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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

Summit of the Americas: Not All is Peaceful; Elian's Life in Cuba

Aired April 20, 2001 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KATE SNOW, GUEST HOST: Tonight, their goal: peace and prosperity from the Arctic to the Andes. But not all is peaceful, as leaders of 34 countries gather in Quebec City to talk free trade.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Only democratic nations can attend the Summit of the Americas, and every nation in our hemisphere, except one, will be there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

That exception is Cuba. And year after federal agents snatched young Elian Gonzalez from his Florida relatives, Wolf Blitzer talks with Cuba's chief diplomat in Washington about Elian's life back in his homeland, human rights and U.S.-Cuban relations.

And at the end of a contentious week between the United States and China, U.S. aircraft practice for future surveillance flights.

Good evening. I'm Kate Snow reporting tonight from Washington. Wolf Blitzer is off.

As leaders of the Western Hemisphere gather in Quebec City, running battles between police and anti-globalization protesters delay President Bush's debut in the global arena. Free trade tests the limits of free speech at the Summit of the Americas, and that's our top story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): Evidence that free trade may be a tough sell. Tear gas filled the streets around Quebec's historic citadel, site of the summit. Anti-globalization protesters hurling rocks and bottles at police, breaking through police barricades.

Well inside that police perimeter, President Bush was stepping out on the international stage.

BUSH: These are our neighbors. I grew up in a world where if you treat your neighbor well, it's a good start to developing a wholesome community. SNOW: The 34 leaders gathered in Quebec represent 800 million people, from meat packers in Argentina to auto workers in Canada. Education is on the agenda, along with improving health care and combating illegal drugs. But trade will be the main focus. President Bush has pledged to create hemisphere-wide free trade zone, gradually eliminating barriers to investment and trade.

BUSH: Open trade in our hemisphere will open new markets for our farmers and ranchers, workers and service providers, and high-tech entrepreneurs. It will fuel the engines of economic growth to create new jobs and new income. It will apply the power of the markets to the needs of the poor.

SNOW: Leaders from throughout the Americas will be looking for assurances that the president can deliver on his promise.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: For more on the goals of this summit and the obstacles standing in the way, let's go live to CNN senior White House correspondent John King in Quebec City. John, first of all, what is the status now of the protest, and what impact could the protest have on these leaders who are gathered? Could they be distracted from their agenda by this?

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, at this hour, relative calm. The police have extended their perimeter out, though, an additional distance from the chain-link fence you saw there in your spot, where it was initially set up.

Calm today. More protests planned tomorrow, though, and by much greater numbers. The leaders, including President Bush, insisting it will not deter them from their negotiations for that free trade zone of the Americas. The deadline, the goal, the year 2005, but certainly a distraction.

Mr. Bush hoping to have some getting-to-know-you sessions this afternoon. The presidents of Bolivia and Brazil delayed by more than 20 minutes in getting to one meeting with the president. A meeting with Caribbean leaders postponed altogether because of the security. The negotiations begin in earnest tomorrow. Again, the leaders saying they will press ahead with this, but certainly this is a reminder of the very difficult and divisive political debate trade has become in many countries, certainly in the United States, and that's a very big challenge facing President Bush.

SNOW: John, the president, when he campaigned, campaigned talking about needing to open up more to Latin America, needing to put that as an emphasis in international policy. How does he improve his commitment to that part of the world while he is there in Quebec?

KING: He has built a great deal of goodwill, Kate, by meeting early on with seven Central and South American leaders, but that goodwill goes only so far.

The president facing a credibility test, if you will, at this his first major international summit. He promised during the campaign that he would push for that authority, broad negotiating authority, to negotiate these free trade deals.

He has yet to even submit the legislation to the U.S. Congress. Why? Because he knows right now he probably does not have the votes. Organized labor and environmental groups fighting this legislation very hard, so this a credibility test for the president. Before countries like Brazil and others are going to make the concessions necessary to make this giant free trade zone a reality, they need be to convinced that the president of the United States can get this agreement through the U.S. Congress.

SNOW: CNN's John King in Quebec City, thank you

In a different hemisphere, U.S. delegates have left Beijing after talks stemming from the collision of a Navy surveillance plane and a Chinese fighter jet. While that damaged U.S. plane remains in Chinese hands, other U.S. aircraft have begun practicing for future surveillance flights along China's coast, flights that could include fighter escorts. A rehearsal mission was flown out of Okinawa today.

And in a move likely to aggravate China, the U.S. has granted a tourist visa to Taiwan's former president, Lee Teng Hui. A 1995 visit drew an angry response from Beijing, which views Taiwan as a renegade province.

Joining me to discuss where things stand in the U.S.-China relationship: "TIME" magazine State Department correspondent Jay Branegan. Jay, thanks for being here.

JAY BRANEGAN, "TIME" MAGAZINE CORRESPONDENT: Good to be here.

SNOW: Two stories today, the practice flights and also the story about the visa. What signal is the U.S. government trying to send?

BRANEGAN: I think the Bush administration is trying to send a signal it's going to be tough, it's going to be firm. It is showing a little bit of quiet muscle that it's going to honor its commitments to its friends in Taiwan and not be buffaloed by these Chinese that are still holding our plane.

SNOW: There's another item this week also, the U.S. State Department issuing a travel advisory for those who want to travel to China. What does that mean?

BRANEGAN: Well, I think, Kate, you know, they say diplomacy is sort of the art of saying "nice doggy, nice doggy" while looking for a rock. Well, I think the -- now that they have said "nice doggy" and gotten the people back from China, I think the Bush administration is throwing a few rocks at the Beijing administration.

SNOW: They have two meeting this week, no success yet on getting that U.S. spy plane back to the U.S. What's next for that, what's next in the diplomacy?

BRANEGAN: I think we're going to see some more meetings. I think that the Chinese understand that this is going to be -- if this issue is going to be brought up, it's going to get in the way. They want to get it off the table. They've got -- they scored their points, if you will, their debating points. And now, it's time to move on. In China, though, it will take a while, but I think that we're just going to grind it out and get the plane back in some long period of time.

SNOW: Jay Branegan from "TIME" magazine, thanks for being with us tonight.

BRANEGAN: Thank you.

SNOW: Turning now to the upper Midwest, where volunteers are packing sandbags and building levees in the race against the rising flood waters. Cities bordering the swollen Mississippi river from Minnesota to Iowa are the hardest hit. From Davenport, Iowa, here's CNN's Keith Oppenheim.

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KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The muscle and energy to fill these sandbags is coming from sixth-graders. These Davenport, Iowa middle-schoolers are adding strength to a man-made dike, and they're learning firsthand what it takes to protect their city.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's good for them to see that and to see all the effort that just goes into one bag, and where that one bag can help.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are a lot of people who live by the river, and we don't want them to have to leave their homes or their businesses, as you see.

OPPENHEIM: Keep in mind, across the Mississippi in Rock Island, Illinois, a flood wall is keeping the river at bay. But the Davenport, Iowa side is a different story. In the mid-1980s, the community made an aesthetic decision to keep the river more open and not build a barrier. Most of the time, Davenport residents like the river view, but now...

DEE BRUEMMER, PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR: Some are very anxious, and they'll be anxious until it gets back down to 19 feet. Twenty-two feet is the really, the critical stage.

OPPENHEIM: And the river may crest to just over 22 feet by Tuesday.

There is also concern about contamination. The rising river caused the sewage treatment plant to close, which is now dumping millions of gallons of untreated water into the Mississippi.

(on camera): To make matters worse, there's a national shortage of tetanus vaccine, which can be important if anyone is overexposed to the river's bacteria. Bottom line: residents here are being warned and told to go to their family doctor to get updated on shots. (voice-over): Davenport was hard hit by record floods in 1993. The hope here is a lot of hard work and a little ingenuity will hold the river back.

Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Davenport, Iowa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: Up next: Elian Gonzalez one year later, Wolf Blitzer talks about Elian's life back in his homeland with Fernando Remirez, the chief Cuban diplomat in Washington.

And later: cell phone companies are hit with class-action lawsuits. Would headsets ward off any health hazards?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SNOW: Welcome back. Sunday marks a year since the young Cuban, Elian Gonzalez, was reunited with his father. He'd been found floating in the Florida straits five months earlier, after a refugee boat sank, drowning his mother.

The reunion came after Federal agents broke into the Miami home of Elian's relatives, who were given temporary custody of the boy and then refused to give him up. Just this week, an Associated Press photographer, who was in the home at the time of the raid, won a Pulitzer Prize for capturing the incident on film.

The long-running Elian Gonzalez drama sparked passions, and reopened old wounds in both Miami and Havana. Wolf Blitzer sat down to talk about Elian, and U.S.-Cuba relations with Cuba's top diplomat in this country, Ambassador Fernando Remirez, chief of the Cuban Interests Section here in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Ambassador Remirez thank you so much for joining us. As you remember, one year ago this weekend, Federal agents went into the home in Miami and took Elian Gonzales out and within a few weeks after that by June, he was on his way back to Cuba. What has happened to Elian over the past year in Cuba?

AMB. FERNANDO REMIREZ, CHIEF, CUBAN INTERESTS SECTION: Well, fortunately he was reunited first place with his father, and also with family including his brother and his two grandmothers, as you know. At the end they were both of them were here doing your program last year. They are doing very well, fortunately. I had a chance to see them. They are living in the same home they had before, in Cardenas. Elian is going to the same school. His father, Juan Miguel, is working the same place that he was working before, and things are getting to normal.

Fortunately they are having a normal life, in Cuba and are doing fine. The last news that I have is that he was doing very well at school. He learned to read and write in Spanish, of course. But they are doing fine, fortunately. BLITZER: You remember the big concern among many Cuban Americans, others in the United States, at the time when the dispute was unfolding, that is: if he went back to Cuba, he would become a propaganda tool. A puppet, it if you will, of President Fidel Castro and used for propaganda purposes. And I asked you, when you were on my program last year, if that was a legitimate concern. You said it wasn't, and you went on to say this. Listen to what you said last year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, WOLF BLITZER REPORTS)

REMIREZ: The only thing that will happen to Elian when he will return to Cuba, is that he will reunify with his family and as soon as possible he will try to have a normal life like any other child in Cuba.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Many have pointed out though that he has not had a normal life. Only last month when the president of South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki visited Cuba he was taken to Cardenas and met with Elian Gonzales. Is that normal for a 6 year-old, 7-year-old little boy?

REMIREZ: Well, understand the president asked for that. But you are saying one case in all one year. I think today he attended a rally in his hometown, in his province Matanzas, a rally today with his family. But there is very exceptional cases. But the normal thing is that he's having a normal life according to what his family, his father asked for.

BLITZER: Do you know if he's been in touch at all with his relatives, Marisleysis, in Miami, others with whom he had established a bond during the course of those months he was in the United States.

REMIREZ: The last time that I spoke with Juan Miguel, no. This group of relatives of Miami, because there are many other relatives, but in this group, no.

BLITZER: There's no phone calls, no connection whatsoever?

REMIREZ: It's what Juan Miguel told me.

BLITZER: You know that only on -- I guess it was Wednesday of this past week, the United Nations Human Rights Commission, U.N. Commission on Human Rights, voted to condemn Cuba human rights policy by a vote of 22-20, 10 abstaining to, to complain, to condemn the lack of democracy, human rights, political opposition, treatment of dissidents in prison in Cuba. Very strong resolution, sharply critical, obviously, of Cuba.

REMIREZ: Well, that's just because there is, in our opinion, a political vendetta from the U.S. government against Cuba. Without the pressure of the United States, without the pressures from the State Department, and even the White House, that resolution will never pass in Geneva in the Human Rights Commission. BLITZER: But even countries that have diplomatic relations with Cuba, like Canada, France, Germany, Italy, other countries in Europe all voted to condemn Cuba.

REMIREZ: Yes, well we have diplomatic relations with 171 countries. We have normal relations with them. They are differing opinions, and that is a political resolution. The vote was very close: 22 against 20, and 10 abstentions and one who didn't participate.

And all this was a result of the pressure from the U.S. government against Cuba. Without this pressure there is no doubt, no resolution will be approved in Geneva against Cuba. And from our point of view, we think that is a moral victory, because the pressure from the United States from a political, from a financial point of view. And never the less, the vote was very close because 20 countries decided to vote against this resolution.

BLITZER: Is there a change in policy, as far as you can tell toward Cuba, by the United States from the Clinton Administration to the Bush Administration.

REMIREZ: I think that it's too soon to say, but we don't have great expectation for a positive change. Well, we have great expectations about what is happening from other sectors from the United States. The business sectors, the media, all the churches United States, many other institutions including universities, all their academic institutions. There's almost a consensus that the embargo is wrong and must be changed.

And recently, just this week, a new poll among the American people shows that the majority of the American people are against the embargo. And by the way, the same poll shows that three quarters, almost 75 percent of the American people supported that Elian was reunited with his father in Cuba.

BLITZER: You know that if Cuba chances its policy on many of these issues for which it was condemned in Geneva, on Democracy, human rights, dissidents, the Bush Administration says it too will change its policy if there's greater freedoms in Cuba.

REMIREZ: Well, we think that what will happen in Cuba must be decided by the Cuban people, for the benefit of the Cuban people. It is what our people are trying to do. We are trying to improve the condition of the Cuban people. Fortunately, last year we had a very good year from the economic point of view. We had a growth, a positive growth of 5.6 percent, the highest in Latin America, together with Mexico and Chile. Many things improve.

Still there are many problems, but things are improving and that is our goal. And we think that the future of the Cuban people must be decided by the Cuban people, not by a foreign government, and less for minorities living in other countries.

BLITZER: Thank you for joining us.

REMIREZ: Thank you very much, Wolf.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: We'll have more on the Elian Gonzalez anniversary at the bottom of the hour on "THE POINT WITH GRETA VAN SUSTEREN."

After the break, the battle presses on in Florida against a series of massive wildfires. And we'll explain what NASA is looking at here. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SNOW: Welcome back. In other news tonight, firefighters along Florida's gulf coast are trying to gain ground on a series of raging wildfires. Crews are working feverishly to contain the flames which have blackened 30,000 acres. At least nine fires are burning around Sarasota, several of which considered to be the work of arsonists. Several homes have been damaged. There are no reports of injuries.

The Marine Corps released dramatic video today of a fatal Osprey aircraft crash one year ago. Investigators say the pilot landed too quickly and at a steep angle, causing the aircraft to lose lift. Nineteen Marines were killed. A Pentagon panel this week recommended the Osprey program be continued but with minimal production after a series of accidents involving the hybrid craft.

A Pentagon investigation concludes a fatal bombing accident last month in Kuwait resulted from human error. A Navy F-18 mistakenly dropped three 500-pound bombs on U.S. troops during a training exercise killing six people. A Pentagon official says both the F-18 pilot and an air controller directing the pilot will probably face disciplinary action.

CNN has learned a private plane carrying U.S. citizens has been shot down over northeastern Peru. State Department officials say there are indications it may have been shot down by the Peruvian Air Force. Two of the five Americans believed to be Baptist missionaries, were killed.

Tonight on "The Leading Edge" major cellular phone makers are being hit with a class-action lawsuit over claims radio transmissions from the handsets pose health risks. The suit is asking the industry to provide free headsets or reimburse customers for their purchase.

Those headsets could become a necessity. New York is considering becoming the first state to ban the use of handheld cell phones while driving. New York isn't alone: the idea is gaining momentum in states around the country.

Some spectacular sightseeing from NASA. Its high-tech satellite zoomed in on a West Coast landmark that you'll, no doubt, recognize as the famous "Hollywood" sign.

Up next, we'll open up the WOLF BLITZER REPORTS mailbag. One of you called Alan Greenspan "appalling and stupid." I'll explain, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SNOW: Welcome back. Time now to open the WOLF BLITZER REPORTS mailbag. There was lots of reaction to Wolf's on-line column yesterday on the Oklahoma City bombing anniversary. Deb from Wisconsin has been to the memorial there. She e-mails Wolf with this, "We have visited the site on three different occasions. No one who sets foot on that site can ever walk away unchanged."

And Cary in Virginia says, "I think no one should watch McVeigh's execution. That's what he wants. Just let it be the warden and he. Tell him everyone is too busy to watch him die."

Charles wrote to Wolf regarding Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan's decision to cut interest rates by half a percentage point on Wednesday. He says, "I'm so appalled by the stupidity of Greenspan's large surprise cut in interest rates. His responsibility is to maintain orderly control of the money supply, not provide us with surprises. Such surprises only affect the stock market, and is obvious pandering to the whiners who overspeculated, lost and are now wanting for it to be made better."

Remember, you can e-mail Wolf at wolf@cnn.com and we might read your comments on the air. And you can sign up for his daily e-mail reviewing this nightly program by going to our Web site, CNN.com/wolf.

Please stay with CNN throughout the night for more coverage of the protests at the Summit of the Americas. James and Sarah Brady are Larry King's guests at the top of the hour. Up next, Greta Van Susteren. She's standing by to tell us what she's got -- Greta.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, "THE POINT": Kate, a year ago there was so much bitterness over the INS seizure of Elian Gonzales in those early morning hours. One year later is there still the bitterness? And was the decision the seize him right or wrong? We'll decide tonight. We'll talk to our panel -- Kate.

SNOW: Thanks, Greta. Sounds Good. Wolf returns here on Monday night with conservative commentator William Bennett, on President Bush's first 100 days and other issues. Until then, thanks very much for watching, I'm Kate Snow in Washington.

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