Miami Herald: Elián's vacation televised in Cuba

Published Saturday, August 19, 2000, in the Miami Herald

Elián's vacation televised in Cuba

HAVANA -- (AP) -- Images of Elián González frolicking with other children on a beach were shown on state television Thursday night as the government updated Cubans on the boy's summer vacation.

The two-minute segment showed Elián with his family and other boys and girls playing on an unidentified beach with clear waters. One close-up of the boy showed that his two permanent front teeth are growing in, filling in the gap that characterized his smile when he returned to Cuba in June.

The broadcast did not say when the scene was taped.

Elián reached the United States when he was rescued after a boat carrying him from Cuba sank at sea, killing his mother and others. For seven months, the boy was the subject of a highly publicized custody battle between relatives in Miami and his father, who battled to take him back to Cuba.

The announcer said Elián and his family had spent a week at a beach, then another week at home in the town of Cardenas after they left Havana in late July on Elián's completion of the first grade.