A depressing anniversary: it's been five years since the Reno kidnapping of Elián Gonzalez and his forcible return to Cuba.

     Hank Holzer, the lawyer who succeeding in saving the freedom of an earlier young escapee from tyranny, Walter Polovchak, has a comment about it at FrontPage Magazine. As one could have predicted, as was predicted, Elián is living his life under the nose of the dictator, and being used as a propaganda tool. He has "voiced his support" for the communist regime. Who knows whether the kid is pragmatically lying or has been brainwashed.

...It has now been five long years since Elián was "reunited" with his grandparents, father and other relatives. How is he doing? A Castro-friendly article by Vanessa Bauza, bylined Cardenas, Cuba, recently reported that Elián has finished psychotherapy "to help him cope with the stress of his ordeal" (read: "reeducation"), several plainclothes security officers "are stationed in front of Elián's home to keep strangers from getting too close" (read: to prevent interviews with unfriendly journalists), and, in a perverse consequence of that family reunification, "Castro takes a special interest in [Elián's] schooling." Indeed, Elián's father – a waiter who somehow was elected to the Communist National Assembly – "is often seen in the front row of government-organized rallies, sometimes accompanied by Elián" (read: propaganda tools). And, as the Associated Press reported yesterday, finally Elián has been trotted out by Castro's PR machine to laud the Communist dictator and his tyrannical regime.

     Even now, five years after his kidnapping, there are several lessons to be drawn from the Elián Gonzalez story. But for those of us who fought the successful battle to save Walter and waged the unsuccessful battle to save Elián, none speaks as loudly as this: Although "family values" are important, and while children usually belong with their parents, a clear line protecting the child must be drawn when, as in Elián's case, parental custody is inimical to a child's best interests -- a lesson too many conservatives have yet to learn. It was the failure of many conservatives to have learned that lesson that contributed to Elián Gonzalez losing his freedom and becoming a ward of the Cuban state and its dictator, Fidel Castro.

     I would only add that "family values" conservatives weren't the only "champions of liberty" urging the feds to pitch this kid back into the maw...this, even after the father had arrived in the United States and could easily have remained here. Why didn't he? Either: 1) he actually wanted his child to be returned to a life under communism, which is about as thoroughgoing a betrayal of a son by a father one can imagine; or 2) other family members back in Cuba were being held hostage, and Elián's return was the ransom that had to be paid to secure their safety. Either way, you tell me how it made sense for Bitch Reno to storm the gates of the Miami compound of Elián's American relatives and "rescue" Elián from American freedom.