MIAMI -- A recent poll shows that the population in South Florida is divided over whether a 6-year-old Cuban boy should be returned to his father in Cuba or remain in the United States.
Cuban-Americans overwhelmingly believe Elian Gonzalez should stay in Miami while a majority of white non-Hispanics and blacks believe that the boy should go back to the communist island to live with his father, according to The Miami Herald poll released Saturday.
Elian was found clinging to an inner tube off the coast of Fort Lauderdale on Thanksgiving Day having survived a boating accident that claimed the life of his mother during an attempt to illegally enter the United States. Now he is at the center of an international custody fight that has drawn out millions in Cuba waving posters of Elian.
U.S. authorities placed him with his great-aunt and great-uncle living in Miami, who said they could provide him with a better life in the United States. The boy's father has asked that the boy be sent back to Cuba and has indicated he won't come to this country to petition for his son.
Only 5 percent of Cuban-Americans want the child sent back to his father in Cuba, while 88 percent want him to stay in Miami and 7 percent were undecided.
''He has to stay because Cuba is not a normal country where the government respects human rights, and the government takes responsibility for the welfare of the people,'' said 55-year-old Jose Dartayec, a 1983 Cuban emigre. ''Cuba is a disaster, and the whim of just one man.''
Forty-eight percent of non-Cubans polled in South Florida said he should go home; 35 percent want him to stay. Seventeen percent chose neither.
''I think he should go as long as his father wasn't abusing him,'' said Dorothy Brown. ''Most fathers don't want their children. This father does.''
White non-Hispanics were most supportive of Elian's father -- 49 percent favor return, against 34 percent who want him to stay. Among blacks, 46 percent want him to go home, compared with 31 percent who want him to stay.
Forty-seven percent of non-Cuban Hispanics said the child should stay, while 44 percent said he should go. Nine percent declined to choose.
Overall, 49 percent of South Florida said the boy should remain, while 36 percent said he should go home. Another 14 percent did not respond.
The telephone poll was conducted by Schroth & Associates of Washington, D.C., on Thursday and Friday.
The bilingual survey of 800 adults in Miami-Dade had a margin of error of almost 4 percentage points.
