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 | Sunday, April 16, 2000, updated at 21:08(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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Cuba Stages Massive "Free Elian!" RallyAbout 100,000 Cubans attended another state-run "Free Elian!" rally on Saturday, demanding the the 6-year-old shipwreck survivor in Miami be reunited with his father, who is in the United States seeking custody of the boy.The latest demonstration in Cuba's campaign of daily protests, meetings and televised round tables during the nearly five-month-old custody battle over Elian Gonzalez took place in the eastern province of Las Tunas. "Elian must return, because we have millions of reasons on our side. ... Long live our commander-in-chief! Long live the Cuban Revolution! Freedom for Elian!" one young girl, Visell Viamonte Joves, shouted to the crowd through a megaphone. Cuban Vice-President Juan Almeida, a senior member of the ruling Communist Party, attended the rally, dressed in the olive-green military uniform of the Caribbean island's armed forces. Surrounded by huge banners proclaiming "Return our boy!" the crowd cheered as speakers denounced the ills of capitalist society and "Yankee imperialism", and extolled the benefits of Cuban socialism under President Fidel Castro. Such gatherings have become a ritual in Cuba since Castro launched in early December one of the biggest campaigns in his 41-year rule to bring back Elian. The boy has been staying with U.S. relatives since he was rescued at sea in late November after a capsize which killed his mother and 10 other illegal Cuban migrants. Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, has demanded the boy's return from the outset, prompting a family feud which quickly escalated into a political war between Castro's government and anti-communist Cuban American groups in Miami. Elian's U.S. family says the boy should not be sent back to Communism, while his closer relatives in Cuba say their retention of the boy is illegal and immoral. "We are fighting against an imperialism which allows the kidnapping of our boy," another speaker, Thalia Gonzalez, shouted, to applause from a dutiful Las Tunas crowd, soaked by rain. Cubans are urged to attend such events to demonstrate their patriotism and loyalty to their communist leadership. The vast majority of the islanders favour Elian's return, although some grumble in private about the excessive nature of the "Free Elian!" campaign.
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