A decade after Elian Gonzalez raid, key players on both sides consider it a battle lost

10 years after Elian, US players mum or moving on

MIAMI — It’s been a decade since the Elian Gonzalez raid, and most Cuban-Americans in Miami have moved on.

Federal agents seized the 6-year-old Cuban boy from his relatives’ home in the Little Havana community 10 years ago this week and returned him to his father in Cuba. Thousands of Cuban-Americans poured into the streets to protest.

Political analysts say the anger over U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno’s decision to order the raid cost Al Gore the White House that fall.

Elian was nearing his sixth birthday when he was found floating in an inner tube off Florida. His mother drowned trying to flee Cuba. An international tug-of-war for the boy lasted five months until the dramatic raid on April 22, 2000.