Tens of Thousands Protest Miami Raid
Rally: Peaceful demonstration in Little Havana calls for justice for Elian and liberty for Cuba.
By MIKE CLARY, Times Staff Writer
MIAMI--Tens of thousands of Cuban Americans--exiles and native Miamians,
from school kids to
the elderly--took
to the streets of Little Havana Saturday in a flag-waving march prompted
by outrage
over the
government's seizure of Elian Gonzalez a week ago.
The march was orderly and without incident.
But violence was much on marchers' minds.
"How can we teach our kids that violence is unacceptable when we see our
government do that?"
asked
Cristine Dezayas, 23, a fifth-grade teacher, referring to the actions of
heavily armed federal
agents
who removed the 6-year-old Cuban child from his Miami relatives' home so
that he could be
reunited
with his father.
Although the demonstration was designed as a protest, the anger of last
week seemed to have
given
way to a celebration of Cuban pride, albeit a celebration tinged with sadness.
"We are upset at what happened," said Cristina Suarez, a medical center
director. "But we are
Americans,
and we love this country, too."
The day after the raid, Suarez said, she went by the house of Lazaro Gonzalez,
Elian's great-uncle,
and retrieved
from the street the remnants of an American flag that had been burned.
She painstakingly
pieced
the charred cloth together, glued it to poster board and carried it under
the words: "American
flag rescued
by its Cuban-American adoptive sons and daughters."
"I was irate about the flag burning," said Suarez, 51. "This is not us.
We respect the U.S. But I
don't
like what happened to Elian."
Indeed, Elian remains a symbol in Miami for legions of Cubans who revile
the Cuban regime of
Fidel
Castro. Although many now accept the fact that Juan Miguel Gonzalez had
a right to custody of
his son,
the all-but-inevitable return of Elian to Cuba is seen as a victory for
Castro.
"No one should use force to return someone to Cuba," said Manuel Peralta,
35, a balsero, or
rafter,
who came here eight years ago and now works as a security guard. With a
Cuban flag draped
around
his shoulders, he marched down 18 blocks of Calle Ocho--Eighth Street--while
wondering out
loud what
Elian might say to his father years from now.
"He's going to remember people here, and Disney World, and he's going to
ask his father, 'Why
did you
take me from the U.S.?' " said Peralta.
The march capped a turbulent week in Miami that began with the surprise
seizure of Elian and a
day of
chaotic protests that included tire fires in the streets and accusations
that police used excessive
force
in making more than 300 arrests. Days later, Miami Mayor Joe Carollo, irked
that he was not
tipped
off to the raid, fired the city manager, which in turn led to the resignation
of the police chief.
Under sunny skies and 85-degree heat, police kept a low profile Saturday,
watching from side
streets
a passing parade that featured more colorful flags--most of them Cuban--than
a patriotic
carnival.
As marchers casually strolled down the middle of a street blocked to traffic,
some sang
choruses
of the Cuban national anthem, some shouted abuse at President Clinton and
Atty. Gen. Janet
Reno,
and others chanted Spanish-language rhymes in support of the child who
lived here almost five
months
after being found at sea last November: "Elian, amigo, Miami esta contigo."
Elian, friend,
Miami
is with you.
A girl handed out flyers providing the mailing address of the Maryland
farm where Elian is living
with his
father, and urged, "Let's send him cards!"
Hundreds of marchers wore T-shirts imprinted with Elian's face, or the
famous photograph of the
federal
agent pointing a gun near the terrified child during the early-morning
raid. Many families walked
together,
some hoisting homemade signs. Xiomara Rodriguez, 17, walked with her younger
sister
Fatima,
14, taking turns carrying a poster they made from newspaper photographs
of last week's
seizure.
"The whole thing just made me feel so bad," said Rodriguez.
There were American flags being waved by the demonstrators too, as well
as the flags of Puerto
Rico,
Nicaragua, Argentina and Israel, among others.
Groups walked together: The Latin Builders Assn.; Mothers Against Repression,
dressed all in
black;
and a marching band from the Lincoln-Marti School, the private academy
Elian attended for
several
weeks. Teenagers marched along with professional men and women and older,
middle-class
couples,
the men wearing guayaberas, the women in pearls and high-heeled pumps.
Some of those who marched were surprised to find themselves in a street
protest. "I've never done
anything
like this in my life," said Graciela Pinilla, a 50ish mother of two who
held the flag of her native
Mexico
while her Cuban-born husband, Martin, carried a sign promising that he
would remember his
outrage
at election time: "We will remember in November."
"This is an expression of the frustration of the community," said Cuban-born
U.S. Rep. Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen
(R-Fla.), a Clinton administration critic. "I think the two themes that
are being heard
here are
justice for Elian, and liberty for Cuba."
Neither Lazaro Gonzalez nor his daughter Marisleysis was present. But earlier
Saturday, Gonzalez
issued
a statement appealing for calm. "Elian is gone for now and my heart is
broken," it read. "But
South
Florida must stay united. We cannot allow this tragedy to destroy our community.
We must
continue
to fight for Elian's rights to live in freedom in America."
Other voices were raised in Miami on Saturday as well. Ten miles south
of Little Havana, a group
of about
40 people waving American flags gathered at a busy intersection along U.S.
1 to show their
support
for Reno and what some called the rule of law. One man wore a flag shirt
surrounded by the
words,
"America--love it or leave it," a slogan not heard much in the U.S. since
the Vietnam War.
"We love Janet Reno," shouted one woman to motorists who honked their horns
in appreciation.
Meanwhile, in a park in far north Miami-Dade County, dozens of employees
of the U.S.
Immigration
and Naturalization Service and their families attended a picnic where they
heard district
director
Robert Wallis laud the actions of his officers in last week's raid. Some
here also wore Elian
T-shirts,
these showing the smiling child in the arms of his father.
In remarks recorded by a television crew from WFOR, the CBS-TV affiliate
in Miami, Wallis told
a cheering
crowd that during his 25 years with the INS, critics have often suggested
that "we should
be reorganized,
we should be disbanded."
"But I'll tell you what," said Wallis. "There is no one in the United State
of America that is
questioning
the abilities of the U.S. Immigration Service."