Why is Fidel Castro so afraid of Elian Gonzalez?
This paper will take a look at the possible answers following a brief review of Clinton/Gore policy toward Castro and his unreconstructed communist regime leading up to the Elian crisis. The Ups and Downs of the Clinton/Castro Relations In March 1996, as his presidential reelection campaign was getting underway, Bill Clinton signed the Helms-Burton Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act (P.L. 104-144), which denied visas to Cubans trafficking in confiscated American property and, more importantly, enacted into statute all existing Cuba embargo Executive Orders and regulations imposed beginning with the Kennedy Administration. No presidential waiver authority was included. Under the provisions of the LIBERTAD Act, Clinton would not be able (as he earlier did with Vietnam) to lift the economic embargo against Cuba as a prelude to normalization, unless Congress were to agree. Thus, by his signature — in the politically charged aftermath of the downing by Castro of two pri
