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No good can come of this
Myths and harsh realities in the political sludge match over Elián González.
By Bruce Shapiro
[04/08/00]

Meet Miami's Cuban moderates
The eruption over Elián González is eclipsing a newer, tamer politics emerging in South Florida.
By John Lantigua
[04/07/00]

Grumpy old men
The aging exile leaders who are trying to keep Elián González in the United States have a lot in common with their anti-democratic nemesis, Fidel Castro.
By Max J. Castro
[04/06/00]

Harlem's un-Sharpton
Rudy Giuliani finds an ally in Imam Pasha, a black Muslim leader with a pro-Giuliani, pro-police message.
By Rob Mank
[04/06/00]

"Dead, I can't do anything"
Francisco Santos, a former kidnap victim of drug lord Pablo Escobar, became a symbol of hope for Colombians weary of violence and fear. But when leftist guerrillas ordered him killed, he had to flee to the U.S.
By Ana Arana
[04/05/00]

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Instead, they report reverentially the words of extremist self-appointed Cuban-American exile leaders, no matter how inflammatory and distorted. In the meantime, Elián's Cuban-American relatives are depicted as loving caretakers for stridently disobeying American law and, in effect, kidnapping the child.

When a family lawyer, for example, vowed that Elián's father and the United States government would "rip Elián from the loving arms of his cousin" most of the press did not question anything about the 22-year-old Marisleysis González, nicknamed his "surrogate mother." The vision of González being taken out on a stretcher, oxygen mask to her face, has become a staple of TV news. Six times since Elián's arrival four months ago, she has been hospitalized for a "nervous stomach" or "emotional anxiety," and just as quickly released. Even last summer, when Elián was an unknown child in Cuba, she collapsed and was admitted to a hospital -- which does not square with the reason her family has given for the episodes, her fear that Elián will be returned to Cuba.

Also Today No good can come of this Myths and harsh realities in the political sludge match over Elián González. By Bruce Shapiro

One can certainly sympathize with any emotional problems she may have, and she is no doubt a loving relative, but one has to question what kind of emotional stability she can possibly provide for her 6-year-old charge. Friends have been quoted as saying that she leads the brainwashing brigade, never missing a chance to underscore what a bad life Elián would have in Cuba. And she apparently has scant sensitivity for the emotional well-being of a frightened little boy by letting him watch on TV the scary mess unfolding around him, including rabble-rousers who push through barricades, screaming their "pray for Elián," mantra in front of the family's tiny house in Little Havana.

"Every time he hears that they might pick him up," González recounts with a tear in her eye, "he looks at me with open eyes and asks, 'Why are they doing this, when my mom is the one who brought me here?'"

Because family members are ever so accessible and always on camera -- orchestrated by a public-relations man known in Miami for running dirty political campaigns -- the media takes the easy way out and avoids digging. Only after the national press reported their assertions that Elián's father was abusive, for example, did the family admit that they had no proof. The latest propaganda coup was the dramatic exhortation of the surrogate mother who spoke like a Barbara Walters pro when she demanded of a TV crew "I want to go live!" to attack the INS, just hours before she was hospitalized again. Marisleysis' background is important to report because she is a heavy player in the fight; family lawyers stopped negotiations during her latest hospital episode.

To their credit, however, the González family has turned down numerous monetary requests to get the "inside" story, but they have done little to protect him from the terrifying glare of publicity, including providing photo-ops of his bedroom.

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