ELIAN CUSTODY BATTLE

“It’s a great joy for us. We’re filled with satisfaction that the boy is with his father.”

--Maura Casanas an industrial engineer in Havana

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“Everyone talks about Cuba being the evil empire, but how evil would we be if we kept the boy from his father?”

--Tim Quistoroff, a musician in Chicago

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“Janet Reno handled this beautifully. I can’t stand Clinton, but he and Reno did a good job on this one. Why shouldn’t the man have his child? There’s nothing abhorrent about a child being with his father.”

--Bob Burman, a Columbus, Ohio, attorney and father of two

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“I feel like I’m back in Cuba in 1960. That’s the way I feel right now. I’ve been here 40 years. I never, never thought anything like this would happen.”

--Beatriz Hernandez, member of Mothers Against Repression

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“They took this kid like a hostage in the nighttime.”

--Donato Dalrymple, who was holding Elian when federal agents seized the boy

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“I am heartbroken and devastated. I was shocked that a peaceful transfer, which ... appeared so close, failed to materialize. It’s a travesty of justice that this had to come to such a needless and violent transition.”

--Sister Jeanne O’Laughlin, host of a meeting between Elian and his Cuban grandmothers

*

“You’ve got a family laughing at the attorney general, and sooner or later you’ve got to show them some authority. The family over-estimated their position of power.”

--Roland Rolo, in a Cuban cafe in Union City, N.J.