Mario J. Viera Gonzalez is an independent journalist in Cuba.

HAVANA -- The crisis created by Elian Gonzalez's plight is being increasingly exploited and politically inflated by Fidel Castro and his devoted collaborators. Although not evident, their purpose is to divert international attention to a topic of relative transcendence, while spreading a cloak of oblivion over the deteriorating situation of human rights on the island.

Elian's case is one of judicial litigation, to be resolved solely by the parties in conflict: the father who claims him from Cuba, and the paternal relatives who want to be favored by a U.S. federal court ruling appointing them as the minor's guardians.

Politics should not count in this case, but Castro has capitalized on the tug of war to promote his propaganda interests. The mutual accusations over the little rafter's custody only consolidate the Cuban leader's plan to raise a smoke screen to hide the repressive activities of his political police, which have become harsher in recent days, and the pathetic drama of the Cuban prisons.

With the topic of Elian, attention is diverted from more-controversial topics. For example:

The illegal imprisonment in Cuba of Maritza Lugo, leader of the Nov. 30 Democratic Party, under arrest since Dec. 23.

The unjust detention of dissident physician Oscar Elias Biscet, a foe of abortion who preaches civil disobedience in the face of government arbitrariness.

These dissidents have not received the slightest hint of solidarity from the pseudo-religious Pastors for Peace, which so loudly proclaimed its support for ``the acts of civil disobedience carried out by organizations that support Cuba [sic] in the United States,'' as it stated in an international appeal that echoed Havana's pathetic complaints over Elian's ``illegal retention'' in the United States.

The human-rights monitoring in Cuba has been relegated to the background, and the government has been given free rein to persecute and harass dissidents, while the foreign news agencies concentrate on the so-called open forums. Those propaganda-laden gatherings are staged for the benefit of opportunists who wish to express their unconditional support for the holders of power in Cuba, speak whatever nonsense comes to their minds and parrot the slogans learned as a child in school, as a worker and a member of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution.

The issue of Elian has become a bore in Cuba. Most people couldn't care less if the boy returns or remains in Miami or is given U.S. citizenship by Congress. What one senses on the street is unease over the way the government and the Central Committee journalists are manipulating the case. The gossip on the street criticizes the attitude of the boy's father; there's always someone accusing him of being a coward and incapable of defending his paternal rights.

In a futile attempt to refute the words that Elian shouted at a passing plane (``Don't take me back to Cuba!''), the government's propaganda machinists played a recording of the words on TV but said that the tape had been edited. One hears what one wants to hear, but the viewers clearly heard Elian's shout and saw his glee.