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Change Your Life! |
Cuban-American community rallies to protest Elian seizure |
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News
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May 1, 2000 MIAMI, APR 30 (AP) - Tens of thousands of angry Cuban-Americans marched peacefully through Miami's Little Havana, protesting the raid in which armed federal agents yanked 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez from the home of relatives.
Police stayed visibly distant Saturday from the chanting demonstrators, many of whom carried signs denouncing President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno for taking Elian from his Miami relatives and sending him to his Cuban father.
No arrests were made during the demonstration.
"It was peaceful and everything went very smoothly," said Lt. Bill Schwartz, Miami police spokesman. At a separate gathering in Pembroke Pines, about 15 miles (25 kilometers) north of Miami, federal agents had a picnic to celebrate the success of the operation that reunited Elian with his father.
"We have a reason to celebrate, we did something that everyone said could not be done," INS district director Bob Wallis told Miami television station WFOR. Wallis held a T-shirt emblazoned with "Operation Reunion," showing Elian and his father smiling.
Organizers of the Little Havana march, the exile community's biggest protest yet, hoped it would send a strong but peaceful message to the federal government.
Police blocked off 23 blocks of the main route along Calle Ocho, or Eighth Street, and crowds of people, many dressed in black and waving Cuban and American flags, marched in parade formation.
"We're trying to fight against communism, that's the bottom line," said Little Havana resident Arnold Villar, 35.
The procession included Cuban-American veterans groups and marching bands, including one from Lincoln-Marti School, which Elian attended while living here with his great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez.
About 50 of Elian's former teachers, classmates and parents also marched, some holding up a 6-foot ( 1.8-meter) banner of Elian in his school uniform.
Mothers Against Repression joined the march with a contingent of about 40 women, all dressed in black, marching with about 300 supporters, men and women.
Ricardo Ferrieya, a Cuban-born accountant, distributed copies of a letter urging demonstrators to write politicians in Washington and demand an investigation into the raid.
All week and into Saturday morning, Cuban exile leaders speaking on Spanish radio stations had urged people to join the rally.
"This is a moment where the three generations of Cubans that are here are coming together in favor of supporting the child Elian and denouncing the aggressive way that they entered his home," said Andres Nazario Sargen, of Alpha 66, an anti-Castro group.
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