Boy’s Return to Cuba Was Set, Group Says

A leading U.S. church organization said Friday that it was to have been an intermediary in an agreement to return to Cuba a 6-year-old Cuban boy at the center of an international custody dispute.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. National Council of Churches said the deal to return the boy, Elian Gonzalez, inexplicably fell apart in mid-December.

But the council will send two representatives to Cuba on Sunday to meet with Elian’s father and grandparents and with U.S. and Cuban government officials, in hopes of securing the boy’s return, council spokeswoman Carol Fouke said.

“Our concern is humanitarian, not political,” said Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, who was the council’s executive director for nine years and will make the trip with the Rev. Oscar Bolioli.

“We hold that except in cases of abuse, children are best served when they are with their parents, and all indications are that this is a good, loving father,” Campbell said. “Those who say Elian should stay in the United States because the way of life is better ignore the meaning of family.”

Elian was rescued off the coast of Florida on Nov. 25 and is living with relatives in Miami. He had clung to an inner-tube for two days after a boat full of Cubans capsized in an attempt to enter Florida illegally.

His mother and 10 other people were killed. His father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who was divorced from Elian’s mother, wants the boy returned to Cardenas, his hometown.

Elian’s Miami relatives have applied for political asylum on his behalf, claiming he would face persecution in Cuba.

The boy has become a cause celebre on both sides of the Florida Straits. Cuban exiles in Miami have portrayed him and his mother as victims of Cuba’s Communist government. The Havana government has accused the United States of kidnapping the boy and has staged mass rallies calling for his return.

A decision by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service on the boy’s fate is pending.