Most Urgent Message To All Concerned With Children’s Rights
Released May 9, 2000 12 Noon by
The Finlay Society Working Group For Elian Gonzalez*
Contact Persons: Dr Antonio Gordon, Director, 305-556-6459
Susana Inclán Cossío, M.A., School Psychologist, 305-595-5537

We urgently bring to your attention our conclusions that the President of the United States, Bill Clinton; the Attorney General, Janet Reno; and the Commissioner of Immigration, Mrs. Doris Meissner have systematically violated the rights of the six-year old Cuban child Elian Gonzalez. Furthermore, our investigations suggest that all of the above-mentioned officials of the United States government are refusing to acknowledge the said violations to the detriment of the child Elian Gonzalez.

Elian Gonzalez is the Cuban child who was brought to Miami, Florida after being miraculously rescued from the high seas in the aftermath of a shipwreck where his mother and step-father both died while attempting to bring Elian to freedom.

While it has been acknowledged, and we find undesirable, that the United States has not ratified the Universal Declaration of Children’s Rights of 1989, we have used for the Declaration Of The Rights Of The Child, a document signed by the United States, as a standard and a framework from which these serious violations can be recognized, investigated, condemned, and prevented without delay.

The Declaration Of The Rights Of The Child of 20 November, 1959, was unanimously proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations. We point out that according to this Declaration,  “every child without any exception whatsoever “ shall be entitled to all the rights proclaimed and set forth in such Declaration.

We bring to your attention the fact that the spirit and the letter of the Declaration have been violated in the case of Elian Gonzalez. In order to appreciate our concern, it is necessary to re-state here excerpts of the Declaration:
    Principle 2. The child shall enjoy special protection, and shall be given opportunities and facilities, by law and by other means, to enable him to develop physically, mentally, morally, spiritually, and socially in ahealthy and normal manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity. In the enactment
of laws for this purpose, the best interests of the child shall be the paramount consideration.
    Principle 9. The child shall be protected against all forms of neglect, cruelty, and exploitation. He shall not be the subject of traffic, in any form.

In the case of Elian Gonzalez, both of these principles have been seriously violated.

1. For four months Elian has sustained psychological abuse by the constant threats made by Cuban and United States government officials of being forcefully removed from his nurturing environment in Miami, Florida.

2. On April 22, 2000, the child was subjected to a cruel and violent seizure by masked United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) agents
who stormed his Miami family home in full combat gear. The assaulting agents were wielding semiautomatic weapons pointing them at the child and his family.  The INS agents tore down doors and destroyed property that included religious icons and the child’s own bed. Furthermore, the said agents indiscriminately used profane language, pepper spray, and tear gas on the child and the defenseless inhabitants of the child’s home.

    This barbaric assault provoked an intense panic response  on the child who screamed and trembled in terror when he was snatched from the arms of
the fisherman who had saved him five months prior.

    These cruel actions seriously threatened the child’s emotional well being and health. Furthermore, they exacerbated his previous emotional trauma related to the shipwreck and drowning of his mother from which he was recovering favorably.

3. The “best interests” of this child were clearly not “the paramount consideration” in these actions. In fact, throughout the entire process, since December, 1999 to the present, “the paramount consideration” has been given to the demands of the Castro regime as expressed by Castro himself, the Clinton Administration of the United States government, and the child’s father.

4. The abrupt separation and subsequent isolation of the child from the family who had nurtured him after he was rescued at sea has created additional emotional trauma. We are most concerned about the likely irreversibility of this second injury inflicted on Elian at a very tender age.

5. Since the violent seizure on April 22, 2000, the child has been maintained strictly incommunicated from: his Miami family, his personal pediatrician, his
treating psychologist, community priests and spiritual counselors, teacher, and lawyers. Elian’s relationships with all of these parties have been severed without any consideration given to the importance of continuity in the life of the child  in terms of his physical and mental health.

6. Elian has been made “the subject of traffic” by being used as a pawn in the intricate political and economic negotiations between the Castro regime and the Clinton Administration.

7. In further violation of these principles, the child is also being used in fund raising activities for Bill Clinton’s political party.

8. It is extremely concerning that a Cuban government physician who was bringing a bag of psychotropic and mood altering drugs as well as a host of security agents have been given complete and exclusive access to Elian since that shameful evening when he was violently seized. We bring to your attention the fact that Castro himself had announced earlier that systematic “mental reprogramming” of Elian's brain would begin immediately when the child was in the custody of his father. Such brain reprogramming is blatant child abuse and must be condemned and prevented.

We ask you to immediately investigate the current status of Elian, the violations listed herein, and any rights inherent in his status as a child that are being violated, negated, mishandled, or in any manner ignored to the detriment of Elian achieving his full life potential. We beseech you to immediately seek to restore the rights that have been violated and to safeguard the well being of Elian Gonzalez. We furthermore ask for your mediation, independent observation, and expertise in these matters because
Elian must be our paramount consideration.

The Finlay Society Working Group for Elian Gonzalez made public its first “Advisory” on April 14, 2000. This advisory is signed by AM Gordon, MD, PhD, Adelaida Arias, Psych.D., Maria Perez Arechaederra, MSW, Susana Inclán Cossío, MA, Gladys Lorenzo, Psych. D., María V. Soler-Baillo, M.Ed,  H. Inclán, BA., and Juan Perez-Espinosa, D.O. Previous advisories are located at
our web site:  www.finlay-online.com


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