the cnn film "elian" starts now. >> announcer: cnn films presented by volkswagen. ♪ [ people speaking foreign language ] ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ >> i remember that day very vividly. it was thanksgiving.

it was pitch black to the north and to the east was like this ray of light coming up where the sun was starting to come up. they called me the fisherman. i really hadn't been out fishing a lot. my cousin sam he's more of a fisherman than me. he said look for sea weed and debris, anything floating on the ocean surface. maybe like three miles off the coast i said like that inner tube right there? he said go over there. >> i said to my cousin look it was a sick joke. we thought it was a doll tied to an inner tube. we thought it was like a joke, you know. >> we're rocking all over the boat. all of a sudden i see the hand move. >> he goes hurry. go. go. go. before i can blink my eyes my

cousin's not on the boat any longer. he's in the water and he's screaming, it's a baby! >> i reached over and tried to get back over to the boat. >> i'm trying not to fall into the water. he's trying to push up. and i just grabbed this child and i held him in my arms and my cousin got on the phone with his wife. >> 911, what's your emergency? >> my husband found a child and he has him on the boat. >> the local news stations were out there on helicopters thinking this is a little bigger than we thought it was. >> don't worry about me. ♪

>> do you know this boy? >> no. >> elian gonzalez. [ speaking foreign language ] [ people chanting in foreign language ] [ man speaking in foreign language ] >> from the ocean waters off the coast of florida tonight a real

life thanksgiving story. >> found him clinging to an inner tube. >> part of a group of 13 cuban rafters. only two others rescued alive. >> elian's mother is believed to have drowned. he has cousins he just met in miami. >> this is the story of a little boy from cuba whose mother died bringing him to freedom in the united states. or maybe it's the story of a boy shipwrecked in miami whose cuban father just wanted him back. it was always supposed to be elian's story although a lot of other people would try and make it their own. >> the first thing that came to my mind how did he survive by himself when he's only five. and the only thing i can possibly say is that it's just a miracle. god wanted him here for freedom and he's here and he will get

it. >> i never forget. he was sitting there. he was about to have soup. the first thing i said was don't eat that. he looked straight up at me and he's like is it bad? i said yes don't eat that. we'll get you something better than that. that moment was our first connection. after that he would always ask me for everything. every raft that came from cuba you could see on tv. when i saw the press there, to me it was normal. that's what they're there for. >> when elian and his cousin waved good-bye from the hospital the next day the story could have ended there. another cuban rafter makes his home in miami. like so many cuban families, the gonzalez clan had come apart in the years of fidel castro's revolution. from the small town on cuba's

north coast aunts an uncles of elian's father made their way across the florida straits, settling in hialeah and little havana. ♪ the eldest of elian's great uncles came in the late 1970s after spending years as a political prisoner in castro's jails. he found a quiet left in the florida keys. where he made his living selling lobster traps. his younger brother followed with his two wife and children. he worked mostly as an auto body repairman but struggled to find a steady job. his daughter arrived in the united states when she was elian's age. at 21, she processed loans at a local bank and dreamed of opening a hair salon.

>> i'm told of all the family members you're the one elian has bonded with most. do you feel that bond? >> i sure do. definitely. i feel like he's been my brother since a little kid. [ speaking foreign language ] >> maybe two days later i got a call from "good morning america" and they asked me if i would like to reunite with elian gonzalez. i said i would love to. >> what's your name so? >> donado. some people go out fishing for fish and for treasures. for me this is a treasury.

to see this gift of god -- i believe that's what he is. to hang on in the water for that many days. i don't know how long it was, but he is definitely a gift from god and i'm privileged to be next to him and touch him. >> that's awesome. >> thank you so much. >> what a beautiful kid. he is beautiful. >> yeah. >> it's weird to think when he grows up. >> so if this little boy has to go back to cuba it would really break your heart, wouldn't it? sorry. >> we were all so scared to ask him what happened. and then there was that day where he said, when i woke up and my mom was not there. she must have drowned. she drowned. i swallowed real hard an grind my teeth not to cry. and i looked at him and i said, she's always watching over you. so don't ever say your mom is

dead because she always have to live in your heart. ♪ [ speaking foreign language ]

[ speaking foreign language ] >> in cuba elian's father juan miguel hadn't known that his ex-wife and her boyfriend took elian away on a homemade boat, hoping to start their lives over in the united states. frantic to find them juan miguel and his parents began calling relatives in miami. almost from the start the two sides of the family were talking past each other. [ speaking foreign language ]

>> i remember my dad saying that you know that juan miguel says to take care of him so he could come over here. in the beginning of everything i had a picture he was going to come and stay. i was like, wow, my whole family is going to be reunited. >> juan miguel's family were rooted comfortably in cuban. he and his parents were loyal members of the ruling communist party and juan miguel, who had remarried had a good job at a nearby beach resort. when they needed help, they didn't hesitate to ask the cuban government. [ speaking foreign language ]

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hey mark, how's it going. >> you've got some gifts there. >> as soon as elian's rescue made the local news uninvited guests began to descend on the gonzalez home in little havana. among the first was jorge monsantos, the head of the cuban national foundation. >> we saw this young boy who lost his mother at sea. i think the image that everything cuban americans terrible. i thought the cuban american national foundation should use this as messaging of a human story, a human tragedy. that's why we dwell up the post from the campaign to bring attention to something we need to stop. >> this is a typical tragic miami story that has to do with people trying to leave cuba and drowning at sea. we sent it out to a lot of different media. all of a sudden it became a

national story. >> they made t-shirts with elian's picture on it. they disseminated it. it caught the interest of fidel castro immediately. it made fidel castro focus laser beam on elian and said i'm going to use this opportunity to get back at the miami community and he did it perfectly. [ speaking foreign language ]

[ speaking foreign language ]

>> nbc news in-depth the struggle over a little boy. >> even his new puppy came from a member of congress. >> on sunday castro demanded the u.s. return the boy within 72 hours. >> no one has the right to steal the boy from his father. >> the white house doesn't want this to become a big international incident. >> america has determined enemies who hate our values. >> we've just begun to fight. >> of course i would rather grow up in the united states, but there may be other considerations there. >> cuban officials promising twice as many protesters today as this country unites around the powerful symbol of a 6-year-old child caught between two worlds. >> the elian case was a very important national unifying factor. there was a moment in the long

history of confrontation between cuba and the u.s. >> the uprising that brought fidel castro to power in 1959 overthrew a brutal dictatorship closely allied with the united states. the revolutionaries promised a more just and democratic society even as castro consolidated his own power quickly and ruthlessly. well-off cubans began fleeing to miami as soon as they took power. it continued as castro confiscated private property. and nationalized american-owned oil refineries. >> are you a communist fidel? >> wait for the history. the history will say what we are. >> with castro drawing closer to the soviets the american

government punished cuba with an economic embargo. then it backed a cuban invasion by cuban exiles at the bay of pigs. the bitter exiles would blame their defeat on the american's half hearted support. but castro revelled in his victory, which made him a hero to revolutionaries around the world and gave him enemies in miami and washington that he would exploit for years to come. [ speaking foreign language ]

>> new waves of cuban refugees poured into museum. >> what are conditions like there now? >> in cuba? >> yes. >> bad conditions. we have no dress. we have no food. we have difficult for all things there. >> where do you plan to settle here in the united states? >> in miami where my mother lives and my sister. >> it was really kind of a redneck town. it was a southern, tough, good old boy white town. then into this atmosphere comes thousands of spanish speaking refugees bringing with them this fire in their hearts from this experience they've had having to flee their homeland.

>> washington gave the refugees a special status with an easy path to citizenship. the cubans didn't see themselves as immigrants. they were exiles, just waiting for the chance to seize their country back from castro. >> we came here to fight for our freedom and get back to our home land. >> hard line exiles turned violently on almost anyone they saw as being soft on the communists. >> there was fear and actual domestic terrorism directed at moderate voices in the cuban community who would say maybe the embargo isn't a good idea. if you spoke out, you took your life in your hands. there were people getting blown up in their automobiles. >> we will keep sending people into the island to keep the sabotage and actions the regime until cuba be free again. >> after years of infighting the

miami cubans found their own charismatic leader. this wealthy business man united the exiles under the banner of the cuban american national foundation. >> the cuban american national foundation has provided an antidote to the big lie of castro's cuba. >> with generous donations from washington the foundation would gain virtual veto power over u.s.'s policy towards cuba. >> every presidential candidate would come down and make a speech about how rotten and awful fidel castro was. and we got to preserve the embargo. it was totally cynical and shallow and nothing changed. >> i saw castro the other night on television and he's not looking good. you are going to win. and i'm going to be down here and i'm going to watch you win.

i don't know what capacity -- i'll either be the greatest developer in the country or the greatest president that you've had in a long time. i'm not sure. >> the collapse of cuba's economy tore at the revolution's proud achievements in education and health and stirred popular discontent. castro responded by unleashing a new wave of my grant -- migrants to the united states. he allowed them to leave only aboard whatever rafts or boats they could build themselves. sensing castro's weakness, they tried to ratchet up the cooperation from washington. while hard line exiles launched one last wave of bombings and assassination plots. castro did not fall and once again he propped up his regime by assailing his favorite target. >> castro was always looking for someone to blame. he was waiting for someone from

the exile community to say something inflammatory. if he hasn't existed, castro could have invented him. >> in late 1997 jorge died of cancer, leading his followers adrift and leaving his sons to lead a new generation of cuban americans. >> when my father passed away, our struggle continued. my father was a man who always looked forward. it was going to be tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. castro is going to fall tomorrow. >> as the millennium approached, weakened leaders on both sides of the straits were looking for something to rally their tired supporters. [ crowd chanting ]

♪ [ crowd chanting ] >> the cold war never ended in miami. a mother died getting her kid out of cuba to get him to freedom. of course we're going to hold that child. because we don't want him to go back. [ singing in foreign language ] >> we need him here. >> i think he should stay here with the family. he has no future. he's got no life in cuba.

>> the mother died to be free. that is what she wanted in the last moment. >> we have a role to play in protecting freedom. when people risk everything to come, even if they're a 5-year-old kid, they ought to be allowed to stay. ♪ [ speaking foreign language ] >> relatives of elian gonzalez say they saw a different side of the 6-year-old, a boy simply filled with joy and happiness at the disney world visit. the family spokesman said he showed some lingering signs of his ordeal at sea when he went on the it's a small world water ride. >> he was a little frightened on the boat and asked the question is this boat going to sink? >> toys for a tot torn between two countries. elian gonzalez officially

captivated a community. [ speaking foreign language ]

>> we wanted to give him a life where he felt comfortable and everything was normal. then we got him to go to school. he was so happy to go to school. [ speaking foreign language ] ♪ for the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪

[ applause ] [ chanting foreign language ] >> they were summoned by president fidel castro for what he calls the second stage of the battle of the masses. thousands demonstrated again in front of the u.s. diplomatic mission in havana. >> the boy's father joined other cubans at a weekend rally demanding the child's return. >> american immigration officials will interview the father here in cuba and give him a chance to assert his rights and prove his paternity. >> we had this very unusual circumstance of a father in cuba asking for the son to be returned to him. it was unprecedented. typically people who came from cuba came because they wanted to stay here.

as the immigration service we had to determine whether this was actually the father and since the child had come to the united states with the mother, whether the father had a relationship with the child. what was the family's story? ♪ [ speaking foreign language ]

>> juan miguel and elisa had married as teenagers and it had taken them years and seven miscarriages before elian was born. strains on the marry eventually led them to separate. they settled their differences to build a new relationship around the son they both adored. [ speaking foreign language ] ♪ happy birthday to you [ speaking foreign language ]

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[ speaking foreign language ]

>> for me seeing my cousin on tv speaking the way he used to speak about us and then seeing fidel next to him made me think, are you for real or do you just have to play this role? my uncle delphine said that's probably not even what he really wants to say. so don't take it to heart. delphine was the person i listened to because that was the person i knew experienced the torturing of cuba when he was in prison. he would say, that's how the government works. they try to destroy the family. they try to keep us apart. so i was fighting for both of their freedom because i was hoping for the day juan miguel could meet with elian here and be free as well. >> the case of elian gonzalez

has been a difficult one, complicated by the fact that several people other than elian's father claimed to represent him. i.n.s. has determined that elian should be reunited with his father. then we said by january 14th he's to be turned over to the i.n.s. so that he can be returned to his father. what did i think at that time? did i think it would happen? i don't know. >> could we ask you about your reaction? >> they're only letting the dad decide what's best for the kid and everything like that. as we all know when elian came and found himself lonely in this country without no family, without his dad not having the freedom to get on an airplane to come here and support his child when he most really needed it

because he couldn't even sit down in a bed because he would fall. i was there so was my family, supporting him. until then they did let us support him and be there for him. why aren't we getting the opportunity at this point to speak for him? his dad doesn't have freedom otherwise we would have got on an airplane and got to this country and see our kid. his words where i haven't lost anything there. what about your son? >> a fight was on. a fight was on. >> this community asked since day one the due process of elian gonzalez. >> with help from jorge the family tried to go around the immigration service. turning to some of the cuban american national foundation's powerful allies in washington. >> we thought the best way to make sure the judicial process was followed was to issue a suspect. subpoena >> this is a federal subpoena which we believe protects elian

gonzalez from being forcibly and illegal removed from the united states to cuba. >> in miami people celebrated the subpoena which orders little elian to appear before u.s. congress in an effort to delay his return to cuba. >> several congressmen an one senator say they will offer bills as early as february to grant elian gonzalez u.s. citizenship. >> but it's not just congress. at last night's presidential candidate debate, all candidates asked that elian be allowed to stay here. >> the man ought to be brought to the united states and given a whiff of freedom. so he can see how wonderful our country is. >> why has this become so political? because cuban immigrants are a critical voting block in florida's republican primary and a lucrative source of campaign money for both political parties. the 6-year-old may have even more politicians as play mates. >> i know that this is where he

wants to stay. if that's the case, i will take care of him like if he would be my son, but i feel that we should have the right to take his chance to court. >> can you remember when you were 6? >> there were some days i wanted to run away from home. and there were other days i wanted my mommy so bad i couldn't stand it. i think the law has indicated and it's certainly i think that the experience of most people that 6 years old is too young to speak for themselves. >> under u.s. law it was the attorney general janet reno who had the final say on elian's immigration case. she came to it with a unique perspective. born and raced in miami reno emphasized with the cuban exiles. she had a passion for child welfare issues which she handled as a florida prosecutor before

joining the clinton administration. >> she devoted her life to making her community safer, keeping children out of trouble, reducing domestic violence and helping families. >> as reno stepped forward she made no secret of her competing sympathies. trying to find a compromise she set aside the deadline of returning elian to cuba and invited his relatives to plead their case. >> we filed a very significant lawsuit in federal court. it's the case of elian gonzalez versus janet reno. >> my hope is people will look at this little boy and get him into a situation where he can live a normal life without television cameras and the world in his face. >> watch out, there. watch out, guys. >> senior.

>> come on, elian. >> elian, himself, had said almost nothing in public during his time in miami. one night in january a camera caught him yelling at a passing airplane and his words quickly became a point of contention. the family disputed the initial translation by local television and insisted elian said he didn't want to return to cuba. >> he has been manipulated. that is what really concerns me. it's been concerning me for a long time. >> it has been suggested in some quarters. i'm going to give you the opportunity to respond. that the reason you didn't come to miami is because the cuban government is afraid once you get to miami you would defect. how do you respond to that?

>> translator: who said that? who said that? i think i have been extremely clear. people think or some people think that i'm under pressure here. i have always said i haven't lost anything in miami and sometimes what i would like to do is go down there with a rifle i don't know to get rid of how many people. >> are you serious about that sir? that's obviously a very inflammatory remark. >> translator: what about isn't it inflammatory what they are doing with my son? >> i did see his anger and i did see his frustration. but as a parent, you get on the first flight that you can and you get your child. he's not allowed to do that. i had to take care of his child. my dad had to shelter his child. juan miguel's frustration should be with the cuban government,

not with me, or not with our family. >> neither juan miguel or the cuban government offered any compelling reason why he couldn't just go and get his son. cuban officials cited concerns for his safety in miami. but the widespread belief there was that fidel either feared juan miguel would defect or simply wanted to keep the battle going as long as he could. >> this was not a simple matter of a parent saying i miss my child. i need to bring my child home. this was going to take time and there was always the possibility they would not be able to get him home. i've been involved in cuba for almost 40 years. if you've been to cuba and you come to know cuban people, you have a different view than if you only lived in the united states.

i knew the grandmothers had a passion about getting this little boy back home. so i had to go to fidel castro and i had to ask permission to take them. ♪ >> the grandmothers came and we tried to arrange a visit for them with elian who was in miami. and then ensued a back and forth over the terms because in fact there was such tension and unresolved issues and disagreement within the family itself. >> it was not a negotiation. it was dictated to them that they must present the boy tomorrow or his status would be changed and the boy would potentially be sent back to cuba immediately. >> i'm very concerned what's going to happen tomorrow because every night i go to sleep he tells me, don't let them take me

back, and i am gonna be the one taking him to this house where i don't know what's figure to happen, and i don't have control of. ♪ >> i wasn't allowed to stay in the room with them and this was the perfect time for him to tell her, i want to leave with you, if that was what was in his heart. if that would have been me, i would have run to my grandma and tell her, take me. but he didn't. actually, he did the opposite. he ran out of that room and all he said to me is run, run. they're going to take us. just made me feel, while i need to fight for his freedom, just like his mom gave her life for it. >> i think for the grandmothers the meeting was extremely frustrating and they felt that he was in danger. they felt he was drugged. but they did go home having seen elian and they did go home more

determined that they had to get him home. [ cheers ] [ chapting ] -- chanting. >> i feel great and i feel confident. yeah. strong and that i have more feeling that i had before. now i feel that he's more to this side than to that side. i keep hearing about? sure, just sign up online. then we'll alert you if we find your social security number on any one of thousands of risky websites. wow. that's cool. how much is it? oh, it's free if you have a discover card.

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>> elian. [ background voices ]. >> where are you going in a big ass hurry, man? at that time i was a freelancer for ap. one morning, i got a call from my editor. he said, all right, this is what i want you to do. you cover elian every day. miami police shut down the street. the whole half block was blocked off. there were tv stations that were paying 500 a day just to have a crew in front of the house.

>> back in 1999 and 2000, we weren't actually living in 24-hour news cycles. it was a very different landscape. all of a sudden we have media stakeouts and they are using this child almost as a prop to tell a story having him out, playing with an american flag at 11:00 at night. so we've not seen anything like that. >> the rewarding of this atrocious behavior, the trotting out this kid the way they did, and then you're acting shocked and surprised that it's happening. they wanted a full media blitz and we gave it to them. >> we had things like dianne sawyer going to have playdates with elian. we spent some time drawing some waves. a dolphin himself in an innertube. me, he said.

i was sinking. >> i always tell him i'm his cousin. >> he tries to call you mom sometimes. >> he says mari, stands for mom. [ speaking foreign language] >> nobody cares about a little boy who lost his mother and now is about to lose everything he has, which is me. it's sad to say, when he tells me, please don't ever leave me, people just say, return him to his father, but people don't live with this little boy. people don't see how this little boy feels.

>> just the family suffers enough to throw someone over the edge. when all that is being witnessed on a daily basis by the entire world, not easy. i mean i've been involved in politics all my life, i'm a practicing lawyer, public speaker. i have the training as best you can to be able to do something like that. this family had zero, zero training. >> i have been in this for four months. not for political issues, not to look good in front of people but for the best interests of this child. >> i remember at the "today" show, where i think we might have even left the show and gone to the hospital, because she really took a beating -- emotional beating from that process. >> it was a loving family. they got caught up in the collective hysteria. this was the battle against castro.

>> what people saw in the elian story often depended on where they stood. as the weeks passed, national polls showed a deep divide with more and more americans outside south florida in favor of returning the boy to his father. [ speaking foreign language ] but in miami the exile's fury continued to grow, spilling over into protests that blocked traffic on the highways. and exasperated many of the city's non-cubans. >> i'm a parent and i believe a child should be with his father. you know, i mean -- [ shouting ]. >> hey, it's like, i am a father. you people have no -- you don't have a clue about what being in a free society is. you have no respect for other people's opinions. >> you don't know what happened to him! [ all speak at once ]

[ shouting ] upon [ indiscernible ] >> i, by now, had seen the anger in miami, the determination by snof miami cubans to make sure that elian did not leave. senator lehigh came to me and said we're going to get that little boy back to his father and i'm going to help you but you're never going to make it happen if you don't involve a lawyer in this. i have a lawyer for you. his name is greg craig. i'm calling him now. he won't say no. >> i went to the justice department and said i'm going to go to cuba and i want to be able to tell juan miguel that when he comes back to the united states, he will be able to take custody of his son within the space of a few days, that he's not going to have to sit in some room and watch his son on television being paraded around by these

relatives. they were not willing to give me that commitment. i had nothing going down to cuba. other than to say now is the time to do it. to be clear, castro was in the middle of this decision making. castro was waking up from a nap. you could just tell he'd been asleep and putting himself together. the meeting was forever. it lasted forever and we drank more coffee and more water and people would be getting up and going off to relieve themselves. castro didn't move for four hours. i think perhaps he had a device. he would shake his finger at me and said why do you think an american court would ever rule in favor of a cuban national?

there has never been a case where a cuban national has won. my only argument was i don't know of any time when the government of the united states has been on the same side of a case of a cuban national. which in term on the same side of the government of cuba. that's never happened in history. so maybe the results will be different. >> we're talking with dr. andrew wild, the author of "eating well for optimum health." >> i think it's fine to lower cholesterol levels. >> let's go to washington. >> my name is gregory b. craig. i'm pleased to report that juan miguel gonzalez, his wife, and 6-month-old son will be coming to the united states. they will arrive tomorrow morning, thursday, april 6th, at 7:00 a.m. at dulles airport. [ speaking foreign language ]

[ speaking foreign language] [ speaking foreign language] ♪

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[ speaking foreign language] it was the next day that we had the meeting with the attorney general. i'm driving the car, and i'm saying to myself, now is the time to tell juan miguel what his options are. there's no cuban diplomats. fidel castro is not in the room. it's just the family. so i said to juan miguel, do you want to get elian back this afternoon and stay in the united states with your family?

you will have that opportunity because you're going to have the attorney general of the united states, you're going to have the commissioner of ins, and they will grant that request, if you want to do that. he says thank you very much. >> at a certain point the attorney general asked that everybody else leaves the room. >> very powerful meeting. very powerful. >> he cut off the conversation almost when it started, saying i stand by my word. i have a family in cuba. i have a life in cuba. my son is going to grow up as a cuban and i am not going to be claiming asylum. he was a very proud, very clear person. >> i called my cousin and said

look, we need go and meet with this father and find out what he really wants to do. this is our time to find out the truth. >> dinado was instantly drawn to a camera. >> i begged him. no more shows. no more shows. and he got off the airplane at dulles and it was probably the biggest media center i've ever seen in my entire life. once we got into the car from the airport, it was within 60 seconds that i knew. the cuban national foundation were already brainwashing don ato, and trying to brainwash he. they wanted it to look like that once we got that, that juan miguel refused to meet us. >> say the news conference is going to be in about five minutes. i would recommend since we've

been going all cuban boy all the time, that we take it. >> hello. i'm donato rim fell. would you like the spelling for that? >> yes, please. >> if i have to get on my knees, i will get on my knees for this man, because i want to get on my knees for elian. i love this boy. >> juan miguel said he wanted to thank them. if it was possible to arrange without a whole lot of hoopla. juan miguel came in and in a very sincere way thanked them for having saved elian's life. >> juan miguel was a very, very heart-warming, loving father, with tears in his eyes when he would talk to me. my heart told me the right thing and he wants his child back. [ speaking foreign language]

>> we're talking about a 6-year-old little boy here. it's a child. that's all we need to be concerned about. nobody else. the rest of it is all bs, man. we need to put this baby to rest right now. donato has to speak for himself. >> i said, i'm donato, the fisherman, the one they call elpeska dor. i was there when your son was about to drowned. and man, this guy's eyes started to well up with water and i ran over there and grabbed and hugged him. [ speaking foreign language ] >> we didn't kick him out but we had to urge him to leave. >> i don't stand in the way of this father, but i can tell you this, i don't feel that he is

free outside of his lawyer here. juan miguel said he's not going to go down to miami, so what's going to happen? >> we needed a family meeting away from the media, governments pitted against each other. the cuban american national foundation versus the castro brothers, it needed to get out of that. and we needed a neutral third-party, which i thought was the catholic church. we got the blessing of the pope about using the vatican embassy in washington. >> i got a call saying to go to elian's house and tell the family to bring elian to washington. i went into the house and said if you ask me, i wouldn't do it because if you're going to ask me for any guarantee, i can't give them to you.

[ speaking foreign language ] [ cheers and applause ] ♪ ♪ >> there's a new element to this story. the boy's miami relatives released a video of elian last night. it shows him on a bed. we're going to show it to you. it's not clear who was in the room with him, whether he was coached or not. [ speaking foreign language ]

>> after the miami relatives refused to bring the kid to washington, it became clear that if we wanted elian, we were going to have to go into the house and take him. >> for the last couple of days we weren't even 100% sure elian was even inside the home. he was not being brought out by family members, he didn't make appearances into the crowds. the less we saw of him, the more concern we had as to his welfare. ♪ ♪ >> if it comes to taking elian by force, u.s. law enforcement officials have a plan. >> elements of the s.w.a.t.-like operations group are available. the 1100 member miami police

department and the florida highway patrol has placed units on alert. the final go or no-go order will come only from attorney general janet reno. >> for weeks the government had had been assembling a shock force of federal agents to seize elian if necessary. but janet reno had misgivings that went beyond her loyalty to cuban exiles. seven years earlier, just after taking office as attorney general, reno had ordered federal agents to raid the compound of a religious cult near waco, texas. more than 70 people died, including 25 children. >> we must all reflect on how we as a society can in the future prevent such a senseless, horrible tragic loss of human life. >> one thing that did haunt her was waco. but janet reno was somebody who made her decisions based on the facts and the law. >> instead of discussing how elian should be united, they

-- the attorneys for the relatives continue to demand that we revisit the issue of whether elian should be reunited. that is not what the law provides. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: demonstrators break through those barricades to try to form a human chain around this house, if indeed federal agents came to seize elian gonzalez. >> there were people in the crowds that had violent police records. there were armed individuals in the crowd. the entire event was a potential powder keg. we wanted to effect this search warrant as soon as possible. the only delays were last-ditch efforts made by the u.s. government to negotiate a peaceful, so to speak, surrender of the child to the u.s.

government. >> ms. reno was willing to exhaust every option. so when members of the community came in and said we think we can broker a deal, she was willing to talk to them. >> we were afraid that this was going to bring a lot of harm to the community and the perception of the community. this was spinning out of control. >> my focus was to get the community to have a unanimous position that we're going to do this peacefully. my view we were very close to doing in two days that which had not been done in five months. >> we're going to create a scenario where the two families would go to a military base, have an opportunity to talk to each other and look for an elegant solution. and a settlement. we developed the points and faxed them to janet reno. >> we get the fax off and we had been instructed by aaron

pothurst, everything's good. you guys are fine. the agreement is still not finalized, but our expectations were, we'll be out of here in a couple of hours. >> the offer was the same as had been made repeatedly by the family and that ultimately not only hadn't succeeded but was not willing to in any way concede turning over the child to the father. >> it was just another effort. i think most of us thought to delay. >> we had identified 5:00 a.m. to be an optimal time to execute this search warrant. we were ready well prior to that and still awaiting a final green light from the department of justice. >> you're in the attorney general's office. she stayed on an open line with

mr. pothurst. i stayed on an open line with the ins people in miami because i needed to give them the order that it was a go. >> i had two lines. one to the house and one to attorney general janet reno. it never occurred to me that there was a raid planned and i kept saying to the attorney general, what's the big rush about? >> she gave them deadlines. she told them after this point it's going to be too late and then you are out of time. you're running out of time. >> that was the only night that elian didn't sleep. he was scared that they would take him. >> it's well past midnight and i tell aaron, look, i'm beginning to feel very uncomfortable like there's a problem here because there's no reason. i mean, this is a one-page document. >> there was questions in the

room, are we on hold, is it a go? ms. reno said it's a go. >> then about 4:00 we got a call from aaron and his voice is almost shaking. and he says to me you got five minutes to wake everybody up. i woke everybody up. and while we're having that conversation, there's a bunch of yelling and screaming outside. and i said to aaron, aaron, the feds are here. ff on all clothing and shoes. and up to 70% off on outdoor life for him and simply styled for her! plus hot deals on jeans for kids, starting at 8.99. hurry - sale ends september 4th.

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can we go live? can we go live? are we shooting it? >> stay back behind the barricades! back behind the barricades! >> hoards of people were going to do everything in their power to prevent us from reaching the front door. they chanted, they screamed, lights went on. they formed human chains. we virtually had to push our way to the front door. behind us there was a riot going on.

it was clearly organized resistance. i pounded at the door. federal agents were executing a search warrant. open the door, open the door. i had to give the order to breach the door. >> i clearly remember the lady that came into get him saying where's the f kid, where's the f god damn kid? i did step forward a little bit aggressive like mad and she says if you take one more step, i'm going to shoot. >> if there was anybody, it shouldn't have been me that night that got elian into my

arms, but everyone's running to shelter because they're hearing the same thing, get down or we'll shoot and we're thinking, they're going to kill us. >> i see in the closet donato and elian. the boy says to me -- i said nothing's happening. baby but everything's going to be all right. >> the door busted open and there's a federal armed agent with an assault weapon and he's got that thing pointed directly at me and elian. all's i are had is ch, ch. >> i'm flashing. i'm strobing this guy in the face. freedom of press. you can't touch that. >> he's screaming, give me the kid. give me the f'ing kid. within seconds a woman appeared

in the room and that's when i handed ellion ovian over to the. >> get ready to get the boy. get ready. they got the boy, they got the boy. >> go, go. >> all i could hear was elian screaming, prima, prima, prima. just calling out and i couldn't do anything. ♪ ♪

>> come on. over here. ♪ ♪ >> elian was just a kid, and that day they risked his life. i sometimes wonder what juan miguel felt about that. i would have never wanted my child to be taken out like that. >> elian gonzales is as we speak being flown to andrews air force base, just outside washington, where he will be reunited with his father.

♪ ♪ [ speaking foreign language] [ speaking foreign language] ♪ ♪ >> these are the first pictures

we have seen of young elian. >> we had let it be known, we didn't want to have a bunch of photographs. >> the director of public affairs then said, a.p. is flashing a pretty ugly photo around the world right now. we said, you should really get a camera and get some pictures out there. >> i think i took that picture. yeah. pretty good. >> pictures taken by an associated press photographer which the administration will have to answer to. >> there say picture of that little boy's fear, scared. so janet reno and everybody else don't say you came here with no violence and that this boy is okay. how can this boy be okay when he >> expressing her feelings on what happened, describing what ened this morning. >> they treat us like criminals.

they broke -- they broke elian's bed. >> he was saying, que pasa, what's going on, i just held his head like this. my god, america, what did you do to this boy? >> gonzalez, donato, thank you very much. >> up until the last, we tried every way we could do encourage lasaro gonzalez to voluntarily hand over the child to his father. unfortunately the miami relatives rejected our efforts, leaving us no other option but the enforcement action. >> we got a fire. another fire.

♪ ♪ >> the crowd here very angry over the elian gonzales situation, extremely angry with the justice department's handling of this situation. >> after the elian incident, i think the democrats were terribly harmed by what happened. ♪ ♪ >> stand by, stand by. cnn right now is moving florida back to the too close to call column. >> the elian gonzales issue may have driven a lot of cuban americans back to the republican party. >> an election in turmoil, a presidency in the balance. a nation waits.

who will emerge the winner in the historic florida recount? >> there were 10,000 cuban american democrats who became republicans post elian. had the elian event been handled better, we might not have had the iraq war. >> president bush became the president of the united states in 2000 because of elian gonzales. there is no doubt in my mind and i think that numbers proved that out. >> i think it's a much bigger issue than that. i think what cost al gore the election was a fiasco in palm beach county florida with the ballots. ralph nader getting 100,000 votes in florida. and i doubt it had anything to do with al gore not carrying tennessee, his home state. ♪ ♪

♪ >> maris lacy and her family would not see elian again. in late june, almost seven months after his rescue at sea, the supreme court finally lifted the order keeping him in the united states. he and his father were back in cuba before nightfall. ♪ ♪ >> elian! elian! elian! ♪

♪ ♪ ♪

[ speaking foreign language] [ speaking foreign language] ♪

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[ speaking foreign language]

castro was, in fact, dedicated to getting that little boy home, and it became a matter of his heart. it was not now just a government victory. and elian became virtually like a child of his. ♪ ♪ >> as elian grew up, fidel continued to celebrate the boy's return as a triumphant chapter

in the bigger story of cuba's evolution. ♪ [ speaking foreign language] [ speaking foreign language] [ speaking foreign language]

[ speaking foreign language] [ speaking foreign language]

>> i don't know what elian's life is like now in cuba. he's probably more prominent now than he ever imagined. but whatever he is, it was created here. it was created here in miami. >> in hindsight, it had a lot of impact because it became a pivotal point for many in the community to realize that we were not having a rational approach to cuba, that it was getting out of hand and that we needed to show a different view, a different approach. >> in the aftermath of the elian affair, new cuban leaders challenge the transient of the old guard.

even the cuban national foundation retreated from its hardline past, appealing to an exile community less defined by the old hatreds and paving the way for historic changes in american society. >> we definitely began focusing on a younger generation both here and in cuba. we have to talk to their hopes and aspirations. they're going to be the key to the future. >> first american president in 88 years touched down just a few moments ago here in cuba. ♪ ♪ ♪

>> i have come here to bury the last remnant of the cold war in the americas. havana is only 90 miles from florida. but to get here we had had had to travel a great distance. over barriers of history and ideology, barriers of pain and separation. in many ways the united states and cuba are like two brothers who have been estranged for many years. i want the cuban people, especially the young people, to understand why i believe that you should look to the future

with hope, hope that is rooted in the future that you can choose and that you can shape and that you can build for your country. [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language]

♪ [speaking foreign language]

♪ [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] >> did i want him to stay in

america? selfishly, yes. he was going to have scholarships, he was going to go to college. he was going to have the american dream. but, you know, in the end, realized that american dream wasn't for him. >> as he lives out his life, what role he will play in cuba, what role he will play in the cuban revolution, that is to come inevitably. he will be part of the new generation, and how he will weather that, how he will respond to that is probably partly related to what will happen to cuba, and some of that depends on us. ♪ ♪ [speaking foreign language]

[speaking foreign language]

[ chanting ] i shouldn't be happy because a person has died but he's separated my family, my parents never got to see cuba again so today i rejoice for this. ♪ ♪ >> as cuban americans celebrated fiddle's death, miami talk shows replaced elian's comments and revisited a long-running question. what sort of man had the miracle boy become? [ speaking foreign language ]

we always said that's what he would become, a little trophy for the government when they soo that they roll out whenever they need to. >> people have told me did you hear what elian say? he's brainwashed. i say he's not a fault of what he's become where he's at right now, he doesn't know any better. so i don't judge him, i just sit and wait. [ speaking foreign language ]

>> i would love to see him here, even if it's just to visit, but i don't see myself going back to cuba. i feel that i would be betraying his mother. >> i'm not in his future, i'm in his past. years could go by and it's the same thing over and over.

[ speaking foreign language ] >> whoever's right or wrong, we're family, and we love each other. i dream to the day comes that i can speak to him. i love him no matter who or what he chooses to be. [ speaking foreign language ] [speaking foreign language]

♪ ♪

hurricane harvey gaining steam as it gets set to make landfall. parts of the gulf in serious danger as this storm moves in, and record-setting rain won't move out for days. >> whoa. >> good morning, everyone, welcome to "early start." i'm dave briggs. this is frightening. >> this is. millions in the path of this thing. i'm christine romans. friday, august 25th, 4:00 a.m. in the east. 3:00 a.m. in corpus christie, texas. hurricane harvey gaining strength as it takes aim at southeast texas. now a category-two hurricane with maximum sustained winds of