The Raid

April twenty one, two thousand, was a sunny day in Miami. Thames were in the mid eighties, not a drop of rain, and it was the start of Easter weekend. Protesters were still outside Aliant's relatives home, but despite the commotion outside, Elian's cousin Mary Lacy's tried to keep things normal inside.

We were in the house with his little cousin making Easter eggs that we were supposed to find today in my backyard.

There were at least eight relatives inside the home, including two other children besides Elian.

Now this is a house full of people. When I say a house full, was a small, little home, not a slow home.

This is the Nato dal rimple. Remember the man who rescued the liam from the ocean. He'd become pretty close with the family and he would go to their house practically every day. And this night, thanks Seamed come.

I have a couple of little Cuban coffees with some people, and they were praying very peacefully.

While the family hung out in the front of the house. There were lawyers in the back room negotiating with the government, trying to find a way to keep Elian in the US, and with the Miami family. One of the lawyers, Money Das, said that good Friday, during the day, we were told.

Point blank, this agreement is acceptable to the Attorney General. It was faxed to her office because she wanted to see a facts of it. We have basically told the media that it looks like we're done. It looks like we.

Have a deal.

The moon rose that they turned into April twenty second. Elean was restless that night.

And his words to me were, I love you Allah, I said, I love you too. And the other words he said to my father was I am very scared. Something's going to happen.

Something did happen. Just after five am on that clear night, the family heard a big pound at the door, a pound that would change everything. A penny letter Mitz and this is chess peace. Delian Gonzalez story a production of Utudo Studios in partnership with Iheartsmichael Tura podcast Network. Before that faithful night in a pro two thousand, the US government had been talking with Alians Miami relatives for months.

There was a lot of negotiation over a long period of time between people from Washington, DCA and attorneys and those a whole cast of characters.

This is Jim Goldman, the Immigration and Naturalization Services director in charge of Alliant's case. His agency was trying to figure out how to reunite Alian with his father, but Alian's Miami relatives wanted the government to agree to certain terms. The relatives had proposed that a lean and the family be moved to a neutral place in South Florida, and there Alian's father, Juamiel could join them and reunite with

I think we owe it to them to government of room somewhere and let them talk it through and see if they can come up with a solution to the problem that they decided.

This is money. Yes again, one of the lawyers who represented Elian's Miami relatives, not that.

Some politician or some lawyer or some judge decide, but let them make the decision.

According to Money, they were just waiting for the final sign off from the government.

Things look like they're going to be okay.

And then at three am they heard back from the Attorney General and some of the terms had changed, but time was running out. You see, Money said that the Miami lawyers taught the government they would tune Lean over if they received a court order.

We understand if a court a judge is telling us that this is what we have to do, we are prepared to do it.

Not a problem.

But the Miami family had already ignored an official order to turn the child in. Attorney General Janet Reno had standard the deadline for them to turn Elan in several times. Meanwhile, Elean at this point had not been seen in public for days. So the Miami relatives and the government had different versions of how negotiations were going.

Every day there would negotiations, negotiations, and negotiations. Nothing seemed to work.

While the talks with the family were ongoing, Jim Goldman was put in charge of developing an operational plan.

To execute a rescue and recovery operation.

For three months, his team put together the plan. The government called it Operation Reunion.

The basic plan called for us to go to the door where Alien was being held, knock on the door, give commands in English and Spanish, identify ourselves and notify them they were executing a judicial order search Ward and that wi Wan Alien Gonzales.

But the big question was with the Land's Miami relatives and the people around their home resist if so. Jim had a border patrol tactical unit meant for high risk situations at the ready.

We had what's called a breaching team, a team of agents that had special tools in order to breach a door. If they did not open the.

Door, Jim would be knocking on the door himself. In case the Miami family did not cooperate, Jim knew his team had to act fast, get inside the house, locate a lian, and get out of there as quickly as possible.

Mind you, this was a sophisticated process, a.

Plan with more than two hundred and fifty law enforcement officials from different agencies. The idea was to rush a lean out of the home and get him in the air as soon as as possible.

The plan was to take him from the home to watch an island where he would be put in a helicopter.

The helicopter ride would start the process to reunite with his father. Jim waited for orders from the highest levels of the US government.

I think even President Clinton might have been involved in some capacity. I know that a call came in to the US Attorney who was sitting with us, and basically that ignited the final green light.

The orders came, it was time to execute Operation Reunion. Jim and his team took off. It was about five in the morning on April twenty second. Soon he would be knocking on the door where Alyan State and the authorities praised themselves for how Alliance relatives might react. Just after five in the morning, Ramon's Aul Sanchez was camped outside of Alian's relatives home in Miami. He had been leading the protest there for weeks.

I knew that if Alian was sent back, and I said many times, he's going to be turned into a fanatic of the Cuban dictator.

Ramon was friends with the lawyers inside the house and they had told him that negotiations were going well. Manidias. Remember one of the lawyers said that the mediator told him that night that Attorny General Duino was happy with the progress.

You're going to be happy with what she has to say, which is the first time I felt like the government of the United States was on my side. And I said, great, that's what I want to hear. He said, but don't go to see you stay up.

Money stayed up waiting for confirmation of an agreement between the Miami family and the government. He was speaking with Aaron Puthurst, a renowned Miami lawyer who was standing in as an unofficial mediator.

And then finally a very nervous call, very anxious call from Aaron who says to me, I don't know what's happened.

Money was a stunt. In the week hours of the morning, they learned the government had changed the neutral location in Miami to the DC area, a term that last arrow Ileane's great uncle was not comfortable with.

You know, I got to get the best reaction from a client at four in the morning. I said, look, let's just wait, let's just wait till the morning. Then he calls me back and he goes, it's worse. You know, I have five minutes to decide.

Five minutes to decide the family would be willing to peacefully surrender Ellen. Now, Money couldn't believe it. He woke up the family and just as he was updating them, he heard commotion outside where Ramon was talking to other protesters camped in front of the house.

Suddenly I see that the people looking, you know, their eyes got big, looking towards my back. You know, I was facing them, and like when I look back and saw them coming, I saw the authorities coming. I mean, they were all these marshals.

Ramon immediately knew something big was about to happen.

We're coming great right now.

He'd been teaching the protesters something he called a human chain of Salidy, when people hooked their arms together to make it hard to get through them. He ran to the front of the house to try to stop the agents.

Whenever I joined my two hands over my head, that would signal that we will rush and do the chain. And I did that. I did the signal, and everybody rushed the chain. But we didn't have time.

The federal agents came in too fast.

And I rushed inside and I stood in the door. I was expecting for them to hand me a court order, which is what we in said. Well, the court order was a rifle. Body hit in my head and they left to unconscious.

Mary Lacy's was in the house with Elan and other relatives.

You hear banging all over the door. You don't know who it is. We didn't know who it was.

God for Bed.

We thought it was the Cuban government coming inside my house.

That big pound at the door was Jim Goldman. Jim announced himself and his team and that they were executing a warrant.

US Immigration special agents opened the door. We have a surge horn up there, and he.

Says he was outside knocking and he could hear movement inside the house.

Matters only got worse because they refused to open the door. As I'm banging on the door and yelling, I could obviously hear feel and sense them moving barricades up to the door.

I couldn't imagine that there was going to be guns outside and people saying get down or will shoot.

Here is Donato again, the man who rescued Elian and who showed up at the house that night.

And the next thing you know, I see Eli on He's crying and I should have been the last person that should have had him in my arms. But he fell right into my arms and I grabbed them and I held them, and I'm hearing a battering. Ran at the door and I ran into one of the bedrooms and it was locked. I ran into another one and it was locked.

I had no choice but to breach that door. They entered to secure the perimeter, to make sure that we were going to meet armed resistance to make sure that someone wasn't holding Ilean hostage.

As Donata tried to find a safer place with Lelyan, the family lawyer, Money Yes watched the agents storm in, and all of a.

Sudden, I found myself with a little red dots on my chest, not knowing what to do, and of course the tear guys, so all of a sudden, her eyes all teared up.

Money thought, was this really happening when just a few hours ago an agreement seemed so close, when Money knew Janet Reno from her days in Miami politics and had even supported her before.

No, there's no way, you know.

First of all, they know us. I mean, it's like we could all be dead, right, because it's not even the intentional act. It's the unintentional act of somebody bursting into a house holding a machine gun with a figure on the trigger, Like so many people in a very very small room, a little push or shelf could be misinterpreted and shots go off and everybody's dead.

The house was filled with shouts. Mary Lacy's squeamed at the agents.

I beg you, please don't let the boy see the guns. Please, don't give them to you. Please his eyes, mother's death. Don't let him see this, don't give.

You the boy.

Meanwhile, Donato panic in the front of the house. He banked on a bedroom door and Ilian's great uncle Lace let him in. Remember, Donato says, he was carrying Alian in his arms, and in the room with them were Lilian's great aunt and uncle and a news photographer from the Associated Press, Alan Diaz, who a family friend had led into the house as the agents rushed in.

So I'm thinking, I got to protect him. They're going to kill us, We're all going to die in here. So I'm trying to look in the closet.

Donato walked into a closet to hide, with a leanne steel in his arms.

There, I was leaning up against this closet full of clothes. I was squatched up against there, and the door bust open, and there's a federal armed agent with a weapon on me, and he's saying, give me the kid, give me the blankety blank kid. And I said no. I said, I'm not going to give them to you. I said, you're going to hurt him. I said you have a weapon.

Alan Diaz, Alan Diaz, the AP photographer.

She goes, put your camera down, and Alan says no.

The officer pointed the gun back in the direction of Donato and you can.

See this red little laser coming through. It is right right on us, right on me and Elian.

And Elian was petrified.

I mean, can you can't imagine a six year old waking up on the middle of the night. I'm an adult and I'm petrified. I remember saying, sir, put it down, and I guess I'll hand them to you.

Then a woman agent appeared in the room where Donato held a lean. The armed agents ordered Donato to hand e lean over to the woman. Donato finally agreed. The entire time, the photographer, Alan Diaz, took pictures of this.

Then he's just clicking off pictures. I hand over Elion to the lady and I heard the word bingo, and I learned later bingo means that they got him, and they were running out, and I ran out after them, and I pleaded with the man, can I please go with you, because he knows me very well. I don't know where you're taking him.

The officers fend the Donato off and rushed out, trying to make their way to a waiting man with a lion behind the party.

Now you got to imagine there was craziness. All the love and all the kindness that was outside now has turned to violence in people's minds because they came there with pepper spray and with tear gas and with battering rams.

Remember there were dozens of protesters camped outside of Alan's home and they were leave it. Some of them tried to prevent the agents from living. The agents used force to get through the crowd.

We had to fight our way back to the three cars.

And they beat these people down, I mean not necessarily, but their goal was to get eli on and to get out of there.

Jim says that the protesters outside started throwing objects at the officers.

If anybody was going to get hurt, it could have been all on. They were throwing coolers and chairs, and that's why it took a lot of agents to keep the crowd dispersed and away from the vehicles.

As federal agents rushed to get Elian in the car. Ramon, the protester who had tried to stop the agents at the front door, was still on the floor trying to recover from being hit with a rifle.

I was scared any conscience, and I saw his two fee going like that as they rushed out, and I got up immediately to deal with the people because people got upset. That was the only moment that there was up from there that there was filets that I wasn't able to control.

The crowd shouted at the agents as they got a land in the car. You get out now. It was shortly after five am. It had taken them three minutes to get inside the house, gravelan and get out. But those three minutes would be remembered forever by many Cuban Americans as the moment the US government seemed to betray its own people on Easter weekend.

I mean, gotto mighty countries are at war with each other, they at least honor each other's religious holidays, and here we weren't even thought of that for American citizens. And so there was a part of me that just thought, you know, this can't happen.

It took three minutes. In three minutes, six year old Alien Gonzales, dressed in a T shirt, draped in fear, was gone calculated chaos by heavily armed agents from US Immigrations who sprayed anyone in their past with pepper straight.

It was forced met by an.

That Saturday morning before Eastern Wall to wall coverage of the raid dominated global TV news.

April twenty second, two thousand Federal agents raid the Little Havanah home of the Gonzales family, Elion Is seized.

It played NonStop on CNN and all these channels.

Alaferer, Cuban American historian.

And the image that was always shown was that iconic image of a soldier with a gun and a helmet pointing a gun at not necessarily at a Leian, but Leian was being held by one of the fishermen who had become close to the family.

Remember this was Alan Diaz, the Kuban American photographer with the AP who was in the room with Donato and Elian as agents storm in. By the way, Alan Diaz had gotten close with a family who had agreed to let him photograph should the raid ever take place. Even the government knew Alan might be in the house during Operation Reunion Attorney General Janet Reno said they had nothing to hide. It's Allan DS's photograph that became part of

They're hiding. It looks like in a closet. They're against the closet and the military guys pointing a gun at them, and Elian looks avoid.

Those military looking guys were actually Border Patrol agents. In the photo, one of the agents is in the hallway, the other in the room with Donato a Alien. Both agents are wearing olive green combat uniforms, black helmets and large goggles. They have walkie talkies and they are wearing gloves, and they are holding big black guns. In the photo, the agent in the room points the gun in the direction of Donato a Alien. Donato is holding Alien his

I think most of us were taken aback by the pictures in the press.

This is Petrometo. He served as Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere at the time.

It gives you a moment in time. It doesn't mean that that's the way the whole raid took place. It doesn't mean that Elean was screaming and yelling the whole time. But that snapshot, that one snapshot, was what was plastered all over the international press.

Other photos of the raid surfaced, like the one where the female agent carries Alyan to the car trying to avert protesters. The agent wincess as she tries to avoid being hit, and Alyan is crying hysterically, his face scrunched in horror onto the agent in his plat boxer underwear and a white T shirt. This photo spread resentment against Janet Reno, Bill Clinton and his Democratic administration.

The image was shocking. It was an intense image. I think there are a few images ingrained in my mind as someone who was my age, and I think the twin hours, and I think Elliott I.

Knew that he had been severely traumatized when his other perished and the other people on the boat perished, and I realized he was being taken away in the dark of night from in effect, the new mother figure in his life, Mighty Slaicius, And it was done in a terrifying way.

Ala Ferrer, the Cuan American historian Tulla's an anecdote that shows how much people blamed Attorney General Janet Reno. Do you remember how your mother reacted to the raid?

Oh, she was. She used to read the newspaper all the time, then Wibel Harald and there was a front page picture in one day of Janet Reno, and she took her scissors, her sewing scissors, and tore out the eyes of Janet Reno. That's how she felt. I mean, she was just and she you know, my mother was a lovely, funny, warm, warm woman, but she was so angry and it was just such an emotional, visceral response to the raid.

But Attorney General Janet Reno said the operation was a success.

Juan Miguel Gonzalez wants to be with his son and that will happen now. Law enforcement personnel were on the scene, were authorized too, and did make the final call as to win to enter the Gonzales home because this was a very carefully timed law enforcement operation.

But her words meant nothing to Allian's family and to most Miami Cubans, because Reno had been raised in Miami. They thought she would have no better. They saw her as a trader, and not just her, the entire government and especially the Democrats who were in power.

And you know what, Jennerno, even though if it would have been three minutes or thirty seconds, it happened, and the harm was done, and I was done to a kid that's been through a lot. And I am ashamed that the president allowed something like this because he has a family.

Even in Cuba. The raid cost Shark. Here is her red Gardiners, the journalists who lived in Cuba at the time.

I also remember the people in the streets, and I was wondering myself, as a teenage Cuban, why the FBI is fighting there its own people. Doesn't all America think the same way?

It wasn't the FBI that removed Ilian from the home, by the way, but the point stood. Even Cubans in Cuba were surprised by the US government. The raid was an unusual moment for Cuba and the United States. For once Havana and Washington agreed on something. The US had done, something that aligned with the interests of the Kuban government. The US had acted against Cuban exiles on American soil, a group that had long been welcomed and protected by

I recall Elien being in the helicopter and gie, I mean, what six year old child wouldn't be overwhelmed being in a helicopter above a city like Miami, which is like glowing.

It was twilight at this point, and Elian looked out the window over Miami, the city lights contrasting with the dark ocean waters.

He was like kind of overwhelmed, not in fear, but just like in amazement.

Jim and Elian flew to Homestead Air Force Space just outside of Miami. That's where a medical treeash unit evaluated Elian once he was cleared, Jim and Elian boarded a Leer jet to go to Andrews Air Force Space outside of Washington, d C, where Elian would finally be reunited with his father.

We made small talk with him. We had some, you know, kid items that he could occupy himself with. It's a couple hours flight Andrews Air Force Base.

Recently I read a New York Times article about this flight. The psychiatrist who was with Lean in the flight at one point could not remember the Spanish word for a stepmother, so he told Lean that he was going to see his papa and his mama. When Elean heard the word mama, his face changed, tension surfacing in his eyes, and then Elean sat there quietly. He didn't cry, just like he didn't cry when he was found alone at sea.

He looked out the window the whole time.

Here was Alean surviving another storm, and after that storm would come the server lining Elian would finally be with his dad.

It was truly a sincere reunion, but they would still be stuck in the US as Alien's Miami relatives tried to get the Supreme Court underside.

That's next week, Chess Peace the Lian Gonzales Story is a production of Utuda Studios in partnership with Iheartsmichael Tura podcast Network. This show is written and reported by me Pennilei Ramirez with Maria Garcia, Nicole Rothwell and Tasha Sandoba. Our editor is Maria Garcia, additional editing by Marlon Bishop or Senior producer is Nicole Rodwell. Our associate producers are

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