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Saturday Morning News

Elian Gonzalez Case: Ramon Saul Sanchez Discusses the Appellate Court Ruling

Aired June 24, 2000 - 8:16 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: The long legal battle to keep Elian Gonzalez in the United States may be about to end. An appellate court yesterday opened the way for the child to return home with his father, perhaps as early as Wednesday.

Joining us live from Miami is Ramon Sanchez, who is President of the Democracy Movement. He has been active in efforts to keep young Elian here in the U.S.

Mr. Sanchez, thanks for being with us on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

RAMON SAUL SANCHEZ, DEMOCRACY MOVEMENT: Thank you. Good morning.

O'BRIEN: Let's look forward for a moment because I suppose we can concede that the efforts on behalf of the Cuban-American community to keep Elian Gonzalez here in the U.S. are all but over. Where does this leave the community? In a sense you have raised awareness about an issue that many Americans hadn't thought about for some time.

SANCHEZ: Yes, I think if something has been obtained from this situation I think it's two things. First, that people continue to look at Elian Gonzalez once he's sent back to Cuba so that Castro will be more careful of how he's going to treat the child. And on the other hand also to tell the world that we are a people that have been divided by the intolerance of the government and that each family unit in the country unfortunately has been hit by that division, including the Cuban dictator's own family, who his daughter lives in exile and his sister lives in exile also.

O'BRIEN: Well, I guess, then, in many ways this whole story was sort of a microcosm of what has been going on for many years now in the Cuban-American community. I'm curious, where do you take it from here? Does the community overall suffer from a lack of credibility because of this whole incident or does this in some way help your efforts?

SANCHEZ: Well, the case of Elian Gonzalez is only a symptom of a much larger problem, which is what I just told you, the division of the Cuban family and the disintegration of the Cuban nation and I think what we have learned from this, and it's very important to learn, is that we must convey to the American people and the rest of the world our realities. We were and have been talking to ourselves here about the realities of Cuba for many, many years, for 41 years, in fact, and I think we have learned that we must convey to the American people and to the rest of the world our realities and I'm sure when that is seen in the human context, not political but in the human context, the suffering of the Cuban people, I think things will be a lot different and we will get more support to change conditions in Cuba.

O'BRIEN: Eventually there's going to be a changing of the guard there and the leadership role in Cuba, Fidel Castro not getting any younger. Do you anticipate that that will be an opportunity for a breath of fresh air in your country?

SANCHEZ: We should not have to wait until that happens. I think if everybody looked towards Cuba and made a real effort to pressure the government I think a lot of barriers can be brought down so that the Cuban people can freely travel back and forth in the way that they do to any other country and so that they don't get persecuted or they don't get excluded from exercising that right, which is a god given right and it's also supported by many international human rights and civil rights conventions.

O'BRIEN: Well, let me ask you, because I know the Cuban-American community over the years has been pretty adamant about keeping the barriers up in order to sort of punish Fidel Castro. Do you think it's time to loosen things up, to establish a more normal relationship considering the possibility that there'll be a change of, a succession of power there shortly?

SANCHEZ: You must understand that the barriers that the Cuban exile community has for the years fought for have been barriers against the dictator and not against the Cuban people. And in so doing, I think the people have come to realize that we do need to establish people to people contact better than what we have today.

We encourage the United States government to really aim at a policy of people to people contact and we do realize, in fact, I am not a supporter of the embargo, but we do realize that we need to influence in whatever we can the foreign policy of the United States to be aimed more at a link with the Cuban people instead of the link with the Cuban government that we're seeing right now, which is what Castro unfortunately does not want to allow.

O'BRIEN: All right, Ramon Sanchez, looking forward from the Elian case, President of the Democracy Movement. Thanks for being with us out of Miami this morning.

SANCHEZ: Thank you.

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