Elian’s return prompts violence
WASHINGTON (AP) - Elian
Gonzalez spent a secluded Easter
with his father and got a visit from
the Easter Bunny, insulated from the
clatter in two nations’ capitals and a
shaken Miami over the armed raid
used to take him away.
“They had a very quiet day, a
family day - I don’t think they had
many visitors,” Gregory Craig,
lawyer for the boy’s father told The
Associated Press late Sunday.
After a day of raw anger, street
fires and violence in the Little
Havana neighborhood, Miami fell
quiet for Easter celebration Sunday
morning, still under tight police con
trol after more than 350 arrests.
“We will celebrate in tears,” said
Sergio Perez, a Miami neighbor of
the relatives who kept Elian for five
months until federal agents bran
dishing guns burst through their door
before dawn Saturday and seized
him. Later Sunday, scores of chanti
ng protesters returned to the neigh
borhood.
In Washington, near the heavily
secured air base where the 6-year-old
Cuban boy is staying, a congression
al Republican leader “sickened” by
the use of force said hearings were
certain on Capitol Hill.
“This is a frightening event, that
American citizens now can expect
that the executive branch on their
own can decide on whether to raid a
home,” said House Republican whip
Tom DeLay of Texas.
Delay joined criticism made by
George W. Bush, the presumptive
GOP presidential nominee and
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of
Mississippi.
“There was no court order that
gave them permission to raid the pri
vate home of American citizen,”
DeLay said, appearing on NBC’s
“Meet the Press.”
“This has been a bungled mess.”
But a top Justice official said the
only regret was that authorities wait
ed as long as they did.
“We were forced into the action
we took by the intransigence of that
family,” said Eric Holder, deputy
attorney general. “We probably
should have taken a decisive action
sooner.”
Holder, also on NBC, said a pre
vious court ruling upholding the
government’s general actions in the
case, combined with an order from
the Immigration and Naturalization
Service, sufficed as legal grounds for
moving in.
He acknowledged concern by the
administration that Elian may be
used by Cuban President Fidel
Castro as a political trophy.
Indeed, Castro called Saturday “a
day of glory for our people” as some
400,000 Cubans summoned to a rally
celebrated the father-and-son
reunion.
Praising U.S. officials for their
forceful action, the communist
leader declared a “truce” in his
enduring Cold War-era struggle with
the United States but added:
“Tomorrow the battle continues.”
U.S. officials, anticipating Elian
will go back to Cuba when court
appeals are through, hoped to influ
ence Cuban officials on how the boy
is treated in his homeland.
Elian, for once, was out of
earshot of all the fuss.
He joined his father, stepmother
and baby half-brother Saturday in
private quarters at Andrews Air
Force Base, the home base of Air
Force One.
In a national CNN-Gallup poll
taken after the seizure, six in 10
respondents supported the govern
ment’s actions to reunite Elian with
his father.
They were split on whether the
government used too much force.
That question percolated through
Washington and the presidential
campaign.
Photo by Al Diaz/Miami Herald
Elian Gonzalez’s cousin Marisleysis cries as she stands in front of the bro
ken-down door of the bedroom where federal agents grabbed Elian from
family friend Donato Dalrymple’s arms during a predawn raid Saturday.
Grogan back in Senate race
OMAHA (AP) - Just when
Nebraskans thought the GOP
Senate race couldn’t get any more
theatrical, it appears Omaha mil
lionaire businessman George
Grogan is back in the race.
He said Friday he never dropped
out, although 11 days ago he
implied just that.
A statement issued April 12 said
he was ceasing all campaign activi
ties, and that personal attacks
“drove him from U.S. Senate race.”
His name will appear on the
May 9 primary ballot and he said he
“fully intends” to win.
At one time or another there
were seven Republican candidates
in the race. Five of those entered
after U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb.,
announced Jan. 20 he would not
seek a third term.
Lt. Gov. Dave Maurstad stayed
in two weeks. Grogan quit cam
paigning last week, and then Dr.
Elliot Rustad dropped out this
week. Then there were four.
Now it appears that number has
grown again to five candidates.
“It just makes it all fun,” said
GOP candidate John DeCamp.
“One big adventure.”
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Court to hear suit
against Boy Scouts
WASHINGTON (AP) - It took
James Dale 11 years to rise through
the ranks of the Boy Scouts. It took
the Boy Scouts only 11 days to kick
him out after learning he was gay.
Dale was a Cub Scout at 8, a Boy
Scout at 11, a member of the Order
of the Arrow at 13, an Eagle Scout at
17. His mom was a den mother. His
dad was a scouting commissioner.
At 18, Dale became an assistant
scoutmaster.
But the Boy Scouts of America
expelled him in 1990 after discover
ing he was co-president of Rutgers
University’s gay and lesbian organi
zation.
James Anderson, faculty adviser
to the group and Dale’s friend, said
the expulsion was a real setback for
Dale.
“(Scouting) was really so central
to his life, to his growing up, to
becoming a man,” Anderson said.
“They slapped him for such a
core aspect of his being.”
Dale struck back with a 1992
lawsuit accusing the Boy Scouts of
discrimination. The U.S. Supreme
Court hears arguments in the case
Wednesday.
The Boy Scouts of America says
homosexuality contradicts its oath
requiring scouts to be “morally
straight.” That policy has withstood
numerous court challenges, said
Gregg Shields, national spokesman
for the organization.
“We’ve always taught traditional
family values,” Shields said. “That
goes back to our founding in 1910.
An avowed homosexual would not
be a role model for those values.”
But Evan Wolfson, who will
argue Dale’s case before the
Supreme Court, said an organization
that claims to be open to all boys and
works in partnership with public
schools “cannot discriminate
against any young boy or young man
because of his identity as gay.”
Dale, now 29, lives in New York
City and is advertising director for a
magazine for people who are HIV
positive. He declined an interview
through his representatives.
i WEATHER.= - -i
MBS tMMMEm
Partly cloudy Partly cloudy
high 68, low 47 high 74, low 48
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■ Toronto
Police: School stabbing
planned for Columbine date
TORONTO (AP) - A 15-year
old boy accused of stabbing five
people at his high school apparent
ly planned the attacks to coincide
with the first anniversary of the
massacre in Littleton, Colo., police
said Sunday.
Det. Sgt. Ken Doyle said com
ments by witnesses and other evi
dence indicated the attacks
Thursday were tied to the anniver
sary of the April 20, 1999, shoot
ings at Columbine High School,
where two students killed 13 peo
ple before turning their guns on
themselves.
The stabbings Thursday began
at about 11:21 a.m. - the time the
Columbine shootings started.
■ NewYoric
NYU graduate students to
vote on unionization
NEW YORK (AP) - In her
climb up the academic ladder,
Laura Tanenbaum teaches fresh
man writing at New York
University while working on her
doctorate.
It pays $ 11,500 for a nine
month stint, a pittance in high
priced New York, the 25-year-old
complains.
What graduate teaching and
research assistants need is the right
to bargain collectively for better
pay and benefits, Tanenbaum and
some of her colleagues say.
This week, in a move NYU
officials warn could shatter aca
demic freedom but students insist
means survival, 1,400 graduate
teaching and research assistants at
the university will vote whether to
form a union represented by the
United Auto Workers.
A “yes” vote could make NYU
the first private American universi
ty subject to collective bargaining
with graduate assistants.
■ Philippines
Forces attempt to free 27
hostages held by rebels
ZAMBOANGA, Philippines
(AP) - Philippine forces advanced
on the mountain base of Muslim
rebels, hammering their defenses
with air strikes and artillery in an
attempt to free some 27 hostages.
The top general vowed to push
ahead with the offensive against
Abu Sayyaf rebels on southern
Basilan island, despite rebel threats
to kill more hostages after behead
ing two last week.
The rebels killed those two after
authorities refused their demands
for the release of Muslim militants
jailed in the United States, includ
ing the mastermind of the 1993
World Trade Center bombing.
■ Vatican City
Pope delivers Easter mes
sage with plea for peace
VATICAN CITY (AP) -
Capping a grueling Holy Week
schedule, a weary-sounding Pope
John Paul II offered Easter wishes
for peace in 61 languages and
called on the world Sunday to end
racism and xenophobia.
So many Holy Year pilgrims,
tourists and Romans turned out for
the pope’s late-morning Mass in St.
Peter’s Square that by th^time he
delivered his Easter message at
noon, the crowd, numbering close
to 150,000, was spilling over into
the boulevard leading to the
Vatican.
John Paul expressed hope that
the sense of life associated with
Easter may “overturn the hardness
of our hearts.”