Return Elian to Cuba!

Demonstrate at the White House:

Friday, January 14th, at 5:00 PM.

Demand that the Clinton Administration send Elian Gonzalez back to his father in Cuba immediately!

Sponsored by the International Action Center and Pastors for Peace

call 202-544-5752 or e-mail npcdc@mnsinc.com for more information.

Despite the Jan. 5th decision the Immigration and Naturalization Service to return Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba, a Florida State court ruled on Monday to hold a hearing on the case on March 6th.

This is a totally illegal ruling, since a state court in the US has no jurisdiction over immigration matters, over issues of international law, or over treaties between the US and Cuba. The Clinton administration caved in to the Florida ruling, announcing that they would delay Elian's return to Cuba.

The Florida judge who made the ruling, Rosa Rodriguez, has a relationship with Elian Gonzalez's relatives in Miami. The judge paid $10,000 in consulting fees to Armando Gutierrez, the spokesman for the relatives. The judge also paid $53,446.22 to Gutierrez for advertising during her election campaign.

This ruling is intended to buy time for the Miami right-wing and their supporters in the US government to find a way to keep Elian Gonzalez in the US against his fathers will. This phony legal dispute could tie up Elian in Florida courts for months or years.

Little Elian was the victim of smugglers who illegally bring Cubans from the island to Florida by raft or boat for thousands of dollars each. He was rescued by the US Coast Guard on Nov. 25, after surviving two days at sea by holding onto an inner tube. He had been with his mother and ten other adults, most of whom drowned.

According to the U.S.-Cuba Migratory Agreement of 1995, as well as international, US and Cuban law on the inviolable rights of the parent to their child, Elian should have been returned to his father in Cuba immediately.

Despite demonstrations of millions in Cuba and hundreds in this country, the US delayed decision on his custody of over a month and is now delaying his return. We must not let down in voicing our demands that Elian be returned home without this delay!

The US continues a cruel and unjust blockade against the Cuban people, while denying this child the right to be returned immediately home after the trauma he has suffered. It is time for us to stand up against this criminal policy toward a sovereign country.

We call on the INS to remand custody of Elian immediately and return him safely to his family in Cuba!