Remember Elián González?
He was six years old when he was brought to Florida in 1999 by his Cuban exile mother, who died -- along with nine others of the 13 who had left Cuba on that aluminum boat -- in the Florida Straits trying to bring her son to a new life in freedom. A difficult and emotionally wrenching custody battle ensued after fishermen plucked Elián from the waters off of Florida. The battle culminated with the U.S. government invading Elián's relatives' home to enforce a custody order returning the boy to his father, who maintained that Elián's mother did not have his permission to take the boy out of the country. Heavily armed Border Patrol agents grabbed a trembling Elián as Donato Dalrymple, one of the fishermen who had saved his life, tried to hide him in a closet.
Alan Diaz of the Associated Press won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography for his picture capturing the moment.
The boy returned to Cuba and has since been used as a propaganda tool by Fidel Castro.
Well, CNN is reporting that Elián, now 14, has joined Cuba's Youth Communists.
I wonder what his mother would think.
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