Elian Gonzalez On Cuban TV: “Fidel Is Everyone’s Friend”

Source: miami.cbslocal.com - Sunday, November 27, 2016
Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter HAVANA (CBSMiami/AP) — Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy who became the center of an international custody battle waged by Fidel Castro nearly two decades ago, returned to the public eye Sunday to praise the leader who fought to return him to the island nation. Cuban leader Fidel Castro (L) poses with shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez, after presiding over a massive May Day demonstration at Havana’s Plaza de la Revolucion, May 1, 2005. (Photo by ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/Getty Images) Echoing the round-the-clock adulation on state media, Gonzalez said on government-run television that the Cuban leader’s legacy will long outlive him. It’s “not right to talk about Fidel in the past tense … but rather that Fidel will be,” Gonzalez said. “Today more than ever, make him omnipresent.” Gonzalez was 5 when he, his mother and others attempted a sea crossing between Cuba and the United States in 2000. His mother died on the voyage, but he survived and was taken to Florida. A bitter dispute broke out between his relatives in the U.S., who wanted him to stay there, and his father back home. Castro, who died Friday night at 90, made the issue a national cause celebre and led huge demonstrations demanding Elian be returned to his father. U.S. authorities eventually sent him back. “Fidel was a friend who at a difficult moment was with my family, with my father, and made it possible for me to return to my father, to

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