BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER
PUNTA DEL ESTE, Uruguay -- The case of young Cuban rafter Elian
Gonzalez is
making big headlines in South America, where many newspapers
are showing
little sympathy for the Cuban exiles in Miami who are trying
to keep him in the
United States.
Few of the stories about the 6-year-old rafter whose mother and
stepfather died
while trying to reach U.S. soil focus on the plight of Cuban
rafters who risk death
trying to escape political repression or economic misery in Cuba.
Rather, they
reflect -- often critically -- the efforts of Cuban exiles to
prevent him from being
reunited with his father in Cuba.
``The story is being presented as that of a kid who has been wrested
away from
his father,'' said Danilo Arbilla, publisher of Uruguay's weekly
Busqueda. ``Nobody
remembers his mother, and nobody suspects that his father is
being pressed or
rewarded [by the Cuban government] to do what he is doing.''
Carlos Pauletti, a veteran international correspondent with Uruguay's
daily El
Pais, says that ``most of what I've seen in the local media suggests
that the boy
should be sent to his father in Cuba. The media are focusing
on the drama of the
kid, who is caught in the middle of a political battle between
the Cuban
government and the exiles.''
In neighboring Argentina, several newspapers echoed Cuban President
Fidel
Castro's claim that the child was being ``kidnapped'' by U.S.
authorities.
Argentina's mass-circulation tabloid Clarin ran a story Sunday
under the headline,
Anti-Castro forces block Clinton and retain Elian. The story
refers to
``arch-conservative Republican legislators who oppose any relaxation
of
Washington's policy toward Havana.''
The article ran next to a Havana-datelined interview with Elian's
father, Juan
Miguel Gonzalez, who was quoted as calling for his son's immediate
return to
Cuba because his Miami relatives ``are nothing, and I'm Elian's
father.''
Argentina's La Nacion newspaper reported the story in a more subdued
tone,
reflecting the various positions on Elian's fate. On Thursday,
the newspaper ran a
sidebar about the experiences of Cubans who flee the island on
rafts.
Colombia's news weekly Semana carried a story titled Home in Dispute,
in which
it said, ``The [Elian] story has been exploited by the Cuban
American National
Foundation, which seized the image of the defenseless child to
print posters
against the Cuban government.''
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald