Published Wednesday, May 17, 2000, in the Miami Herald 

Elian pictures anger exiles
Boy seen wearing communist symbol

CLASSROOM: Elian sits in the front row, wearing the blue Pioneer scarf and a white T-shirt with a picture of Cuban patriot Jose Marti.

BY MARIKA LYNCH AND FRANCES ROBLES

The latest pictures of Elian Gonzalez showed the boy studying at the Wye Plantation and playing an instrument typical in Caribbean bands. But what angered Cuban Americans on Tuesday was the neckerchief the boy wore -- the uniform for the Pioneers, the youth communist league.

Modeled after groups in the former Soviet Union, the Pioneers instill communist ideals through songs, schedule weekend trips to help with harvests in the countryside, and instruct children to repeat the group allegiance ``Pioneers for communism, we will be like Che [Guevara].''

Membership is expected for Cuban children, who join in the first grade and wear the Pioneers uniform to school. Parents of students who refuse to enroll are ostracized, labeled counterrevolutionaries and denied promotions at work, said Jaime Suchlicki, director of the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies. Pioneer members also are instructed to tell on their parents if they make statements against the revolution.

The pictures, released in the Cuban daily Granma, confirmed the worst fears of many Cuban exiles, who believed the boy will be brainwashed by the Cuban government as long as he is with his father.

``Is Elian in Cuba?'' a confused Gladys Chong asked, when her husband, Ramon, burst through the door of their Southwest Miami-Dade home with the news of the images.

``No,'' Ramon Chong, a security guard who came to the United States four years ago, told her. ``It seems communism has penetrated the United States.''

Gladys Chong, who wore the neckerchief in her youth, was shocked.

``They didn't even wait until he got to Cuba to start conditioning him!'' said Gladys, a 44-year-old dental lab assistant.

The images also troubled Dr. Marta Molina, a psychologist who in her 20-year career in Cuba said she treated 500 children with problems she said stemmed from communist indoctrination.

``The oppression has already started,'' Molina said.

The Pioneer uniform is part of a strategy to ensure the boy's return, she said, by convincing Elian that he wants to return to Cuba so he will tell the courts as much.

The boy's Miami relatives were so concerned that they will write a letter to the Immigration and Naturalization Service to complain, said Kendall Coffey, one of the family's attorneys. He said the INS has shrugged off its responsibility for the boy since he was handed to his father.

``We're very troubled,'' Coffey said. ``He's being paraded as a trophy in the garb of the Communist Party. It's happening even more rapidly than our worst expectations.''

The pictures, five in all, did not have captions explaining when they were taken. One showed an indoor classroom scene, with Elian sitting in the front row, wearing the blue Pioneer scarf and a white T-shirt with a picture of Cuban patriot Jose Marti. Wearing the same outfit, he was seen reading at a desk and being supervised by a woman, who presumably was his teacher, Agueda Fleitas. In another close-up, Elian was apparently in a music class playing claves, hardwood sticks that provide a beat for Caribbean music.

The government agencies involved in Elian's case did not raise an eyebrow over his new clothes. What Elian dons each day is up to his dad, not the government, they said.

``It's not INS's business what Elian wears on a daily basis,'' INS spokeswoman Maria Cardona said. ``Those are issues up to his father.''

Carole Florman, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice, said the same.

``I think it's his school uniform,'' Florman said. ``The other kids are dressed that way, too. That's not something we're involved in. I don't think it's an area under our control.''

Cuban diplomats said the gripe was just one of many coming from Miami exiles.

``It's part of our system of children going to school,'' said Luis Fernandez, spokesman for the Cuban Interests Section in Washington. ``It's normal. Children go to school in a uniform -- just the way they do at private schools in the United States. I don't see what the problem is.''

While Elian was in South Florida, Havana had complained that the boy's Miami relatives had brainwashed him by sending him to Disney World and keeping him in the company of exile activists.

In other developments, attorneys for Elian's Miami relatives said Tuesday that the boy's father would be powerless to stop the communist regime from sending the 6-year-old to work camps.

``Irrespective of [his father's] wishes, Elian will be doing agricultural work such as cutting sugar cane in the fields, to further indoctrinate him and separate him . . . for extended periods to break down the bond between parent and child and cement the bond between child and state,'' the attorneys wrote in court papers filed Tuesday.

In their 24-page filing, the attorneys asked the three federal appeals judges presiding over Elian's case to reject an attempt by his Cuban father to replace his Miami great-uncle as the adult who speaks for Elian.

The filing was in response to a motion by Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who is seeking to replace Lazaro Gonzalez as his son's representative.

In a separate 21-page filing, the U.S. Department of Justice urged the appeals court judges in Atlanta to substitute Elian's father for his great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez, who filed the lawsuit aiming to force the government to give the child a political asylum hearing.

If the court grants the motion, the father will be free to drop the suit and return with Elian to Cuba.

And in Washington, 16 members of Congress led by Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, asked U.S. Inspector General Robert Ashbaugh to investigate the April 22 raid during which the boy was taken from the home of his Miami relatives. Herald translator Renato Perez and staff writer Jay Weaver contributed to this report.

Copyright 2000 the Miami Herald.
Republished here with the permission of the Miami Herald. No further republication or redistribution is permitted without the written approval of The Miami Herald.