Raul Castro leads 'Free Elian' rally

HAVANA: Waving a Cuban flag, the President, Mr. Fidel Castro's brother and official successor, Mr. Raul Castro, led tens of thousands of protesters on Saturday in a rally to demand the return of 6-year- old shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez. The patriotic demonstration in the eastern province of Granma came a day after the boy's Miami relatives said they would only turn him over to U.S. authorities if agents from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) came to fetch him at their home, which has been surrounded by vocal anti-Castro protesters. Presiding over the rally, one of a series of daily demonstrations, was Mr. Raul Castro, 68, Cuba's armed forces chief and first Vice-President, along with Mr. Juan Almeida Bosque, another Vice-President. The 50,000-strong crowd in the coastal town of Niquero waved flags and chanted, ``Free Elian'' as dancers and singers performed between speeches laced with anti- American diatribes and praise for the Cuban revolution.

- Reuters

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Section  : International
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