Elián González Brotons is a Cuban industrial engineer and politician who, as a young child, became embroiled in an international custody and immigration controversy in 2000 involving the governments of Cuba and the United States, his father Juan Miguel González Quintana, his other relatives in Cuba and in Miami, and Miami's Cuban community.
González (second from right) with his father, stepmother and half-brother in a photo taken a few hours after their reunion at Andrews Air Force Base in 2000
The journey from Cárdenas, Cuba, to Florida
A federal agent retrieves Elián from his relatives' home in Miami. This photo won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News.
Wet feet, dry feet policy
The wet feet, dry feet policy or wet foot, dry foot policy was the name given to a former interpretation of the 1995 revision of the application of the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966 that essentially says that anyone who emigrated from Cuba and entered the United States would be allowed to pursue residency a year later. Prior to 1995, the U.S. government allowed all Cubans who reached U.S. territorial waters to remain in the U.S. After talks with the Cuban government, the Clinton administration came to an agreement with Cuba that it would stop admitting people intercepted in U.S. waters.
The stern of a Cuban "chug" (homemade boat used by refugees) on display at Fort Jefferson