April 20, 2000
7:00 PM est

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

The Finlay Institute Issues Preliminary Report on Psychiatric, Social and Psychological medical issues.
Secondary Advisory

Contact persons:
The Finlay Society Working Group on Elian Gonzalez:
Antonio Gordon, M.D., PhD., Gladys Lorenzo, Psych.D., Adelaida Arias, Psych.D., Enrique Canton, M.D., Susana Inclan Cossio, M.A., Juan C. Perez-Espinosa, D.O., Maria Eugenia Vidana Soler- Baillo, M.Ed., Hilda Inclan, B.A.


Possible Child Abuse and its psychological Consequences:
    We want to alert the government of the United States of America, President Bill Clinton, Secretary of Justice Janet Reno and the general American public that current Immigration and Department of Justice demands being placed on the six-year-old child Elian Gonzalez-if carried out- may constitute child abuse, resulting in extreme, irreparable psychological harm to the child for the following reasons:

1. -    Fear and terror from two fronts: Elian is now in fear of being snatched away from the loving protection of his Little Havana family by both INS officials from the U.S or even a possible commando team activated here by communist Cuba, one of the actions Cuban dictator Fidel Castro publicly threatened to carry out if the child is not sent back to Cuba.

2. -    Trust and Betrayal in mental health development: Elian has declared in very forceful terms that he does NOT want to return to Cuba.  He has told his private psychologist, his Miami family, T.V. reporter Diane Sawyer in a televised segment and his father by phone and in video, that his Miami family made available to the public, through the media.

Asking the family to disregard their principles and conscience and surrender the child who doesn't want to go would make the INS look less bad, by avoiding his forceful removal by federal agents.  However, this would betray the child's trust in the people with whom he has bonded after his trauma at sea, where he lost his mother and stepfather.

This dramatic betrayal would have a serious psychological impact on this child's emotional and mental well-being.  It will elicit from this child intense negative feelings towards his surrogate parents in Miami, which would conflict with the very positive feelings that he was developed towards them.

This would produce emotional conflict and feelings of guilt, similar to those observed in a child who is a victim of abuse from his own father or other similar parental figure.  These feelings will be at the core of serious emotional conflicts that may last a lifetime.

Elian will feel both rejection and betrayal from his loving protectors in addition to the forced separation from the people with whom he has established intense emotional bonds during the past five months.  It will make it difficult for him to later trust other people, trust himself or form good interpersonal relationships, all of which are essential to  balanced mental health.

Professionals who have said that four or five months cannot compare with the five years that Elian lived in Cuba need to remember that during and after a crisis, feelings are intensified and very strong emotional bonds can be established in a relatively short period of time, particularly with the people perceived as saviors or protectors.

Psychological studies on "imprinting" substantiate that this pattern of behavior during a critical period where a child grows an attachment with mother or parental figure who nurtures him and tends to his basic needs of love, affection and care is vital for his continued development and should not be abruptly broken.

In Elian's case, after having survived the trauma of being alone at sea and seeing his mother and stepfather drift away to a drowning death, this forced removal will inflict the loss of his surrogate mother, Marisleysis Gonzalez and his fatherly figure, Lazaro.

3. -    A "loving and fit" father?: The conclusion that Elian's father is a "fit and loving parent and is the only person who may speak on his son's behalf on immigration matters" has been reached by INS without sufficient analysis of Juan Miguel Gonzalez' behavior, personality and track record in Cuba.  Only his own statements to INS officials who interviewed him in Cuba, where people feel under constant surveillance from the Castro dictatorship, were used in this INS conclusion.

INS officials need to ask Juan Miguel the crucial question: If he loves Elian so much, how come he didn't rush to his side here in Miami to console him and protect him and take him back as soon as he learned of his trauma at sea?

If he didn't come because Castro didn't allow him to come, then he is not a man free to speak for himself, and if he can't even do that, then how can he speak for his son?

If Castro and his totalitarian regime did not prevent his rushing to his son, and he still didn't come, then his relationship with his defenseless son is not a strong one.  Any loving parent would have done so.  On fact, most people would do this for their own pet, if lost and then found.  They would not sit at home and wait for others to bring back their pet to them…  Plus, what is he doing in Washington meeting with people against the embargo instead of being in Miami with his son and his family here?

Additional evidence against Juan Miguel: A proper court of law would consider this evidence in addition to the INS interviews:

Juan Miguel's own violent statements in ABC's "Nightline" program, when he was still in Cuba, in which he said that if he came to Miami, he would  "bring a rifle to start shooting people in Miami" and that he would like to "wring the necks" of even his own family in Miami, who were taking care of Elian at his own request.

The whole world saw Juan Miguel's angry hand signal to demonstrators urging him to stay in the U.S. with his son.

A signed affidavit by Elian's current psychologist in Miami and her public testimony that Elian confided in her a strong fear against his father because if his frequent violent outbursts, which included hitting him physically.

The family also disclosed a telephone conversation of Juan Miguel from Cuba with his son in Miami in which he told Elian cruelly and falsely that his mother was alive in Cuba so that he would want to return.

Signed affidavits by friends of Juan Miguel from Cardenas, now in Miami, who witnessed his abuse against his wife and against Elian, and who also discussed with Juan Miguel his desire to seek asylum in the U.S.

Is this the image of a "loving and fit " father?

4. -    Post Traumatic Stress Disorder:  Elian has been diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Since treatment and recovery of PTDS
depends on the child's current experiences of being accepted and feeling safe, it is important that we as physicians and mental health professionals do not favor any change in Elian's fragile emotional and mental balance.  His current home in Miami is the most stable and safe home environment to help him overcome this condition.

5. -    Castro's Plans for Elian: Castro has already announced his plans to "reintegrate" Elian into revolutionary life.  Psychologists who have worked
in Cuba during the Castro regime know that this is done by creating self-doubt and destroying self-confidence so that a person will reject anything positive in relationships or events during his life away from Cuba as negative and that only Castro can provide positive experiences.  Self-confidence, which is at the root of mental health, is what Castro will destroy to "re-program" Elian as a communist, anti-American loyalist.  Castro said he would seal the town where Elian will be "re-programmed" from
outsiders and from the press.

Recommendations:
1. -    We strongly recommend that the INS cease its threatened removal of Elian from his Miami family refuge, be it by force or by family surrender and betrayal of the child, because this demand would cause him serious irreversible mental and emotional damage, with possible additional consequences to his physical health.

2. -    We strongly urge Ms. Reno and all government officials to consider this information and to return to the original position taken by the INS, which state that Elian's permanent custody was to be decided by a family court.  We believe that this is the only way in which Elian's human rights; his best interest and his mental health can be safeguarded.

3. -    We strongly recommend that Elian be allowed to fulfill his wish to stay in his Miami family home, that he be heard, that his rights to political asylum as a Cuban refugee be respected, and that his father and other family members in Cuba be granted visitation rights.  Elian should not be forced to go back with them to an oppressive life, just like the children of prison inmates are not forced to be housed with their parents in jail.

4.- We strongly reject the recommendations of the government appointed Medical Doctor, Irwin Redlener as biased and unfounded, since this doctor is urging the abrupt uprooting of Elian, without any consideration to his well-being or mental health and he has not met or evaluated Elian or his family custodians in Miami.


Contacts:
E-Mail: agordon@finlay-online.com
Beeper# 305-841-4517