Cuba Releases Photos of Elian Gonzales, 16

As a boy in the US, he set off a furor over immigration
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 6, 2010 3:30 PM CDT
Cuba Releases Photos of Elian Gonzales, 16
Elian Gonzalez, now 16.   (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco, Prensa Latina)

Cuba has released photos of one-time exile cause célèbre Elian Gonzalez wearing an olive-green military school uniform and attending a Young Communist Union congress. Gonzalez, now 16 with closely cropped black hair, is shown serious-faced with fellow youth delegates during last weekend's congress in Havana. The images were posted Monday on Cuban government Web sites.

When he was 5, Elian was found floating off the coast of Florida in an inner tube after his mother and others fleeing Cuba drowned trying to reach the US. Elian's father, who was separated from his mother, had remained in Cuba. US immigration officials ruled the boy should return to Cuba over the objections of his Miami relatives and other Cuban exiles, creating a national furor. Federal agents raided the Little Havana home of his uncle with guns drawn 10 years ago this month and seized the boy. (More Elian Gonzalez stories.)

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