t...

Actually, he did the opposite...

He ran out of that room and all he said to me was "Run, run they'’re going to take us."

Just made me feel...

"wow I need to fight for his freedom the way his mom gave her life for it".

I think for the Grandmothers,

the meeting was extremely frustrating

and they felt he was in danger. They felt he was drugged.

But they did go home having seen Elian

and they did go home more determined that they had to get him home.

Freedom! Freedom!

I feel great and, um, I feel confident...

strong and I have more feelings

than I had before. Now, I feel that

he's more to this side than to that side.

This has been an important night, a victory for the family.

A victory for Elian Gonzalez. When only three or four weeks ago,

the immigration service had promised the Castro regime

that Elian would be back in Cuba.

The grandmothers are following orders from Havana

and that must be denounced.

As soon as they set foot on Cuban soil,

our cameras will be with the grandmothers.

Raquel and Mariela are now in the fatherland.

The grandmothers had returned to Cuba empty-handed,

but their visit had raised the family drama to an operatic pitch,

and things would grow even more explosive after Juan Miguel's mother

told what she thought was a cute story about her grandson.

He didn'’t kiss us, or hug us. He seemed very...

scared, sad, like frightened.

Not like the child we knew.

To perk him up, I pulled his tongue from his mouth. I bit it.

I began to torment him

I even opened his zipper and teased him,

saying, "Let me see if it has grown."

She says "I also opened up his zipper and said,

'’Let me see if your part has grown.'’"

We were shocked. The family was very disturbed, upset. This is not a Cuban custom.

New reports this week that two of the Miami relatives have convictions

for driving while intoxicated.

Practically everybody surrounding him

either have been or, may be in the future,

joining the prison system of the U.S.

That's not the best interest of any child.

They are capable of even killing the boy

before returning him safe and sound.

Where you going in a big-ass hurry, man?

At that time I was a freelancer for AP.

One morning, I get a call from my editor,

and he said "all right, this is what I want you to do.

You cover Elian everyday."

Miami police shut down the street,

the whole half-block was blocked off.

There were TV stations that were paying 500 a day

just to have a crew in front of the house.

Back in 1999 and 2000,

we weren'’t actually living in 24 hour news cycles.

It was a very different landscape. All of a sudden, we'’ve got media stakeouts

and they are, you know, using this child, almost as a prop to tell a story,

you know, having him out playing with an American flag at eleven o'’clock at night.

So we'’d not seen anything like that.

Rewarding this atrocious behavior, this

trotting out this kid the way they did, and then you'’re acting shocked and surprised

that it's happening.

They wanted a full media blitz and we we gave it to them.

We had things like, you know,

Diane Sawyer going to have play dates with Elian.

We spent some time drawing some waves...

a dolphin...

himself in an inner tube.

"Me", he said, "I was sinking."

I always tell him I'’m his cousin.

He tries to call you Mom, sometimes?

He says Marie stands for Mom.

One person whom I think doesn'’t deserve my anger

is Marisleysis.

She tried to do what she saw her family doing.

And I think she tried to give me the love I was missing then.

If I think about it now, Marisleysis was a little girl.

And nobody cares about a little boy who lost his mother,

who's lost everything,

and now is about to lose the only thing that he has, which is me,

and it's hard to say, when he tells me,

"please don'’t ever leave me."

People just say, "return him to his father", but people don'’t live with this little boy,

people don'’t see how this little boy feels.

Just the family stuff is enough to you know, throw someone over the edge.

Now, when all of that is being witnessed on a daily basis by the entire worid,

not easy.

I mean, I have been involved in politics all my life. I'’m a practicing lawyer,

uh, public speaker, you know, I have the training

as best you can to be able to do something like that.

This family had zero, zero training.

I have been in this for four months,

not for political issues, not to look good in front of people,

but for the best interests of this child.

I remember the Today Show

where I think we might have even left the show and gone to the hospital,

uh, because she really took a beating, emotional beating, from that process.

It was a loving family that got caught up in the collective hysteria

that this was the apocalyptic battle against Castro.

I was under a lot of stress, I wasn'’t getting enough sleep.

Sometimes I would just pass out.

A day in the house was crazy.

To have people walk in and out of my room and I was like,

"Who are these people?"

They were such nice people,

that they would allow anybody into that house.

One day I was outside with Lazero Delfin and Marie starts screaming.

So we ran inside and I see like a saint on a mirror.

You sit where I am. You can see it perfect.

A lot of people did see the image.

We thought it was a miracle, like, Elian was a miracle.

The saint disappeared two days later and then four days after those two days,

she appears in a bank about three blocks away.

Stuff like that really, really just blew me away.

There's no explanation for something like that.

Many people have come and see her. As the mother saying, here, we are with you,

be faithful.

What people saw in the Elian story often depended on where they stood.

As the weeks passed, National polls showed a deep divide,

with more and more Americans outside south Florida in favor of returning the boy

to his father.

A lot of you are Cuban too! You have the same blood as me!

But in Miami, the exiles'’ fury continued to grow,

spilling over into protests that blocked traffic on the highways

and exasperated many of the city's non Cubans.

I'’m a parent and I believe that a child should be with his father, you know.

It's like... I'm a father.

You people have no idea, you don'’t have a clue about what being in a free society is.

You have no respect for other people's opinions.

You don'’t know what happened to him.

Fuck you, fuck you, I don'’t give a fuck.

The community who had been so appreciative of the United States

all of a sudden was acting in a very rebellious way.

You know, we had a mayor that defied federal authority.

We will not lend our respective resources

whether they be in the form of police officers or any other resources

to assist the federal government in any way shape or form

to inappropriately repatriate Elian Gonzalez to Cuba.

That seems to sound like an invitation for the community

to block federal authorities

and an assurance to them that the Miami police will stand aside.

Well, I like the mayor very much,

but I still believe in the rule of law here, and we all have to,

whatever the law is, whatever the decisi�n is ultimately made,

the rest of us ought to obey it.

I by now had seen the anger in Miami. I had seen

the determination of some of the Miami Cubans to make sure that Elian did not leave.

Senator Leahy came to me and he said,

"We'’re going to get that little boy back to his father,

and I'’m going to help you, but you'’re never going to make it happen,

if you don'’t involve a lawyer in this. I have a lawyer for you.

His name is Greg Craig. I'’m calling him now, he won'’t say no."

I went to the Justice Department and I said, I'’m going to go to Cuba...

and I want to be able to tell Juan Miguel

that when he comes back to the United States

he will be able to take custody of his son

within the space of a few days. That he's not going to have to sit in some room

and watch his son on televisi�n being paraded around by these relatives.

They were not willing to give me that commitment.

I had nothing, going down to Cuba,

other than to say, "Now's the time to do it."

To be clear, Castro was in the middle of this decisi�n-making.

Castro was waking up from a nap. You could just tell that he had been asleep

and he was putting himself together.

The meeting was forever. It lasted forever, and we drank

more coffee and more water, and people would be getting up and going off

to relieve themselves.

Castro didn'’t move for four hours.

I think perhaps he had a device.

He would shake his finger at me and said,

"Why do you think an American court would ever rule in favor of a Cuban national.

There has never been a case where a Cuban national has won."

And my only argument was, "I don'’t know of any time when the government

of the United States has been on the same side of the case as a Cuban national,"

which, in turn, you are on the same side with the government of Cuba.

That's never happened in history, so maybe the results will be different.

We are talking with Dr. Andrew Wilde, the author of Eating Well for Optimum Health.

I think it is fine to lower cholesterol levels.

Let me cut in, to Washington to Greg Craig at the offices of Williams and Connolly.

My name is Gregory B Craig,

I am pleased to report that Juan Miguel Gonzalez,

his wife and six month old son will be coming to the United States.

They will arrive tomorrow morning, Thursday, April sixth at 7:00 am at Dallas Airport.

Everything is coordinated

and they will be there:

The lawyer -

one of the best from the United States -

Mrs. Campbell,

and even the brave father.

At four in the morning,

they will depart, as I said.

I, for one, will be there to see them off.

Homeland or death! We shall prevail!

Commandante, are you confident that everything will turn out all right?

We must be.

Arriving in Washington, it was so cold,

I didn'’t know if I was trembling from the cold or, the nerves.

I have arrived in Washington, where I hope very soon,

and for the first time in more than four months

to hug my son, Elian Gonzalez Brotons.

With me are my wife and my six-month-old son,

who are the true family of Elian.

Even though I was closer, I felt further away.

It was the next day, that we had the meeting with the Attorney General.

I'’m driving the car,

and I'’m saying to myself, now's the time to tell Juan Miguel

what his options are.

There's no Cuban diplomats. Fidel Castro is not in the room.

It's just the family.

So I said to Juan Miguel, "If you want to get Elian back this afternoon

and stay in the United States with your family,

you will have that opportunity because you are going to have

the Attorney General of the United States,

you can have the commissioner of INS,

and they will grant that request, if you want to do that."

He says, "thank you very much".

At a certain point, the Attorney General asked that everybody else leaves the room.

It was a very powerful meeting, very powerful.

He cut off the conversation almost when it started,

saying...

"I stand by my word, I have a family in Cuba, I have a life in Cuba.

My son is going to grow up as a Cuban, and I am not going to be claiming asylum."

He was a very proud,

very clear person.

I called my cousin and said, "look, we need to go and meet with this father

and find out what he really wants to do. This is our time to go and find out the truth."

Donato was instantly... instantly drawn to a camera.

I begged him, "no more shows Donato, no more shows"

and we got off the airplane at Dulles

and it was probably the biggest media center I'’ve ever seen in my entire life.

Once we got into the car from the airport, it was within

sixty seconds that I knew I was in the car with the Cuban National Foundation.

They were already brainwashing Donato and trying to brainwash me.

They wanted to look like once we got there that Juan Miguel refused to meet us.

All right the news conference is going to be in about five minutes.

I would recommend, since we have been going all Cuban all the time that we take it.

How are you guys doing today? My name is Donato Dalrymple.

Would you like a spelling for that?

If I have to get on my knees, I will get on my knees for this man

because I want to get on my knees for Elian. I love this boy.

Juan Miguel said he wanted to thank him, if it was possible to arrange without

a whole lot of... hoopla.

Miguel came in and in a very sincere way

thanked them for having saved Elian's life.

Juan Miguel was a very, very...

heartwarming, loving father with tears in his eyes

when he would talk to me.

My heart told me the right thing

and he wanted his child back.

From the start, Sam seemed like a family man,

someone who had children, who was caring.

We are talking about a six year old little boy here, people, it's a child.

That's what we need to be concerned about, nobody else. The rest of it is all BS, man,

we need to put this baby to rest right now.

Donato has to speak for himself.

I said, "I'’m Donato the fisherman, the one they call El Pescador."

I was there when your son was about to drown,

and, man, this guy's eyes started to well up with water.

And I ran over there and I grabbed him and I hugged him.

I had seen him manipulating my son, wrapping him in a flag.

I'’d seen him doing all sorts of things to him.

And right off, he starts crying. He drops to his knees in front of me...

He was doing something phony.

We didn'’t kick him out, but we had to urge him to leave.

I don'’t stand in the way of this father,

but I can tell you this,

I don'’t feel that he is free outside of his lawyer here.

Juan Miguel said that he is not going to go down to Miami,

so what's going to happen?

We needed a family meeting, away from the media,

Governments pitted against each other,

the Cuban-American National Foundation versus the Castro brothers,

it needed to get out of that.

And we needed a neutral third-party, which I thought was the Catholic church.

We had the blessing of the Pope about using the Vatican Embassy in Washington.

I had a private jet prepared. Elian was going to be taken to my home that evening,

so that he could be on a plane at four in the morning.

I got a call from Jorge Mas saying

to go to Elian's house to tell the family to bring Elian to Washington.

I went into the house and I said, "if you ask me I wouldn'’t do it,

because if you are going to ask me for any guarantees as to what's going to happen,

I can'’t give them to you."

And I remember there was a huge thing of sea food, or paella or something,

and Lazero was so tense by this time

that he grabs his phone and throws it in there.

And I'’m just sitting there and I'’m watching this phone, you know,

sinking into the... the rice.

The boy has a new home, and it is here.

And just so you know, Elian told me he didn'’t want to go to Washington.

There's a new element in this story. The boy's Miami relatives released a videotape

of Elian recorded last night.

It shows him on a bed. We are going to show it to you.

It's not clear who was in the room with him, whether he was coached or not.

Daddy, I don'’t want to go back to Cuba.

If you want, stay here. I'’m not going back to Cuba.

I'’m telling you all...

You say I want to go to Cuba.

But I'’m telling you now

I don'’t want to go back to Cuba.

If you would like...

Stay here. But, I don'’t want to go to Cuba.

After the Miami relatives refused

to bring the kid to Washington, it became clear that

if we wanted Elian we were going to have to go into the house and take him.

For the last couple of days, we weren'’t even 100 percent sure

that Elian was even inside the home.

He was not being brought out by family members,

he didn'’t make appearances into the crowds.

The less we saw of him the more concern we had as to his welfare.

If it comes to taking Elian by force,

U.S. law enforcement officials have a plan.

Elements of the Marshal's Swat like special operations group are available.

The 1100 member Miami Police Department and the Florida Highway Patrol

has placed units on alert. The final go or, no go order

will come only from Attorney General, Janet Reno.

For weeks the government had been assembling

a shock force of federal agents

to seize Elian if necessary.

But Janet Reno had misgivings that went beyond her loyalty to Cuban exiles in Miami.

Seven years earlier, just after taking office as Attorney General,

Reno had ordered federal agents to raid the compound of a religious cult

near Waco, Texas.

More than 70 people died, including 25 children.

We must all reflect on how we as a society

can, in the future, prevent such a senseless horrible tragic loss of human life.

One thing, I think, that really did haunt her was Waco,

but Janet Reno was somebody who made her decisions

based on the facts and the law.

Instead of discussing how Elian should be reunited,

the attorneys for the relatives continue to demand that we revisit the issue

of whether Elian should be reunited.

That is not what the law provides.

Demonstrators break through those barricades to try to form a human chain

around this house, if indeed federal agents came to seize Elian Gonzalez.

We are protecting them!

There were people in the crowds that had violent police records,

there were armed individuals in the crowd.

The inter event was a potential powder keg.

We wanted to affect this search warrant as soon as possible.

The only delays were last-ditch efforts

made by the U.S. government to negotiate a peaceful, so to speak,

surrender of the child to the U.S. government.

Miss Reno was willing to exhaust every option.

So, when members of the community came in and said,

"you know, we think we can broker a deal",

she was willing to talk to them.

We were afraid that this was going to bring

a lot of harm to the community and the perception of the community.

This was spinning out of control.

My focus was to get the community to have a unanimous position

that we'’re going to do this peacefully.

In my view we were very close to doing, in two days, that

which had not been done in five months.

We'’re going to create a scenario where the two families would go

to a military base, have an opportunity to talk to each other

and look for an elegant solution and a settlement.

We developed the points and we faxed them to Janet Reno.

We get the fax off and we had been instructed by Aaron Podhurst,

"everything's good, man, you guys are fine."

The agreement is still not finalized,

but our expectations were that we'’ll be out of here in a couple of hours.

The offer was the same as had been made repeatedly

by the family, and that ultimately not only hadn'’t succeeded

but was not willing to in any way

concede turning over the child to the father.

It was just another effort, I think, most of us thought, to delay.

We'’d identified 5:00 a.m. to be an optimal time to execute this search warrant.

We were ready well prior to that

and still awaiting a final green light from the Department of Justice.

We were all in the Attorney General's office.

She stayed on an open line with Mr Podhurst.

I stayed on an open line with the INS people in Miami

because I needed to give them the order that it was a go.

I had two lines, one to the house

and one to Attorney General, Janet Reno.

It never occurred to me that there was a raid planned,

and I kept saying to the Attorney General, "What's the big rush about?"

She gave them deadlines, she told them,

"after this point, it's going to be too late.

And then you are out of time, you'’re running out of time."

That was the only night

that Elian didn'’t sleep.

He was scared that they would take him.

It's well past midnight

and I tell Aaron, look, I'’m beginning to feel very uncomfortable,

like there's a problem here, because there's no reason, I mean,

this is a one page document.

There was questions in the room,

"are we on hold? Is it a go?" And Miss Reno said, "It's a go."

Then about four o'’clock I get a call from Aaron

and his voice is almost shaking.

He says to me, you got five minutes to wake everybody up.

I woke everybody up...

and while we'’re having that conversation,

uh, there's a bunch of yelling and screaming outside.

And I said to Aaron, "Aaron, the Feds are here."

Can we go live? Can we go live? Are we shooting it?

Stay back behind the barricades.

Hoards of people were going to do everything int heir power to prevent us

from reaching the front door.

They chanted, they screamed. Lights went on, they formed human chains.

We virtually had to push our way through to the front door.

Behind us there was a riot going on.

Fuck the United States.

It was clearly organized resistance.

I pounded at the door. "Federal agents,

were executing a search warrant, open the door, open the door."

I had to give the order to breach the door.

When I look, I see all these people with guns.

They were dressed in green so I thought they were, like, Cuban commandos...

so I start screaming "Cuba's Coming". Then Lazero is like "Cuba",

till everybody in the house thought it was Cuba.

I clearly remember the lady that came in to get him

saying, "where's the eff-kid where's the eff-goddamn kid."

I did step forward little bit aggressive, you know, like mad...

and she said, "if you take one more step I'’m going to shoot."

I'’m running to the front and then you know Elian jumps on me and I give him to Donato.

If there was anybody, it shouldn'’t have been me that night

that got Elian into my arms. But, everybody seemed to be running for shelter because

they'’re hearing the same thing I'’m hearing, "Get down or we'’ll shoot."

They'’re thinking, "oh, wow, they'’re going to kill us."

I see out of the closet Donato and Elian,

and the boy says to me, "Que te pasa, que te pasa, que te pasa."

I said, "Nothing's happenin', baby, but everything's gonna be all right."

Boom! The door busted open and there's a federal armed agent with an assault weapon

and he's got that thing pointed directly at me and Elian.

I was like, "shhh shhh".

I'’m flashing, I'’m strobing this guy in the face.

'’Cause you know, freedom of press, you can'’t touch that.

He's screaming... "Give me the kid, give me the effing kid."

Within seconds a woman appeared in the room and then, that's when I handed

Elian over to the agent.

Get ready to get the boy.

They got the boy.

Go, go, go!

All I could hear was Elian just screaming,

"Prima, prima, prima," you know, just calling out...

and I couldn'’t do anything.

Come on, get this stuff over here, I'’ve lost this. Come on.

Elian was just a kid and that day they risked his life.

I sometimes wonder what Juan Miguel felt about that.

I would have never wanted my child to be taken out like that.

Elian Gonzalez is, as we speak, being flown to Andrews Air Force base

just outside Washington where he will be reunited with his father.

My strongest memories

are from the day they rescued me.

When we got in the van, she said,

"I'’m a friend of your father's. I'’m taking you to him."

That's where I began to calm down.

They called my dad and put me on the line...

I told him, "Papo, don'’t worry, they'’re friends of Daddy's.

They'’re taking you to -

They'’re bringing you to Daddy."

I went to the plane to meet him.

How did you feel when you first saw him?

You can imagine...

These are the first pictures we have seen

of young Elian.

We had let it be known that we didn'’t want to have a bunch of photographs around.

Elian with his half brother.

The director of public affairs said, "AP is flashing a pretty ugly photo

around the worid right now.

We should really get a camera and get some pictures out there."

I think I took that picture, yeah. It was pretty good.

Pictures taken by an Associated Press photographer,

which the administration will have to answer to.

There is a picture...

where that little boy's fear and scared, so Janet Reno and everybody else, don'’t say

you came here with no violence and that this boy is okay.

How can this boy be okay when he had a gun in his head.

Marisleysis Gonzalez, expressing her feelings on what happened,

and describing what happened here this morning.

They treat us like criminals.

I know.

We'’ll go in Spanish in four minutes.

ten, nine, eight, seven...

They broke, they broke Elian's bed.

He was saying, "que pasa, que pasa, que pasa", what's going on?

I just held his head like this. My God, America, what did you do to this boy.

Marisleysis Gonzalez, Donato Dalrymple, thank you very much.

I can say that Janet Reno

and Bill Clinton never had any intention

to resolve this matter.

They wanted this confrontation, they wanted this episode.

This is a dark chapter in the history of this country.

Up until the last, we tried every way we could

to encourage Lazero Gonzalez

to voluntarily hand over the child to his father.

Unfortunately, the Miami relatives rejected our efforts,

leaving us no other option but the enforcement action.

You'’re a disgrace!

How can you take him like that? You mother fuckers!

We got a fire, another fire.

The crowd here, very angry over the Elian Gonzalez situation. Extremely angry

with the Justice Department's handling of this situation.

This morning, President Clinton praised Janet Reno and the justice department.

Kelly Wallace is at the White House. Kelly...

Vice President Al Gore broke with the administration's policy in this case.

He said he thought it should be handled in family court.

Republican Texas governor George W Bush issued a statement saying

he was troubled that the administration was not able to bring about

a negotiated solution.

This is likely not to be the last we'’ve heard on the campaign trail

or, in Congress about this case.

After the Elian incident,

I think the Democrats were terribly harmed

by what happened.

Stand by, stand by, CNN, right now, is moving Florida

back to the too-close-to-call column.

The Elian Gonzalez issue might have driven a lot of Cuban-Americans

back to the Republican party.

An election in turmoil, a Presidency

in the balance, a nation waits.

Who will emerge the winner in the historic Florida recount?

There were 10,000 Cuban American Democrats who became Republicans post-Elian.

Had the Elian event been handled better,

hell, we might not have had the Iraq war.

I, George Walker Bush, do solemnly swear...

President Bush became the President of the United States in 2000

because of Elian Gonzalez.

There is no doubt in my mind, and I think that the numbers prove that out.

I think it's a much bigger issue than that.

I think what cost Al Gore the election was the fiasco in Palm Beach County, Florida

with the ballots, with Ralph Nader getting over 100,000 votes in Florida.

And I doubt if Elian had anything to do with Al Gore

not carrying Tennessee, his home state.

But as a member of the Clinton administration, he was certainly someone you could blame for it.

We need the government to stop doing things like this,

because it's not only the criminals and people outside with guns,

now it's the government too.

All I ask is...

I need to see Elian.

Marisleysis and her family would not see Elian again.

In late June, almost seven months after his rescue at sea

the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the order keeping him in the United States.

He and his father were back in Cuba before nightfall.

Elian! Elian! Elian!

My father and I try not to talk about it.

We stay with the good... which is that it united the Cuban people,

and the Cuban people made me their son.

People's caring and love, a family's love

is worth more to me than any income level or lifestyle.

There are people who have much more...

and don'’t have this.

I returned...

and instead of being the spoiled child,

the prodigal son,

I went back to being just Elian,

the son of Juan Miguel, and his family.

And that was it.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Obviously I know this one well.

And this one. And who is this?

Who's this nice little boy?

Elian.

You are Elian?

Wow! I'’ve heard about you.

I'’m a good friend of your father.

Castro was, in fact, dedicated

to getting that little boy home and it became a matter of his heart.

It was not now just a government victory and Elian became

virtually like a child of his.

Happy birthday to you...

As Elian grew up,

Fidel continued to celebrate the boy's return as a triumphant chapter

in the larger story of Cuba's revolution.

We pay tribute to the people who despite the lies

were able to reject the repugnant crime committed

against a Cuban boy.

Dear Fidel, dear people...

I still remember that day five years ago

when I was returned to my father.

That was the happiest day of my life.

Homeland or death! We shall prevail!

Pioneers for Communism, we shall be like Che!

I would never aspire to have my name at the heights of Fidel's

or, Che's or Raul's.

But I did earn a little place in the hearts of the Cuban people.

I have to make my father proud,

the Cuban people, the American people,

Fidel and the revolution, which brought me home.

That's the psychological burden from that whole process.

So, you'’re like a privileged kid there?

Well, I consider myself privileged because it's an honor to know Fidel.

And to have him call you "friend."

I don'’t practice any religion.

I haven'’t studied any religion.

But if I did, of course, my God would be Fidel.

To me, there's no greater person.

What better example than mine -

a humble boy with a worker father...

and he mobilized a whole country to get that boy back to his father.

The Cuban people made me their family, their son.

And what I have isn'’t celebrity, it's the love, the recognition of that people.

I don'’t know what Elian's life is like now, in Cuba.

He's more prominent probably than he ever imagined he would be.

But whatever he is on that island, it was created here, it was created here in Miami.

In hindsight, the Elian Gonzalez affair had a lot of impact,

because it became a pivotal point

for many in the community to realize that

we were not having a rational approach to Cuba,

that it was getting out of hand, and that we needed to show

a different view, a different approach.

In the aftermath of the Elian affair, new Cuban American leaders

challenged the intransigence of the old guard.

Even the Cuban-American National Foundation retreated from it's hard line past.

Appealing to an exile community that was less defined by the old hatreds

and paving the way for historic changes in American policy.

We definitely began focusing on a younger and different generation,

both, here and in Cuba.

We have to talk to their hopes and aspirations, and they'’re

going to be the key to the future.

First American President in 88 years touched down

just a few moments ago here in Cuba.

I have come here to bury the last remnant

of the cold war in the Americas.

Havana is only 90 miles from Florida,

but to get here, we had to travel a great distance,

over barriers of history and ideology,

barriers of pain and separation.

In many ways, the United States and Cuba are like two brothers who have been estranged

for many years.

I want the Cuban people, especially the young people,

to understand why I believe that you should look to the future with hope.

Hope, that is rooted in the future that you can choose

and that you can shape and that you can build for your country.

President Obama's visit was important,

but it leaves much to be desired.

He kept using the word "democracy,"

inciting the young people that this is their moment, that the future must be theirs.

Young people don'’t need to seize the future - no.

When Fidel made this revolution in 1959, he was young.

Cuba's destiny has always been in the hands of the young people.

And you will win, you are going to win...

and I'’m going to be down here...

The Cuban people have withstood a lot.

And have withstood worse than what a new President might bring.

When I got older, my father sat me down and said,

"I brought you back because I love Cuba,

I love the revolution, and I love Fidel.

But you are free to do want you want."

It's not that I have to demonstrate anything now - just wait.

When the Cuban people need me, I have to be there.

I have to fight for the Cuban people.

Fidel always said, "Elian had fame."

The whole worid knew him because of all this.

What he needed was to become someone in life.

Dear Fidel, today we celebrate

the end of our university studies

and the start of a new stage of life.

We understand we will face an ever-changing reality.

We promise not to lose your dream of worid peace and justice,

not to forget who we are, where we'’ve come from, and we'’re going.

Viva Fidel!

Viva the Cuban youth!

Homeland or death!

Did I want him to stay in America? Selfishly, yes.

He was going to have scholarships, he was going to go to college,

he was going to have the American dream. But, you know, in the end,

I realize that that American dream wasn'’t for him.

As he lives out his life, what role he will play in Cuba, what role he will play

in the Cuban revolution, that is to come inevitably,

he will be part of the new generation and how he will weather that,

how he will respond to that,

is probably partly related to what will happen to Cuba,

and some of that depends on us.

With the first rays of sun,

the ashes of Commandante Fidel Castro

left the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.

With sadness, the capital bid farewell to its Commander in Chief.

A family that has had a close relationship with Fidel...

Elian, what are you thinking? What do you feel today?

Today, Fidel becomes that mythical being that we will all worship.

Fidel began as that father, until he became a friend.

And just like my own father, I wanted to show him whatever I learned.

There are so many things I had left to show him...

There was always that hope he would remain with us.

There was always that dream of making him proud.

If Fidel was just one person before,

today we are all Fidel.

I am Fidel! I am Fidel!

Freedom! Freedom!

I shouldn'’t be happy because a person has died,

but he separated my family. My parents never got to see Cuba again.

So, today, I rejoice for this.

As Cuban Americans celebrated Fidel's death,

Miami talk shows replayed Elian's comments and revisited a long running question.

What sort of man had the miracle boy become?

It's shameful, truly shameful.

You don'’t give him the benefit of the doubt?

A boy whose mother gave her life to bring him here...

Those protesters who took beatings from the police

so he wouldn'’t be sent back to Cuba, they were right.

Because look at what they'’ve done to the boy!

If he thinks that way, it's because that's what they'’ve taught him to say.

We always said that that's what he would become, that he would become

a little trophy for the government

that they would roll out whenever they need to.

People have told me, "Oh did you here what Elian say? Oh he's brainwashed."

I say he's not at fault at what he's become.

Where he's at right now, he doesn'’t know any better.

So I don'’t judge him.

I just sit and wait.

I know many people think I'’ve been brainwashed.

They can say whatever they want.

But in the end, Cuba is an island.

The United States is 90 miles away.

If I wanted, I could take a boat and go.

I would love to see him here.

Even if it's just a visit.

But I don'’t see myself going back to Cuba,

I feel that I would be betraying his mother.

I'’m not in his future I'’m in his past so,

years could go by and it's the same thing over and over.

I would love to see them all

so long as they respect my father, and give him the apology he deserves.

If my reconciliation could help with the reconciliation of other Cubans,

I would be willing and proud for that to happen.

Because in the end, they'’re all family.

Whoever's right or wrong, we'’re family and we love each other.

I dream till the day comes that I could speak to him.

I love him...

no matter who or, what he chooses to be.

Elian did not have his own story.

Rather, a story unfolded around Elian.

If someone is going to do my story, my movie... it has yet to be told.

It hasn'’t happened yet.