Elian Gonzalez, former child castaway, not angry at Florida relatives over U.S.- Cuba custody battle

No hard feelings.

The poster boy for an international custody battle between Cuba and the U.S. is speaking out for the first time in years. And he has one message.

Elian Gonzalez is not angry at the Miami relatives who struggled to keep him in the country 10 years ago.

“Even though they didn't help me in every way possible, they didn't help me move forward, they are still my family,” Elian, now 16, said.

The comments came after President Raul Castro attended a celebration on Wednesday commemorating the 10th anniversary of the former castaway’s return to Cuba.

“I don't have anger for them,” said the shy teenager of his Miami relatives. “It’s only that it wasn’t the best effort possible, and thanks to a large part of the American public, and our public, today I'm with my father and I feel happy here.”

But Elian’s father, John Miguel, blasted his own family.

Miguel said he was still furious with his relatives because “they let themselves get carried away with other things.”

He added that his son belonged in Cuba. “Today I'm more sure than I was then,” Miguel said.












Elian survived a November 1999 shipwreck that killed his mother and other Cubans who were seeking to defect to the U.S. Elian, just 5 years old at the time, was found floating off Florida’s coast in an inner tube.

U.S. immigration officials ruled the boy should return to Cuba over the objections of his Florida relatives and other Cuban exiles.

The boy's family in Miami refused to give him up. But he was eventually returned to his father in Cardenas, Cuba, after being snatched at gunpoint by U.S. agents.

Elian, dressed in a red-striped shirt, sat in the front row of the event next to Castro. The country's leader embraced the teenager and patted him on the back.

“It's the land where I'm from,” Elian said of Cuba. “Here I feel good, and thanks to my education and the strength my people have given me, today I'm almost a man.”

Local news agencies reported that Elian likes music, partying (though he’s not a good dancer), spending time on his computer and weightlifting with friends.