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A tale of two photos
The latest battle of images proves that the Elián saga had to be resolved by means of law, not propaganda.
By Joan Walsh
[04/22/00]

Raid on Little Havana
Miami Cubans say they will make Clinton pay for taking Elián. [UPDATED]
By John Lantigua
[04/22/00]

A world of their own
The Miami media recognizes and helps perpetuate a separate reality for Cuban exiles.
By Max Castro
[04/21/00]

Columbine "coverup"
Victim's lawyer charges sheriff's department with hiding details of high school massacre.
By Dave Cullen
[04/21/00]

Stunning new Columbine charges
On the eve of the massacre's anniversary, a flurry of lawsuits by victims' families allege that law enforcement killed a student -- and failed to save many more.
By Dave Cullen
[04/20/00]

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The Elián raid, by contrast, emerged from dozens of workshops and study groups the FBI and other agencies conducted in Waco's aftermath. Instead of a massive law-enforcement sweep in front of crowds and television cameras, the rescue of Elián -- and a hostage rescue is how it was framed -- involved just a handful of officers, and was timed with the precision of D-Day for the quietest pre-dawn moment of a solemn weekend.

In contrast to Waco -- where the welfare of children played second fiddle to the FBI and ATF's warfare mentality -- the clear goal in Little Havana was to remove Elián and get out, placing him in the care of an unarmed female agent until his return to his father. And when Lazaro González's Miami handlers published that alarming photo, Juan Miguel González responded within hours with photos of Elián reunited with his family, a smile on his face.

"These are new tactics," says Frank Ochberg, a forensic psychiatrist, a veteran of hostage negotiations and founder of the Critical Incident Analysis Group, begun in part to prevent future Wacos by studying law-enforcement crises in their full cultural and political dimension. "Since Waco there has been a lot of upgrading of strategic planning for events like this -- especially thinking about how something like this plays through to people." Great weight, Ochberg says, is now placed on tactics "seen by the general public as rational, reasonable and just" -- rather than projecting mindless force that no matter how justified in the minds of law enforcement looks like overkill to everyone else.

Has it worked? In a flash, the Justice Department's raid-or-rescue changed the political dynamic of what had been a deteriorating crisis by simply extricating the central, motivating symbol -- Elián himself -- from the stage. Suddenly, the demonstrators in Little Havana have no one to chant to, milling angrily but finally aimlessly through the afternoon. Lazaro and company go from jealous guardians of Elián to supplicants at the gate of Andrews Air Force Base. (And don't hold your breath waiting for that much-touted reunion.) Miami's politicians and law-enforcement officials, caught between the Constitution and Castro-haters, were let off the hook, reduced to conventional pleas for calm and the business of crowd control.

And while the enemies of Janet Reno and President Clinton were quick with their condemnation -- Trent Lott said he thought the raid was the sort of thing that happens "only in Castro's Cuba" -- for the most part the media found itself, after the first few hours, without a show, anchors reduced to speculating about Elián's new housing arrangements and the resilience of children. The curtain has rung down on the Elián show.

Legally, the asylum case brought by Lazaro now can proceed in its orderly way through the courts, where his Miami relatives can still try to argue that any return of the child to Cuba amounts to child abuse. That's an unprecedented assertion, as is the idea that a 6-year-old can apply for political asylum. But last week's very limited 11th Circuit ruling keeping the boy in the U.S. does warn just how complex are the conflicting claims of parenthood, politics and policy in the case.

The case, warns Morrison, is all about the "collision of these claims and values and ideas, and no one should think it has an easy resolution."

For Elián himself, there can be little doubt that both the reunion with his father and the privacy of Andrews Air Force Base represent much-needed relief from those all-night crowds outside and the all-night circus inside his foster family's house. He can, perhaps, at last begin the difficult job of mourning his lost mother, whom at last report he believed still alive.

And while his removal from Miami was abrupt, even violent, even that frightening moment represented by the photo should not be overread. "In terms of a 6-year-old's trauma," says Ochberg, "it is much worse to have a house full of care-givers who are depressed and paranoid, than to go through a life-and-death crisis and come out with a strong bond to a parent."

Elián's successful rescue has robbed Little Havana of its most potent symbol. But for Janet Reno, today's cathartic event will remain a symbol that redeems her final months in office. If the attorney general has not quite exorcised the ghosts of Waco, she has at least added a countervailing bookend to her long and troubled tenure.
salon.com | April 22, 2000

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