However, Gonzalez's great uncles and cousins, who live in Miami, have decided to keep the child, asserting that he would have a better life in Miami. They say that he would have "freedom from communism" but what they mean is that he would have access to more material goods.The right wing Cuban exile community in Miami has now made this its latest anti-Castro cause celebre. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtenin (R-Fla.) arrived at the house where the child is staying and showered him with expensive toys and games.

Right-wing spokespersons not only in Florida, but around the country, are demanding that the child not be returned to his father. They have even accused the father of being unfit because he is a "communist." (Whether Gonzalez, who works for a hotel and appears to have an above average lifestyle judging by TV coverage is actually a Party member is not known, but is irrelevant) and because he will not defect to the United States.The father, interviewed on "Nightline," is amazed and indignant and has asked the Cuban foreign ministry to go to bat for him to get his son back. Demonstrations have been held in Cardenas to support this demand.

Enter the Clinton administration's foreign policy team of Albright and Rubin. They immediately granted the child refugee status in the United States, which they claim means the situation must now be resolved by local Miami courts.This should be easy for any judge with integrity. In Cuba, there is a competent and loving father and four grandparents, as well as other relatives on both the mother and father's side, who want the child back. In Miami, there are only distant relatives.As for the claim that Elian would have a better life in Miami than in Cuba, the following must be taken into account:

In Cuba, there is free education from pre-school through graduate school. There is free health care, with resources concentrated on the needs of children. There is a child-friendly atmosphere, with low levels of drug use, little violent crime and no street gangs. Can the same things be said for the life of minorities in the United States?Yes, there are scarcities, of medicines, school supplies, material for building and maintaining houses, and many other things. But this is mostly because of the blockade, which the U.S. could end if it wanted to.So what's the problem? The problem is that the case now goes to Dade County courts, where there are elected judges who are subject to being pressured, even threatened with death, by Miami anti-Castro Cubans if they allow Elian to return to Cuba. The ruthless right-wing exile leadership has literally made Elian its political poster child.