Cuba’s one-day “truce” with the United States ended yesterday – Fidel Castro declared the reunion of Elian Gonzalez and his father changed nothing between the two countries.
Asked what he believed would be the impact of the Clinton administration’s efforts to return the child, the Cuban president replied: “The normal life of 41 years … of them attacking us.”
Castro also denounced the two U.S. candidates for president, Al Gore and George W. Bush, for supporting a delay of the boy’s return to Cuba.
“The candidates, almost without exception, have a terrible position, bad, without any ethics,” he said. “The principal reason is the myth that the [anti-Castro] mafia decides the voting in Florida.”
At a 400,000-strong victory rally on Saturday, Castro had praised U.S. officials for taking action to bring father and son together and called a single day’s “truce” in the Cold War-era struggle.
But yesterday, he was more cynical about what the future holds, noting that Elian’s case is not “totally resolved” until the child is back in Cuba.
“It could be that, after a while, depending on what happens, we might have to fight a battle for the family, because of it being held kidnap [sic] up there,” he said.
U.S. officials, meanwhile, acknowledged concerns that Elian may be used as a political trophy when he returns home and hoped to influence Cuban officials about how the boy is treated.
“That is Fidel Castro’s history,” Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder said. “He has shown that he has always tried to use whatever he can for his own political advantage.”