{"id":473292,"date":"2025-06-28T11:13:03","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T15:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/uncategorized\/twenty-five-years-of-the-dispute-between-havana-and-miami-over-the-fate-of-the-balserito-elian-gonzalez\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T11:13:03","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T15:13:03","slug":"twenty-five-years-of-the-dispute-between-havana-and-miami-over-the-fate-of-the-balserito-elian-gonzalez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/international\/twenty-five-years-of-the-dispute-between-havana-and-miami-over-the-fate-of-the-balserito-elian-gonzalez\/","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-five years of the dispute between Havana and Miami over the fate of the “balserito” Eli\u00e1n Gonz\u00e1lez"},"content":{"rendered":"Havana, June 28 (EFE) – The “balserito” Eli\u00e1n Gonz\u00e1lez returned to Cuba a day like today 25 years ago, after surviving a shipwreck bound for the United States and becoming the center of a tense family, legal, diplomatic and ideological dispute that marked relations between the two countries.\n\nAt 31 years old, Gonz\u00e1lez lives in C\u00e1rdenas, his hometown, away from the spotlight. He is an industrial engineer, is married and has a daughter, works in a state organization and, since 2023, is a national deputy.\n\nAfter its media explosion a quarter of a century ago, it now barely appears in headlines and news about the anniversary. EFE requested an interview through the Cuban government, but has not yet received a response.\n\nGonz\u00e1lez, in a recent conversation, thanked for being able to return to the island and get away from public exposure. He also recalled his father’s “firm conviction” that he should achieve his return and the great popular support.\n\n“The fact that an entire nation mobilized and stood by my father’s pain, and wished for my return, has been something that has marked and changed our entire lives, no matter how much we have tried to make it as normal as possible,” he said about this matter five years ago to an official media outlet.\n\n“There are always places and commitments to attend, people who want to greet us, for whom I see no other way to fulfill my part than by greeting them, by being faithful and respectful to them, because, without hardly knowing that child, they added their voices for my return,” he commented.\n\n\n

<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An Unforgettable Episode<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\nOn November 22, 1999, Eli\u00e1n Gonz\u00e1lez, barely five years old, left Cuba with his mother Elizabeth Brotons – who was separated from his father – and a dozen Cubans who intended to irregularly reach Florida.\n\n\n

However, the precarious boat capsized near the US coast. “I remember when we fell into the water, that I was put on a tire and my mother was covering me and then, at some point, I raised my head and I didn’t see her anymore,” the young man recounted a few years ago in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\nOnly Eli\u00e1n and a couple of rafters survived, who swam to the shore.\n\nThe little one floated on the tire -as a life preserver- for two days, until some fishermen rescued him and handed him over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), which entrusted him to his paternal great-uncle, L\u00e1zaro Gonz\u00e1lez, in Miami.\n\n\n

The apple of discord<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\nThe relatives of the child in Miami demanded custody of Eli\u00e1n, arguing that his mother had given her life so that he could “grow up in freedom”.\n\nBut his father, from Cuba, upon learning of what had happened, requested his repatriation, alleging that the mother had taken the minor without his consent. The Cuban government became involved in the case.\n\nThe then-Cuban president, Fidel Castro, personally led a genuine crusade he called the “battle of ideas” to bring the child back, despite the deep economic crisis the island was suffering after the collapse of the socialist bloc.\n\nThe case escalated rapidly, became politicized, and turned into the latest excuse to renew the standoff between Havana and the Cuban exile in Miami.\n\nThe Cuban government promoted massive demonstrations – many of them in front of the US diplomatic mission in Havana – created the so-called “open forums”, with rallies demanding Eli\u00e1n’s return, and launched a television program to follow the details of the case.\n\nIn Miami, the most radical anti-Castro groups engaged in an offensive in US courts to retain the young Cuban refugee.\n\nThe extensive media coverage of the case also helped to garner support from activists and religious groups in the U.S., such as the National Council of Churches, the largest ecumenical association in the country.\n\n\n

The End of the Dispute  <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\nU.S. immigration authorities recognized on January 5, 2000, the parental rights of Juan Miguel Gonz\u00e1lez, a decision supported by the then Attorney General, Janet Reno, and Democratic President Bill Clinton.\n\nThe repatriation of the minor was processed, while relatives and anti-Castro groups like the Cuban American National Foundation persisted in the courts with demands for political asylum to retain the young migrant.\n\nThe father traveled to the U.S. in April and was able to reunite with Eli\u00e1n, after a federal operation, ordered by the Department of Justice, forcibly removed him from his relatives’ house.\n\nOn June 28, 2000, Juan Miguel Gonz\u00e1lez arrived in Havana with his son.\n\nFrom that moment on, a stage of reintegration into his family environment and the beginning of the first school year opened up for the child, under the accompaniment of psychologists who supervised the process of normalizing his life.\n\nYears later, in public statements, Eli\u00e1n thanked the people of Cuba and the United States for supporting his father. Regarding his relatives in Miami, he assured that he held no “grudges” against them.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Havana, June 28 (EFE) – The “balserito” Eli\u00e1n Gonz\u00e1lez returned to Cuba a day like today 25 years ago, after surviving a shipwreck bound for the United States and becoming the center of a tense family, legal, diplomatic and ideological dispute that marked relations between the two countries. At 31 years old, Gonz\u00e1lez lives in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":473293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[662,41471,695],"class_list":{"0":"post-473292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-international","8":"tag-cuba","9":"tag-elian-gonzalez","10":"tag-miami"},"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/cnne-540911-elian-gonzalez-foto-historica-cuba-miami-estados-unidos-e1751123431342.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-1Z7K","dum_api":{"author_name":"EFE","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/1200px-EFE_logo.svg-96x96.png","categories_name":["International"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/cnne-540911-elian-gonzalez-foto-historica-cuba-miami-estados-unidos-e1751123431342.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}