How did the NCC become involved in the Elian Gonzalez case?
In early December 1999, the NCC received an urgent request from our Christian partner in Cuba, the Cuban Council of Churches, to work with them to obtain the release and return of Elian to his father, grandmothers and extended family in Cuba. We agreed that Elian belonged with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, given that he is a fit parent. Alarmed that the United States was not returning the boy quickly and automatically to his father and that a fundamentally humanitarian concern was becoming increasingly politicized, the two Councils proposed that they serve as intermediaries in the physical return of Elian to his father. The Cuban government agreed to the plan and U.S. officials quietly expressed interest. However, interest was followed only by silence. Wanting to put additional pressure for Elian s return, and concerned that Elian s father and extended family in Cardenas had few advocates in the United States who had actually met them, the Cuban Council of Churches asked the NCC to
