• Fidel gives him his diploma as best all-around student

BY RAISA PAGES—Granma International staff writer—

WITH "the privilege of being your friend," President Fidel Castro praised Elián González for finishing elementary school with excellent grades and for being selected as the best all-around Pioneer of the graduating class of Marcelo Salado Elementary School in Cárdenas, Matanzas.

Elián received his diploma from the hands of Fidel, who during his speech, listed the boy’s virtues, based on his teachers’ evaluations.

He noted that Elián is a boy who, for his age, knows a little bit of everything, and a lot about some things; has a magnificent cognitive attitude; shows an eagerness to learn; likes to be challenged and to take on the unknown.

Elián has a thoughtful attitude toward knowledge, generates conclusions about what he has learned, is observant, and is capable of facing the unknown without evading the difficulties, Fidel highlighted.

He noted that Elián is attentive and applies himself, is aware of his difficulties and admits them publicly, is disciplined and respectful, and doesn’t like to be scolded.

Sociable and gentlemanly, particularly with girls, Elián cares about other people’s problems, has a sense of responsibility for his younger brothers, takes collective opinions into account, and subordinates himself to them when he considers them correct.

He adapts himself to the tasks that he is supposed to carry out and concentrates on the televised classes and games, in which he actively participates. He is clean and meticulous with his school materials and on account of his merits, was elected head of his Pioneer group when he began sixth grade.

"He generates ideas, writes his own speeches and I have the privilege of being his friend," affirmed the Cuban president, speaking during the graduation ceremony for the Cárdenas elementary schools, which was held at Marcelo Salado.

He recalled that during the struggle for the return of Elián González after he had been kidnapped by a Miami clan supported by anti-Cuban extreme rightists, nobody gave up hope, nobody became cowardly, and every time it was necessary, Elián’s school and the whole town mobilized in front of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, in an unending battle that lasted months and months.

Fidel said the Battle of Ideas will continue to defeat its enemies, the truth will break through all adversities, and the most just ideas will be multiplied. Millions and tens of millions and hundreds of millions are enlisting in the ranks of the truth. And those truths will end up smashing the empire, not only from without, but also from within.

During the event, Olga Salanueva, the wife of René González, one of the five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters imprisoned in the United States, read a letter sent by him to Elián, reproduced on this page.

Before the graduation, Fidel was in the Cardenas historic quarter to re-inaugurate the museum located in the house in which student leader José Antonio Echeverría was born, which was recently renovated.