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Change Your Life! |
U.S. vice president says 'family solution' still possible for Elian |
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News
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April 22, 2000
FORT LEE, New Jersey, APR 21 (AP) - U.S. Vice President Al Gore urged Elian Gonzalez's feuding relatives on Thursday to get together "without government officials or lawyers" to try to resolve their increasingly entrenched and contrary positions.
Gore, pressed by reporters, refused to criticize the handling of the case of the 6-year-old Cuban boy by President Bill Clinton and his administration.
"I'm not going to get into that. I respect the way they're going about this and I hope we'll be able to get the family members together," Gore said during television interviews conducted on a campaign stop in New Jersey. Gore is competing for votes as the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic Party.
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Like the Miami area, where Elian is staying, New Jersey has a large number of Cuban-Americans. Demonstrators have kept vigil outside the boy relatives' home in Miami and have vowed to block his removal.
"I think it would be a constructive step if the family members could all meet together without government officials or lawyers to try to reach a family solution to this," Gore said. "I'm still confident that might happen. I think everybody wants this thing to be over in the way that's in the best interests of the child."
The boy was rescued by two fishermen while clinging to an inner tube off the Florida coast in November. He and two others survived, but his mother and 10 others drowned when their boat sank en route from Cuba to the United States.
Gore evaded repeated questions on whether he agreed with Attorney General Janet Reno's assessment that Elian should be with his father, who is waiting in Washington for a reunion and return to Cuba, while a court decides if the boy should have an asylum hearing.
"My position is the same as it has been. I think it would be a constructive step if the family members could all meet together without government officials or lawyers to try to reach a family solution to this and that's what I would recommend," he said.
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