Vol.64/No.19 May 15, 2000
Debate in Miami over INS raid
BY BILL KALMAN and ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
MIAMI — In the aftermath of the commando-style raid by Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) agents and U.S. marshals to remove six-year-old Elián González from the home of his great-uncle here, there is broader backing among the U.S. rulers for the operation ordered by U.S. attorney general Janet Reno.
Leaders of the Republican Party who condemned the assault on the home of Lázaro González have backed away from earlier calls to launch Congressional hearings on the matter. U.S. senator Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who had scheduled a hearing for May 3, postponed it. Hatch indicated his committee might not hold hearings at all if the U.S. Justice Department provides an adequate explanation about the raid in writing.
Different rallies in response to INS raid
Tens of thousands turned out for a rally in Little Havana here April 25. Rightist Cuban-American groups, including the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) and the Democracy Movement, had called the action to denounce the INS raid and get a wider hearing for their demand to keep Elián González in the United States and for slanders against the Cuban Revolution.
The majority at the rally, though not all, were Cuban-Americans. Many backed the right-wing, anticommunist slogans of the rally organizers.
A certain number of people who support returning Elián to Cuba, however, came to the action because organizers had built it as a protest against the INS raid, but did not share the reactionary outlook of the organizers. Two garment workers at a plant in Miami Lakes, for example, said they favored the return of the six-year-old boy to Cuba but went to the rally to show their anger at la migra. The two, one originally from Ecuador and other from Peru, asked that their names not be used.
Protesters carried U.S. and Cuban flags. Later during the action, some burned the U.S. flag. A few protesters carried signs saying, "Say no to police donations" and "Please don't hurt me: I'm peacefully protesting."
Others came to show their opposition to the widespread prejudice against the Cuban-American community spread by the media and most capitalist politicians. "The Cuban people have been presented as boorish, dumb, and reactionary, and that's just so unfair," Nieves López, an English teacher, told the Miami Herald. "Some people complain that they have given Cubans everything. My father was not given anything. My parents came to this country poor. They worked at very menial jobs and saved to send me to college."
The big-business media and politicians here portray Cuban-Americans as a single, reactionary "ethnic" bloc that is privileged. In this way they promote chauvinism against them among sections of the population who are not Cuban--including workers who are white, U.S.-born Blacks, Haitians, and other Spanish-speaking workers.
At the same time, small reactionary demonstrations backed Reno's action. About 2,500 turned out for one such rally in South Dade County on the sidewalks of U.S. Highway 1. Organized by small businessman Rick Hartwell and others, it had a pro-U.S. government, "America First," anti-immigrant character. Organizers said they opposed the burning of U.S. flags by Cuban-Americans and castigated Miami mayor Joseph Carollo and Miami-Dade County mayor Alex Penelas for supporting defiance of Reno's edicts. Signs at this rally included: "Thanks Reno," "Proud to be American," "Stop the Banana Republic," and "This is America: Speak English." Many in the rally carried U.S. flags. Several in the crowd flew the Confederate flag.
Protesters at the U.S. Highway 1 demonstration included a noticeable number of African-Americans. The Miami Times, a weekly oriented to the Black community here, featured a front-page article in its April 26-May 2 issue with the headline "Elian is gone: 'Thank God' say most in the Black community." The editorial in that issue stated, "It is sickening to hear some of our respected community leaders blaming Attorney General Janet Reno for being too hasty. Many people feel she leaned over far too backward in trying to make a deal with a family that is clearly dysfunctional.... We commend Janet Reno for orchestrating a well-planned and bloodless rescue of Elián."
After the April 29 demonstrations, a few Blacks and others could be seen driving their cars with U.S. flags hanging from their windows in majority-Black neighborhoods.
Crisis in Miami city government
As the Clinton administration maintains the offensive, the mayor of Miami has become increasingly isolated since the INS assault, which he vocally opposed. A week after the raid Carollo fired city manager Donald Warshaw after he refused the mayor's demand to fire police chief William O'Brien. Under the city charter, only the city manager has the authority to hire or fire police officials.
Carollo had condemned O'Brien for not informing him ahead of time of the INS raid. The police chief had been informed by federal authorities and cooperated with Reno's assault, an action he defended publicly. After the announcement of Warshaw's firing, O'Brien resigned, calling Carollo "divisive and destructive." The city manager then appointed a new police chief, Raúl Martínez.
Carollo called Warshaw an "extortionist" and appointed two lawyers to investigate allegations that the city manager has misused his office. On May 2, Warshaw filed a suit against Carollo, charging him with corruption, and said he would stay on the job until the case is settled. A local judge backed Warshaw's stance.
These events continue to be a hot topic of discussion among workers. At AeroThrust, a jet engine overhaul facility next to Miami International Airport, some Cuban workers who oppose U.S. policy toward Cuba did not support the INS raid. "One young Cuban mechanic there who is Black had been listening to Cuban president Fidel Castro's May Day speech on the radio before work," reported Rachele Fruit, who works there. He said he had attended a protest in Hialeah against the INS raid "because I didn't like the way they did it. Those people weren't armed."
Differing views on INS raid
Most workers at this factory, where about half the workforce are Cuban-Americans, opposed the INS raid, for a variety of reasons. Some identified with the effort to keep the six-year-old boy in Miami and attended the April 29 rally in Little Havana for those reasons.
A minority among them, however, especially those who favor normalization of relations with Cuba, backed the April 22 government raid. A Cuban-American worker at that plant who opposes the U.S. embargo of Cuba expressed sympathy toward the pro-"American" demonstration. "We need a strong city government and police chief without the Cubans who came here 40 years ago," he said.
Few workers saw through the reactionary character of both rallies. Julio, a knitting machine operator at a garment plant on the outskirts of Miami, condemned both April 29 demonstrations as reactionary. "Those right-wing Cubans who called the rally on Saturday cynically used a child for their own anticommunist interests," he said. "They now want to fool us as being against la migra. What does it matter if his father may be a communist? Elián belongs in Cuba." Julio, who asked that only his first name be used, also said the U.S. Highway 1 demonstration was racist. "How can people support a rally with Confederate flags and English-only signs?"
The majority at this plant opposed the assault ordered by Reno. Some workers who backed the INS raid pointed out how the Clinton administration was using it to help gain acceptance for its impending assault in Vieques, Puerto Rico. Paulette, a sewing machine operator at the same clothing plant, said sending U.S. Marines to Vieques "is wrong. And saying they may do it at 'Elian time' makes me pause to consider what I thought of the raid before."