Word: castros
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Elian's plight has also given Castro, 73, life support. Last fall, el comandante's relevance was dwindling: even as he played host to a summit of Latin American and Iberian leaders, the spotlight fell instead on foreign capitalists and pro-democracy dissidents. Elian's "kidnapping" changed all that. As a result, Cuban politicos privately declare that even if Elian never returns...
...Cuban dance band Los Van Van is so beloved at home that 100 years from now, goes a local joke, Fidel Castro will be known as a failed dictator who ruled in the age of Los Van Van. But until recently, the legendary salsa troupe, whose virile and eclectic rhythms have influenced Latin music for three decades, was not much more familiar to most Americans than the rich puff of a Cohiba cigar...
...Miami's Cuban-American leaders, welcoming Castro's artists is a worse affront. "To people who've been tortured in his jails, it's an insult to allow Cuban propaganda here," says Miami-Dade County Commissioner Pedro Reboredo...
...does most of the entertainment qualify as propaganda? Los Van Van's lyrics eschew politics. The critically acclaimed Cuban film La Vida Es Silbar (Life Is to Whistle), which was shown at a Miami film festival last month, is critical of Castro's society. (Nonetheless, Miami-Dade County has threatened to pull its $49,000 funding for the festival.) Members of the popular and apolitical Cuban music troupe Buena Vista Social Club, which recently played Carnegie Hall, were supposed to perform on Miami Beach this year but pulled out because of safety concerns...
...Miami family suggest the U.S. government (Vice President Gore excepted) remained firm in its decision to reunite the boy with his father. "The issue is not whether we will transfer Elian to his father, but when and how," said INS representative Maria Cardona. With Fidel Castro now pushing to send Juan Miguel Gonzalez - either alone or with a large entourage of family, schoolmates, mental health professionals and political minders - to the U.S. as soon as visas come through, the game of political football over the six-year-old appears to have entered its fourth quarter. It's not over...