Subject: Release: Elian Gonzalez Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2000 04:30:17 -0700 From: announce@lp.org To: announce@lp.org (Libertarian Party announcements list) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- ======================================= NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY 2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100 Washington DC 20037 World Wide Web: http://www.LP.org ======================================= For release: April 25, 2000 ======================================= For additional information: George Getz, Press Secretary Phone: (202) 333-0008 Ext. 222 E-Mail: 76214.3676@Compuserve.com ======================================= Elian Gonzalez: Thank goodness Janet Reno didn't kill another child WASHINGTON, DC -- Congratulations to Janet Reno: She finally managed to "rescue" a child without burning him to death. That was the Libertarian Party's reaction to this weekend's dawn raid by heavily armed INS agents on the home of Elian Gonzalez's relatives. "Elian Gonzalez is lucky to be alive -- since, for Attorney General Janet Reno, compassion is all too often a death sentence, and justice is just another word for no one left to kill," said Ron Crickenberger, the party's political director. "Elian Gonzalez's mother died trying to escape from Fidel Castro. We should be grateful that Elian Gonzalez didn't die trying to escape from Janet Reno -- since Reno's last rescue attempt left 24 children dead in the inferno in Waco, Texas." On the Saturday before Easter, a SWAT team of Immigration and Naturalization Service agents -- dressed in paramilitary uniforms and armed with MP-5 submachine guns -- kicked down the door of the home in Miami where Elian Gonzalez, the 6-year-old defector from Cuba, was staying with relatives. The boy was taken from relatives at gunpoint, and then whisked by government jet to an Air Force base near Washington, DC, where he was reunited with his father. Reno said the armed incursion was necessary after negotiations with relatives stalled. But, said Crickenberger, Libertarians have to ask: Was this really the only way to resolve what is ultimately nothing more than a complicated child custody dispute? "Is this the kind of America we want: Where armed, paramilitary federal agents kick down doors in pre-dawn raids? Where excessive force seems to be the first option? Where the Justice Department can authorize such a raid without a judicial order? And where Janet Reno can place a child's life at risk -- just a trigger's pull away from sudden death -- to 'save' him from relatives who, right or wrong, seem to want the best for him?" And another important question, said Crickenberger: Should Janet Reno be in the business of returning children to a country that our own government considers a "terrorist" nation? "According to the State Department, Cuba is a terrorist state," he said. "Why would our government use terrorist-style tactics to return a child to a terrorist state?" And according to Human Rights Watch, Fidel Castro's government: * Has executed at least 15,000 political opponents since coming to power. * Makes it a crime to distribute Bibles, spread "unauthorized news," or "insult dead heroes." * Restricts fundamental human rights such as the right of expression, association, assembly, movement, and the press. * Imprisons or kills people for the crime of "illegal exit" -- trying to leave the country. * Requires parents to raise children with "Communist personalities." If parents stray from the official ideology, they can be charged with the crime of "hindering the normal development of the child." In fact, said Crickenberger, "The situation is so bad that Elian's mother lost her life in a desperate attempt to escape from Cuba with her son. Should our government play any role in sending a child back to a country where he will be considered a 'possession' of the government -- and will live his life as a virtual slave to a communist tyranny?" The Libertarian Party tends not to take sides in child custody cases, said Crickenberger, and Libertarians can disagree about the proper outcome of the Elian Gonzalez case. "But every Libertarian would probably agree that the boy would be better off if the federal government stayed out of the case -- and allowed it to be settled by family members who love the boy, or by a family court, or by an impartial arbitrator," he said. "And every Libertarian would probably agree that, given her track record, Janet Reno shouldn't be allowed to intervene in any case where a child is at risk -- since too many children have died already because of Janet Reno's so-called compassion." -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBOQgnMdCSe1KnQG7RAQGqTwP+NgzRT/hJokTYZVMyR4DAVMgasz79s6jT drUtX3ljqmX7QKgBw/ddePo3+LUJZYxj1lxxSDkcy4gBPKpihD/5NjABjXunrxbM C8gtAB4uVAQP4bg/Zxw1XDNEuncq9Trp0TwCVVEdkqOgboqcr6fyR1tWDNKRD2xJ UkH85iscaWo= =CLZC -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- The Libertarian Party http://www.lp.org/ 2600 Virginia Ave. NW, Suite 100 voice: 202-333-0008 Washington DC 20037 fax: 202-333-0072 For subscription changes, send a message to with just the word "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" in the subject line. Or use the WWW form at: http://www.lp.org/lp-announce-form.html