Child rafter Elián González proposed as deputy to the National Assembly of People's Power

February 9, 2023

Elián González, the child rafter whose case in the late 1990s intensified tensions between the Havana government and Washington, is among nearly 500 candidates for the Cuban parliament.

The candidates were proposed last weekend by delegates from each municipality. The name of Elián, for whom Fidel Castro deployed and sustained enormous campaigns and mobilizations, appears among the 470 candidates to occupy a seat in the X legislature of the National Assembly of People's Power.

Voters can ratify or reject the candidates in a voting session at the end of March. González comes from the municipality of Cárdenas, a city 135 kilometers from Havana.

The newspaper Granma described the nomination process as an exercise in democracy. The people come first and that must be realized through the close ties established with the population, said Cuban Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz.

According to the newspaper, the speeches coincided in endorsing the revolutionary trajectory of the nominees with sufficient ethical, political, and human merits.

In another of the territories most prominent economically and socially, Cárdenas highlighted the nomination of Elián González Brotons, protagonist of an episode that moved the Nation and the world and representative of the most valuable aspects of Cuban youth, the report indicates.

Elián's case became known worldwide after in November 1999, at barely five years old, he was the protagonist of an incident when he traveled with his mother and other crew members in a small vessel attempting to illegally enter the United States.

The vessel sank and the crew members died with the exception of Elián, who survived clinging to a car tire to be rescued several days later by U.S. fishermen. A dispute then began between the boy's father in Cuba and his family in South Florida that went beyond the legal matter and acquired political connotations.

Elián returned to Cuba on June 28, 2000 with the support of U.S. authorities. During his adolescence, Elián studied in military schools.