EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATIONS: DEMAND THE IMMEDIATE RETURN OF ELIÁN GONZALEZ TO HIS FATHER IN CUBA! in Baltimore in Boston in New Jersey in New York in San Francisco Press Conference in San Francisco
Feb. 19, 2000: Saturday's march and rally (part of nationally-coordinated events happening in San Francisco, Miami and Wash. DC) is a critical time to raise our voices to demand Elian be returned home now to his father in Cuba. On Tuesday, a Federal Judge in Miami will hear the custody case, an attempt by the Cuban-American right-wing to keep Elian here. This demonstration is an important way for us to express the sentiment of the majority in the US who believe Elian belongs with his father in Cuba and want to his political game to end. Please call us at (415) 821-6545 to help build the protest.
A press conference announcing the demonstration and discussing the case will be this Thursday [ 2/17/00 ] at 10 am at the Mission Cultural Center. Speaking at this will be delegates from the Native-Cuba Cultural Exchange Delegation who just returned from Cuba this week. They met twice with Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, and his grandmothers, and they will be speaking about this. Clinton / Reno -- Stop the Delay Return Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba Now! San Francisco Protest, National Day of Action to Send Elian Home to Cuba March and Rally THIS Saturday, Feb. 19 Gather 12 Noon, 24th and Mission St. in SF March begins 1 pm and returns to 24th Street BART. Sponsored by Committee to Return Elian Home to Cuba (415) 821-6545
* Monday, Feb. 28, 8:00 am Demand a New Trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal at the U.S. Court of Appeals! Civil Disobedience and Legal Demonstration Mission & 7th Streets, San Francisco Simultaneous action with protest at US Supreme Court in Wash, DC.
This is an important demonstration to up the level of struggle over Mumia's case. Please call or email the National People's Campaign to be part of the legal demonstration or part of an affinity group getting arrested.
A worksession to build for this demonstration will be on Weds., February 23rd at 6:30 pm at the offices at 2489 Mission Street, room 28 (at 21st and Mission above Cafe Nidal).
* Mass demonstration In Miami—Sat., January 29, 2000 (transportation from California)
It's a simple matter of Justice: A boy and his father should be together.
Come to a peaceful Rally to call for Elian's return
Saturday, Jan. 29, 2000, 10:00 a.m.
INS Building
79th & Biscayne
Miami Committee to Return Elian Home to Cuba
Activist Alert: Upcoming National Day of Protest calling for the Release of Elián Gonzalez and to Demand his Immediate Return to Cuba
Protests will also take place in Boston; Philadephia; Chicago; New Paltz, NY; and
Washington, DC and other cities.
For transportation information to Miami - call IFCO/Pastors for Peace, 212
926-5757
Sponsored by the National Committee to Send Elián Gonzalez Home to his Father in Cuba.
International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, Room 206
New York, NY 10011
email: iacenter@iacenter.org
http://www.iacenter.org
phone: 212 633-6646
fax: 212 633-2889
To Bay Area Activists: The National Committee to Return Elian Home to Cuba and concerned people around the country have called for a historic mass march in Miami for Saturday, January 29 to show the public’s outrage at the acts of the Cuban right-wing in Miami and the US government, and to demand Elian be returned home to his father, his grandparents and his people immediately. Activists will be mobilizing around the country to build this important demonstration. Organizations working on the effort include Peace for Cuba, Pastors for Peace and many others. We urge all who can join us in Miami to get your plane tickets now, or if you can help in the organizing efforts, please contact Peace for Cuba. The activity will begin between 10 am and 2 pm EST; for more details call (415) 821-6545.
More updates on press conferences and demonstrations in the Bay Area for next week will follow.
2489 Mission St. #28
San Francisco 94110
(415) 821-6545
e-mail: actionsf@actionsf.org
web: www.actionsf.org
IFCO/Pastors for Peace CALL TO ACTION
Come to Miami on January 29! Help send Elián back to Cuba!
We’re glad his Grandmothers came, but nothing has REALLY changed until they actually take him home!
Demonstrations will continue until Elián is really in Cuba!
Representatives from groups in over 70 cities throughout the US have met — in a series of conference calls — and unanimously agreed to call for a national action in Miami on Saturday, Jan 29 to be sponsored by the National Committee to Send Elián back to his Father in Cuba.
The Demonstration will be held between 11:00 and 2:00 on Saturday. People across the US are making travel plans to be in Miami on Jan 29 to be a part of this historic event to take back the city from the right-wing intimidation that has previously silenced those who would speak out to reunite this child with his father in Cuba.
We’re going to Miami to demonstrate that the Miami Mafia can no longer intimidate the residents of South Florida. The Cuban American National Foundation obviously does not understand nor support such concepts as "freedom of speech" and "right to peacefully assemble" — they didn’t exist in Batista’s Cuba and haven’t been available in Miami in recent years. We will go there to witness that it is indeed possible to speak out. We are working with our friends in Congress to ensure that the Justice Department sends federal marshals, should that seem to be necessary.
We understand, and honor, Elián’s father’s and grandparents’ refusal to take part in the Miami media circus run by Armando Gutierrez or the corrupt judicial proceedings as personified by Judges Rosa Rodriguez, and Federal Judge James Lawrence King. King is the judge who has made a number of pro-CANF decisions, dismissed felony charges in 1993 against Tony Briant, head of the right-wing para-military group Comandos L before the trial could go to jury because "Bryant didn’t act like he committed a crime." and dismissed weapons charges against six Alpha 66 members because their attorneys argued that the defendants did not know that there were illegal weapons aboard their boat.
This call for a National Demonstration in Miami came out of the success of local demonstrations and civil disobedience actions in New York City, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago and other cities, as well as actions in England, Canada and the Netherlands. More local and international demonstrations are planned and will continue until Elián is actually back in Cuba.
AND IN THE MEANTIME, Please Contact:
Attorney General Janet Reno: 202/514-2001, Fax: 202/307-6777
President Clinton and Vice Pres. Gore: 202/456-1111, Fax: 202/456-2461
Your senators and representative in Washington can be reached through the Congressional Switchboard, 202/225-3121, and they are at their home district offices until January 27 talk with them personally if you can.
For more information: contact IFCO/Pastors for Peace, 402 W 145th Street, NYC, NY 10031. Phone: 212/926-5757; fax: 212/926-5842; email: ifco@igc.org; web: http://www.ifconews.org
JANUARY 29 DEMONSTRATION IN MIAMI
The following is a January 24th press release from the National Committee to Return Elian to his Father in Cuba about the January 29th demonstration in Miami:
Church and Community Leaders Plan January 29 Rally and Demonstration in Miami For Immediate Return of Elian Gonzalez to Cuba:
INS Building * 79th and Biscayne * 10 a.m.
Church, community and labor leaders have announced plans to rally and demonstrate in Miami on January 29th to press for the immediate return of six-year-old Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba. The demonstration, which will be held at the INS Building at 79th and Biscayne at 10 a.m., is being organized by the National Committee to Return Elian Gonzalez to his Father in Cuba, a coalition of 50 organizations.
"We are going to Miami to express the sentiment of the majority of people in this country who believe it is criminal to keep this child from his father," said Rev. Lucius Walker, executive director of the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization and member of the committee.
"A small sector of right-wing anti-Cuba/Castro forces in south Florida have created a climate of fear and intimidation in Miami and have refused to comply with the INS decision to return the child to his father. We are going to Miami to support others working to break through that wall of fear."
In an effort to override the INS decision, conservative members of Congress have announced plans to grant the six-year-old U.S. citizenship without the authorization of his father.
For the past six weeks, branches of the committee across the country have been holding weekly demonstrations and civil disobedience actions in an effort to express the opinion of the majority of people in this country who believe that Elian should be reunited with his father in Cuba. Scores of people acting under the adhoc committee have been arrested across the country.
Elian’s mother and nine others drowned on the high seas after illegally leaving Cuba on a small rickety boat attempting to reach Miami. Elian, who survived the sinking, clung to an inner tube for 72 hours and was picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard. Rather than return Elian to his country and his father, the U.S. yielded to the pressure of the right-wing Cuban American National Foundation and has kept the child in the U.S. since last November.
During the past month, hundreds of thousands of Cuban citizens have demonstrated in Cuba demanding that Elian be sent back home immediately where his father and four grandparents live. Hundreds of protests have also been held in the United States demanding that Elian be sent back to his father in Cuba.
A recent Dateline poll revealed that 84% of the U.S. population supports returning the child to Cuba. Numerous daily newspapers have also published editorials calling for the release of the child. And committee members in several cities report that individuals passing by the demonstrations they have held for the past several weeks, have increasingly indicated their support for the boy’s return.
Legal experts and human rights activists have described the detention of the 6-year-old, against the wishes of his father in Cuba, as a violation of U.S. law, Cuban law and international laws. The U.S. government’s decision to hold the boy is a violation of the U.S./Cuba Migratory Accord of 1995.
"Each day that Elian is kept from his father and his home is a further delay in the healing process he so desperately needs," said Walker.
EMERGENCY DEMONSTRATION FOR ELIAN IN BOSTON
Let Elian Gonzalez Go Home to Cuba!
Saturday January 29 2pm
Park Street Station Boston
(coordinated with National Demo in Miami and regional demos around the country)
Say no to the right wing attacks on Cuba! End the Blockade! Let Elian Go Home!
Initiated by International Action Center/Peace for Cuba Appea
Endorsed by:
Latinas & Latinos for Social Change
Veterans for Peace
Community Church of Boston
July 26 Coalition
Committee for Peace and Human Rights
Vigils for the Iraqi People
In support of National Demonstration in Miami and demonstrations around the country on January 29 called by the National Committee to Send Elian Home to Cuba.
Around the US, people are demonstrating to demand that the U.S. government stop holding 6-year-old Elian Gonzales hostage, and send him back home to his father and grandparents in Cuba. Hundreds of thousands of Cuban people have demonstrated their outrage in the streets, and angrily reject the claims of the right wing that it is "child abuse" to raise a child in a socialist society.
For more information contact:
International Action Center
Boston 617-522-6626
iacboston@yahoo.com
http://home.earthlink.net/~npcboston
http://www.iacenter.org
Wednesday, December 15, 1999
4 pm to 7 pm
26 Federal Plaza (at Broadway and Worth)
(Take N or R trains to City Hall or 4, 5 or 6 to Brooklyn Bridge)
On November 25, a young Cuban child, Elián Gonzáles Broton was brought to Miami, Florida by the U.S. Coast Guard after surviving two days at sea. Elián’s mother and nine others drowned while attempting to leave Cuba without authorization.
Elián’s father as well as hundreds of thousands of Cubans have demanded that Elián be sent back home immediately to Cuba where his father and four grandparents live. All of Elián’s grandparents as well as some relatives in Miami have urged the U.S. government to release the boy immediately.
The child and the others were found in international waters. Yet the White House via the State Department has given up their jurisdiction to the state of Florida saying it is up to a Florida judge to decide the boy’s future.
Elián spent his 6th birthday in Miami despite worldwide opposition to this detention. A recent NBC poll revealed that 74% of the people surveyed supported the call for the child to be returned. A December 7th Daily News editorial also called for the release of the child.
Legal experts and human rights activists have described the detention of Elián as a violation of not only U.S. law, but Cuban and international laws as well. The U.S. governments’ decision to hold the boy is in violation of the U.S./Cuba Migratory Agreement of 1995. Clearly, the right-wing Cuban-Americans in Florida are exploiting Elián for political purposes.
Join human rights activists, clergy, students, Cuba solidarity activists and many others on Wednesday, Dec. 15 to demand that the Clinton Administration, the State Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Services release Elián Gonzáles immediately. This child has suffered enough. It is just and humane that Elián be home by Christmas if not sooner.
Demonstration Called by the Emergency Committee to Return Elián Gonzáles to His Father in Cuba
For more information contact: IFCO/Pastors for Peace 212-926-5757 or the International Action Center 212-633-6646
Demand the return of Elian Gonzalez to his family in Cuba
*Tell President Bill Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno: SEND ELIAN HOME!!! Rally & March in Washington DC, Saturday, Feb. 19, 11 AM. Assemble at Lamont Park, Mt Pleasant St & Lamont St NW March to the White House and Justice Department. Sponsored by the National Committee for the Return of Elian to His Father in Cuba (a coalition of groups) For bus information from Baltimore call (410) 235-7040
*Protest/ Candlelight Vigil
Wed., Dec. 15, 1999, 4-6pm
Fells Point- Broadway & Thames St.
Please join us this Wed. in Baltimore to demand the immediate release of Elian Gonzalez. The U.S. government has detained this young boy in Miami and has already violated U.S. law, Cuban law, international law, and immigration law by holding Elian as a virtual prisoner.
We our in solidarity with his father and relatives in Cuba who have denounced this vicious act and demand that he be returned immediately to his home in Cuba. Elian has already suffered enormously having witnessed his own mothers death, enough is enough! We can not allow him to be used in Miami or Washington for others political purposes! Free Elian and return him to his family!
Come with signs, banners, posters, candles! Please spread the word and join us: Cuban American Alliance Education Fund, Md Coalition to End the U.S. Embargo of Cuba, All Peoples Congress, Howard County Friends of Latin America, BAJA-Baltimore Action for Justice in the Americas, Pastors Peace-D.C., Unity for Action
Return Elián González to his father in Cuba!
San Francisco
*Saturday, Feb. 19
Clinton / Reno -- Stop the Delay Return Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba Now!
San Francisco Protest, National Day of Action to Send Elian Home to Cuba March and Rally Gather 12 Noon, 24th and Mission St. in SF March begins 1 pm and returns to 24th Street BART Sponsored by Committee to Return Elian Home to Cuba (415) 821-6545
*Wed., Dec. 15, 1999, 5 pm
Protest Powell & Markets, San Francisco
In the ultimate act of heartless cynicism against a child, the Cuban right-wing in Miami has held 6-year-old Elián González Broton hostage, refusing to return him to his father in Cuba, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who is pleading for his release.
The boy made U.S. news when he was rescued Nov. 25, after surviving two days at sea by holding onto an inner tube. He was found in International waters. According to the U.S.-Cuba Migratory Agreement of 1995, he is required to be returned to Cuba immediately.
International, U.S. and Cuba law all recognize the inviolable rights of the parent to their child. But the U.S. State Department, in violation of the migratory agreement and international law regarding parental rights, has surrendered jurisdiction to the state of Florida, saying it will be up to a Florida judge to decide the boy’s future.
But the U.S. courts have absolutely no jurisdiction over this matter. This is a state-to-state issue. And given the repressive climate by the Cuban-American right-wing in Miami, it is doubtful that any judge would order the return of Elián to his father.
The U.S. is a signatory of the Hague Convention of 1981, which provides for children to be expeditiously returned to their place of habitual residence. That residence is Cuban for Elián. Under the Hague Convention terms, the State Department is obligated to intervene in Florida affairs on behalf of Elián, to force their compliance and return him.
It is clear that it will take mass public pressure to free him from his captors. Elián’s plight has received international attention and the over-whelming sentiment of moral indignation by the people of Cuba. Millions of people in Cuba are marching to demand his immediate release to his father, his four grandparents and his country.
We urge every person with a sense of justice to take a stand on behalf of Elián and his father.
Sponsored by the National Network on Cuba. Member organizations supporting this action include: Antonio Maceo Brigade; Cuban-American Aliiance Education Fund; Global Exchange; InfoMed; International Peace for Cuba Appeal; Pastors for Peace; Socialist Action; U.S.-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan; Venceremos Brigade.
For More Information or to Volunteer, call Peace for Cuba at (415) 821-6545.
Press Conference to Demand Release of Elián González to his Father in Cuba
Mission Cultural Center
2868 Mission Street
San Francisco
Thursday, Dec. 9, 1999, 10 am
Concerned community members, including children’s rights advocates, will hold a press conference to call for the immediate release of six year-old Elián González, the Cuban child being held in Florida. The press conference will be at the Mission Cultural Center at 10 am on Thursday, December 9, 1999.
Elián González was a survivor of a shipwreck in international waters off the coast of Florida. Found on November 25, he was brought to the U.S., where he is currently being detained. Community activists call this action a violation of the 1995 agreement between the U.S. and Cuba, where Cubans discovered in international waters would be repatriated to Cuba.
His father and four grandparents in Cuba demand his immediate return. In violation of the boy’s human rights and Cuba’s sovereignty, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has remanded the case to a Florida court. When Elián was phoned by his family and classmates in Cuba on his sixth birthday, he confirmed his desire to be reunited with his loved ones. His father asked, "Are you coming back soon?" and Elián replied, "Yes. Tell my classmates to take care of my things."
"Despite the child’s desires and the rightful demands of his father, the right-wing forces in Miami are holding him hostage for political gain," declared Gloria La Riva, West Coast Coordinator of the International Peace for Cuba Appeal. "Any person with a sense of humanity would understand that Elián belongs with his father," continued La Riva.
Delvis Fernandez of the Cuba-American Alliance Education Fund said, " Elián was taken from his home in Cuba without the consent of his father nor his four grandparents, and then suffered the terrible trauma of the death of his mother. Humanitarian considerations call for the release to his father."
World public opinion has been growing in favor of the boy’s return to his rightful family. In Orlando, Florida, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu spoke out, "what is best for the child" is to "be with his closest relatives" in Cuba.
John Vidal, a Cuban-American was quoted in the Denver Post saying, "We should not politicize a parenting issue, I think this father has a right to his son. I think there is a greater value here in families being together" Vidal knows the pain of family separation, as he was taken from his parents in Cuba and brought to a Colorado orphanage in 1961. He stayed there four years before being reunited with his parents.
The National Network on Cuba, comprising 70 organizations in the U.S., met in Seattle December 4-5, and resolved to make the return of Elián González a top priority of the member organizations. The National Network on Cuba US-Cuba 2000 conference was attended by more than 250 individuals. Following is the text of that resolution.
RESOLUTION BY THE US-CUBA 2000 CONFERENCE TO LAUNCH A CAMPAIGN DEMANDING THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE AND RETURN TO CUBA OF ELIAN GONZALEZ
DECEMBER 5, 1999
Whereas the recent drowning of ten Cuban citizens has created tremendous emotional pain for the Cuban people, and Whereas among those who lost their lives was the mother of Elián González, a Cuban boy whose sixth birthday is today and miraculously survived by hanging onto an inner tube for several hours in international waters off the coast of Miami before he was found, rescued, and brought to the United States, and ˇ Whereas this vulnerable Cuban child was taken from his home without the consent or nowledge of his father or four grandparents in Cuba, and ˇ Whereas the father and grandparents of Elián González upon learning of Elián’s tragic situation immediately declared and demanded from the United States authorities in the strongest terms possible the immediate repatriation of their child and return to his home, and ˇ Whereas the child already suffering the traumas of the shipwreck, maternal loss, and separation from all that is familiar and dear to him has now fallen prey to exploitation by the media and by special interests groups in the United States, and ˇ Whereas the refusal to return Elián González to his rightful parent and grandparents constitutes a flagrant violation of the best interests of the child and the legal and natural rights of Elián’s father, and ˇ Whereas Article 16 (3) of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes that "The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State", and ˇ Whereas, the United States’ detention of the child constitutes a clear violation of the United States immigration agreement with Cuba, and ˇ Whereas the United States has a legal tradition that in situations like the one presently involving Elián González recognizes and affirms that the best interests of the child are dependent on complete access to the love, protection, and care of the parents, and ˇ Whereas the so-called protection and care said to be provided to Elián by relatives who are strangers constitute the kidnapping of a vulnerable child and a gross violation of the parental rights of Elián González’s father and grandparents, and ˇ Whereas the United States recognizes children have a natural right not only to their parents but to their home and cultural communities, and ˇ Whereas the kidnapping of Elián with total disregard for his emotional trauma constitutes child abuse.
Therefore, be it resolved that at the US-Cuba 2000 Conference of the National Network on Cuba, meeting in the City of Seattle, Washington this fifth day of December 1999, resolves to demand from the United States government that Elián González be immediately returned to his legal and rightful parent and grandparents in Cuba without any further legal or judicial delays, and Furthermore, this national body hereby constitutes itself into the first of many committees to be formed throughout the United States to launch a worldwide campaign to appeal to the United States Administration, to the United States Congress, and to international human rights organizations to demand the immediate return of Elián González to his father, to his grandparents, and to his home country.
2489 Mission St. #28,
San Francisco 94110
(415) 821-6545
e-mail: actionsf@actionsf.org
web: www.actionsf.org
International Action Center
39 West 14th Street, Room 206
New York, NY 10011
email: iacenter@iacenter.org
http://www.iacenter.org
phone: 212 633-6646
fax: 212 633-2889
