It is back to school for Elian

HAVANA, JUNE 30. A strict diet of homework and home cooking greeted Elian Gonzalez on Thursday as he spent his first day back in Cuba after seven months in America.

To maintain the privacy of the six-year-old former castaway, the army and police closed off several streets around the house in Havana where he will be staying for the next two to three weeks.

Only immediate family, school teachers and a few friends were allowed into the two-storey government house overlooking the sea.

Out of sight of the reporters and camera crews who have converged on Cuba, the boy was adjusting to mountains of school work as the President, Mr. Fidel Castro's regime earnestly sought to ram home the point that the boy's welfare was paramount.

Elian's teachers will now spend time bringing him up to date with his school work so that he is ready to move on to his second year of primary school in the autumn.

On the nearest busy streets, cars honked to welcome him home and gaggles of schoolgirls wearing Save Elian T-shirts gathered at the security points. ``We love Elian,'' they squealed as if waiting to glimpse a teenage pop star.

On the orders of Mr. Castro, however, there were no displays of national exuberance or frivolity. Cuba, he had insisted, must maintain its dignity and show its moral superiority to the United States. America, he said, disgraced itself by using Elian as a pawn in a hysterical political, legal and media game.

The Havana suburb of Miramar where Elian is now living is full of elegant embassies, ambassadors' residences, government homes and private mansions not unlike the area of Washington DC where he spent the past few weeks.

Mr. Castro, who has personally overseen Cuba's manoeuvrings with regard to Elian, was expected to make a private visit to the boy and his family.

By returning the focus to Elian's education, the regime hopes to show that, unlike America, it has always had the boy's interests rather than any ideological wrangle at heart.

On Saturday, however, a large rally will be held in the port city of Manzanillo emphasising Cuba's continuing struggle against America. Elian's return will be trumpeted as a great triumph for Cuba, as will his father's decision not to seek asylum in the United States despite the offer of millions of dollars from Cuban-American organisations.

The relatively quiet manner of Elian's return and the planned rally represent the two faces of the Cuban regime with regard to the Elian saga. On the one hand, it portrays him as just a boy trying to grow up without international interference; on the other hand he is a powerful symbol of Cuban nationalism. As Elian arrived in Havana on Wednesday evening, the state television commentator went into near meltdown, shouting and sobbing: ``Viva Cuba Libre'' and ``Fatherland or death.''

- @ Telegraph Group Limited, London, 2000

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Section  : International
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