As Cuba rolled out 3G service for mobile phones Thursday, Elian Gonzalez, who as a boy was caught up in a bitter custody battle between his father in Cuba and relatives in Miami, joined Twitter.
Gonzalez, who turned 25 on Thursday, said he opened his Twitter account @BrotonsElian to acknowledge a birthday tweet from Miguel Diaz-Canel, Cuba's president. Via the Twitter platform, Gonzalez, an industrial engineer, said he would be able to follow and support Diaz-Canel.
Brotons was Gonzalez's mother Elizabeth's maiden name. Just after dawn on Thanksgiving Day 1999, two South Florida men found Gonzalez floating in an inner tube off the Florida coast. His mother and 10 others died at sea when the small aluminum boat a group of 14 used to flee the island began to take on water.
Soon the boy was caught up in a custody feud between his relatives in Miami who said it was his mother's wish that her son live in freedom in the United States and his father who wanted him back in Cuba with him. The custody battle polarized the Cuban-American community.
Ultimately, the Miami relatives lost their fight to keep Gonzalez and the six-year-old was returned to his father who took him back to the island.
By Thursday evening, Gonzalez had attracted more than 180 Twitter followers and was following 29 people and institutions, including Diaz-Canel, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the United Nations and the Cuban Foreign Ministry.
Earlier in the day, Diaz-Canel, who only joined Twitter himself in August, tweeted: "Congratulations on his 25th birthday to engineer Elian Gonzalez Brotons, son and grandson of dignified Cubans and of all the people of #Cuba. The battle for his liberty, led by #Fidel (Castro), demonstrates how many challenges we can over come together."
