Collateral Abuse in the “Russian Agent” Case
Machetera
Traducido a español por Manuel Cedeño Berrueta y Manuel Talens, de Tlaxcala
Elian González with his father, Juan Miguel González
It’s a well known fact that for a child, emotional trauma is every bit as damaging as the physical kind and often considerably more difficult to treat, given the fact that it leaves no physical marks. In the news about the tenth anniversary of Elian’s return to his father in Cuba there was a remarkable quote from Elian himself. Speaking about the Miami relatives who put him on display like a miniature human trophy and spared no effort to prevent his return to the father he’d been taken from without permission, he said, “Even though they didn’t support us in everything…I have no bitterness.” For Elian to emerge without bitterness after such suffering is a testament to the family who raised him and the society surrounding them.
Thinking of perfectly avoidable childhood trauma, one has to wonder about the U.S. government’s motivations in its warp-speed roundup of accused Russian agents, the majority of whom were also parents. Continue reading
