UNITED STATES/CUBA: Ruling may mean Elian can finally go home

Around half a million jubilant Cubans marched in the eastern city of Holguin
on June 24 to celebrate a US federal appeals court in Atlanta statement
the day before that it would not reconsider its decision not to grant a
political asylum hearing to six-year-old Cuban boy, Elian Gonzalez.

The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed its decision that the
US Immigration and Naturalization Service — which ruled in January that
only Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, had the right to speak for the
boy — had authority over the case. The decision should remove the last
of many legal barriers, erected by Elian's anti-communist Miami relatives,
that prevent Elian's father taking the boy home to Cuba.

The appeals court confirmed that an injunction blocking Elian's father
from taking his son home will expire at 4pm on June 28. The only course
open to the Miami relatives is to appeal to the US Supreme Court.

Juan Miguel Gonzalez's lawyer urged the judges “to see through [the
Miami relatives'] charade, stop the excruciating delays and allow this
family to go home”.

From GLW issue 410