Is little Elian just a pawn in an international business scheme?
By Charley Reese
Columnist
Mash almost any of America's foreign-policy postules and what will ooze
out is big business in pursuit of
money. It now seems that even little Elian Gonzalez has become a pawn in
an international business scheme.
By the time you read this, some outcome may have occurred. Nevertheless
what follows is important
background. All of the information comes from the Archer Daniels Midland
Shareholders Watch Committee.
In the fall of 1995, ADM's chairman, Dwayne Andreas, met with Fidel Castro
for dinner in New York. In July
1996, Andreas announced that he was going to Cuba to see Castro. He said
he contemplated building a refinery
in Cuba but would do it through a Spanish subsidiary because of the trade
embargo.
In 1997, a Spanish company invested $65 million in Cuba for a refinery
for the production of alcohol from
molasses. In October 1999, Martin Andreas, senior vice president, said
ADM would consider constructing a
vegetable-oil plant in Cuba if the market were open.
Last January the Cuban government announced that it is moving toward consideration
of a joint-venture type of
relationship with ADM. In February, ADM announced plans for another trade
exhibition in Havana in
December.
What has this got to do with Elian Gonzalez?
Well, there are a lot of interesting coincidences. Remember the meeting
with the grandmothers at the
home of the president of Barry University?
Dwayne Andreas is a large contributor to Barry University, and his wife
is a graduate and is past
chairman of the board of trustees. The president of the university was
initially in favor of returning Elian to his
father -- until the meeting with the grandmothers convinced her that the
Cuban government was calling
the shots.
Last October, Andrew Young, an ADM board member and member of the public-policy
committee, was
installed as president of the National Council of Churches, an old left
front group, which has taken the
lead in urging that Elian be returned to his father.
Gregory Craig, the high-priced lawyer who suddenly materialized to represent
Juan Gonzalez, who couldn't
afford two seconds of Craig's time, is part of a law firm that also represents
ADM. Craig is ostensibly being paid
by the National Council of Churches.
That seems like an awful lot of coincidences linking Elian Gonzalez with
ADM, which calls itself the supermarket
to the world. Castro is like any other communist dictator. If you want
to cut deals with him, you have to
kiss his backside. If you want to open a news bureau in Havana, you have
to kiss his backside. Castro wants the
kid back, and what do you know?
A leftist church group and a high-priced lawyer, both with ADM connections,
pop up to lead the campaign.
And, no surprise, the big American news media jump on the same bandwagon.
Castro, by the way, has already said Elian will be sent to a boarding school
in Havana, where Cuban
psychologists will straighten out his mind. Castro's daughter, who lives
in Spain, had already warned that
would be Elian's fate if he's handed over to the dictator.
The Cuban exile community has always known that the question is not one
of familial custody but one of
freedom or a kid being sacrificed to a ruthless communist dictator.
One day I may find an American foreign policy that does not cause me to
become nauseated. By and large, it is
safe to say that the American government generally disgusts me, as do much
of American big business and
much of the American news media. Liberty gets a cold reception from all
three.