Letters to Hermes
Why is it that virtually all Haitian refugees, including children, are returned to Haiti by the Coast Guard, while many Cuban refugees are allowed to stay in the United States? The conditions of life for children in Haiti are much worse than in Cuba. Children work in sweatshops for U.S. corporations like Disney in Haiti, and there is no free health care and education as there is in Cuba. Cuba is a better environment for children, even with the U.S. embargo, than is Haiti. If Elian Gonzalez had been one of the thousands of Haitian children risking their lives to flee that island, the story would have been completely ignored by the U. S. media.
A similar thing happened in the 1980’s, when Nicaraguan refugees were accepted into the United States, while Guatemalan and El Salvadoran refugees were sent back to the brutal governments in those countries, often to a certain death.
The determining factor is whether the people are fleeing a socialist or a capitalist country. The overriding concern of U.S. foreign policy is the preservation of capitalism and the opening up of all countries to U.S. corporate domination.
The intense controversy over little Elian Gonzalez is entirely political. The Cuban exile community in Florida is utilizing the existing antagonsim toward Cuba by the U.S. government to further their own ends. Many of these exiles were landowners or owners of other capital property in Cuba, who lost that property when Cuba went socialist- just as the Mafia lost their casinos and prostitution houses. Some of these Cuban exiles have a history of terrorism. On October 6, 1976 they bombed a Cuban airlines plane killing all 73 people on board, and there have been many other terrorist acts.
This little boy has suffered enough with the loss at sea of his mother and now the continuing debate over which country he should call home. If these U.S. politicians, who constantly talk of “family values,” really believe in them, Elian Gonzalez should be sent back to his father and grandparents in Cuba!
Gary Sudborough, Bellflower, CA
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