Elian’s Fate

* The Times reports (April 19) that Elian Gonzalez will not be returning to his home town to live with his father. Instead a boarding school in Havana is being remodeled to house him. The state-run complex will contain a replica of his former schoolroom, and will also house his “extended family and several of his classmates.” The “psychologists” said that this will provide a necessary “transition period” for the boy.

As the Miami exile community knows, however, the real purpose will be to indoctrinate Elian. He will become an official state icon trotted out publicly to praise Fidel Castro and denounce America.

JAMES HYDE FORBES

Palos Verdes Estates

* Mike Downey has it exactly right (April 19). Those Miami Cubans have no interest at all in the boy’s real welfare. They are self-serving and wrong. I am amazed that the people in this country who are so adamant about the importance of “family” can turn right around and demand that a father not be allowed to raise his son where and how he sees fit. I think it is high time to stop being intimidated by the expatriates from Cuba in Miami.

WILLIAM ELDRIDGE

Santa Ana

* Elian’s great-uncle is playing revolutionary dictator with the freedoms he enjoys in America. If he had a son kidnapped to Cuba, he would have been the first to demand we send in the Marines.

WAYNE C. IRWIN

Northridge