Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban immigrant who touched off a national debate 15 years ago when he was removed from his Miami relatives’ home and returned to his father in Cuba, is willing to offer forgiveness to the American relatives.
That is, if they are willing to admit that they made a mistake.
Gonzalez, now 21 and living in Cuba, made the revelation during an interview that aired on ABC’s “World News Tonight With David Muir” on Monday. America was riveted with the image of federal officers bursting into the home of Gonzalez’s relatives, guns drawn, to remove him. In the interview, Gonzalez, who was six years old at the time, admitted that he was scared during the 1999 raid.
“When I saw a person with a weapon. I got scared. I didn’t understand what they wanted with me, didn’t know what was going on,” Gonzalez said. “And I didn’t know as to what was happening — this litigation between my father and my uncles.”
Gonzalez went on to say that he felt “totally relieved” when he was told that he was going to be reunited with his father.
“[W]hen the marshal took me in her arms and she took me to the vehicle, the first thing she said to me was ‘We are friends of your dad. We are going to take you with your dad,’” Gonzalez noted. “While after such a great impact, this is not going to go away. But I felt relieved, total [sic] relieved.”
Watch the segment in the video:
