Easter weekend...

On November 21st, 1999 14 Cubans left their country on a small aluminum boat headed North. The boat had a faulty engine and took on water during a storm. Only 3 survived and were picked up by 2 fishermen who handed them over to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Of the survivors was a young boy Elián González, his mother (who was divorced from Elián's father) had perished at sea. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) released González to his paternal great-uncle, Lázaro who was living in Miami. Back in Cuba, Elián's father was not aware his ex and son had attempted to escape Cuba and wanted his son returned.

There was much publicity about the custody case as the remote family wanted to keep the boy in Miami. (according to Wiki) Attorney General Janet Reno ordered the return of Elián González to his father and set a deadline of April 13, 2000, but the Miami relatives defied the order. Negotiations continued for several days as the house was surrounded by protesters as well as police.

On Thursday, April 20, 2000, Reno made the decision to remove González from the house and instructed law enforcement officials to determine the best time to obtain the boy. In the pre-dawn hours of Easter Eve, Saturday, April 22, more than 130 INS personnel and agents of the Border Patrol's special BORTAC unit as part of an operation approached the house, knocked on the door and identified themselves. When no one responded, they entered. Four hours after he was taken from the house in Miami, González and his father were reunited at Andrews Air Force Base.

The next day, the White House released a photograph showing a smiling González reunited with his father, which the Miami relatives disputed by claiming that it was a fake. After González was returned to his father's custody, he remained in the U.S. while the Miami relatives exhausted their legal options.

I was reminded how Easter affects people differently.
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Comments (2)

I remember following that story on the news back then.

Happy Easter Chat.
wow...im glad they reunited them....no relative is gonna take a kid over a living parent unless that parent is a danger to themselves or the child by being abusive etc....wave
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