The Miami Herald
January 12, 2000
 
 
Latin media lean toward dad's point

 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