December 10, 1999

by Kate O'Beirne. Intellectual Capital, December 09, 1999

Like a benevolent great-grandfather, Cuban leader Fidel Castro attended a party for Elian Gonzalez, the absent birthday boy who turned 6 in Miami this week.

Castro’s interest in Elian’s happiness and well-being comes a little late. The child lost his mother when she made a desperate attempt to see that her son did not grow up as a subject of Castro’s oppression. Under Castro’s watchful eye, Elian’s father explains that his mother illegally snatched the boy. There is some doubt about whether Elian’s father is speaking freely when he demands the boy’s return to Cuba, but there is no doubt that Elian’s mother wanted him to celebrate his future birthdays in the freedom of Florida. The best interests of this child argue in favor of his late mother’s wishes.

Real freedom?

A child is typically better off under the care of a parent rather than distant relatives, but Elian is a Cuban child whose return to his father would sacrifice the freedom his mother gave to him with her life. The purchases his Miami relatives have made for him, while dazzling to the confused child, cannot compare with the purchase of freedom he has been given in America. If Elian were only materially better off in the states than in an impoverished, democratic country that he fled, a parent’s wish that he be returned should be honored. The rights of a parent trump the ability to provide bicycles, video games and trips to Disney World. But Elian loses far more than new toys should he be returned to a father whose real wishes are uncertain.

Cuban citizens are not free to express their views, so nothing said publicly on the island about Elian’s cause can be trusted. Cuban Americans who have rallied to his cause as an expression of their own anti-Castro politics also distrust his father’s pleas for his return. Their own experience informs their opinion that Elian’s father might well want his son to remain with his relatives in Miami. Some in the community believe that Gonzalez knew that his former wife was going to attempt an escape. Such are the suspicions of people who have lived with the ruthless, dishonest ways of Castro’s Cuba.

And the suspicious community has powerful allies. Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL), members of Congress and local politicians believe that Elian should remain in Florida. Should the case wind up before an elected state judge, it is doubtful the child would be ordered back home.

The problem with moral equivalency

But the Cubans marching in the street in accord with Castro’s wish to use Elian’s case to stir up resentment of the ugly Yankees to the north have given the State Department a case of the nerves. The diplomats are prone to see an equivalency between Castro’s demand and any other head of state’s legitimate objection to the granting of asylum to a minor against his parent’s wishes. Totalitarian regimes have rights, too, after all they reason at Foggy Bottom.

The argument that when a child’s only parent seeks custody he has an unassailable right to his child ignores the circumstances in Elian’s case. Mr. Gonzalez’s honest wishes cannot be known when taking a position contrary to the state’s desires invites severe retribution. Even if he honestly wants to undo the decision that took the life of his former wife, he would be seeking Elian’s return to an abusive situation where his is denied basic rights and freedoms. How can a father want that for his child?

We are all playing Solomon when we choose sides in the dispute over this poor, little boy. And, the ancient sage’s resolution between the biblical mothers is instructive. He recognized the claim of the woman who was willing to sacrifice the custody of the child to spare his life. It is reasonable to expect that Mr. Gonzalez would do the same if he enjoyed the freedom that his son’s mother won for Elian.

Kate O'Beirne is the Washington editor of the National Review. She is a contributing editor of IntellectualCapital.com. Her e-mail address is kateobeirne@intellectualcapital.com.

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