October 23, 2024 • 32 mins
As negotiations failed, the U.S. government had been carefully planning for the possibility of taking Elián by force. Then on Easter Weekend, the order came. Armed agents stormed the house in a pre-dawn raid, armed with tear gas and semi-automatic rifles. They smashed down the door of the Miami home where Elián's relatives were keeping him.
Donato Dalrymple, the man who had rescued Elián at sea, grabbed the boy and hid with him in a closet, but there was nowhere else to go. A news photographer caught the moment on camera, creating an image that would reverberate around the world — including in Cuba.
In this episode, we hear first hand accounts of the night of the raid, from the INS commander of the operation, a family lawyer who was inside the house that evening, and a Cuban exile activist who was outside the Little Havana home.
This season's cover art by Ranfis Suárez Ramos.
Thanks to These Archival Sources:
Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archives
Original Material Appeared In:
CBS Evening News
C-SPAN
NBC 6 South Florida
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
April twenty one, two thousand, was a sunny day in Miami.
Thames were in the mid eighties, not a drop of rain,
and it was the start of Easter weekend. Protesters were
still outside Aliant's relatives home, but despite the commotion outside,
Elian's cousin Mary Lacy's tried to keep things normal inside.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
We were in the house with his little cousin making
Easter eggs that we were supposed to find today in
my backyard.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
There were at least eight relatives inside the home, including
two other children besides Elian.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Now this is a house full of people. When I
say a house full, was a small, little home, not
a slow home.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
This is the Nato dal rimple. Remember the man who
rescued the liam from the ocean. He'd become pretty close
with the family and he would go to their house
practically every day. And this night, thanks Seamed come.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I have a couple of little Cuban coffees with some people,
and they were praying very peacefully.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
While the family hung out in the front of the house.
There were lawyers in the back room negotiating with the government,
trying to find a way to keep Elian in the US,
and with the Miami family. One of the lawyers, Money Das,
said that good Friday, during the day, we were told.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Point blank, this agreement is acceptable to the Attorney General.
It was faxed to her office because she wanted to
see a facts of it. We have basically told the
media that it looks like we're done. It looks like we.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
Have a deal.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
The moon rose that they turned into April twenty second.
Elean was restless that night.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
And his words to me were, I love you Allah,
I said, I love you too. And the other words
he said to my father was I am very scared.
Something's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Something did happen. Just after five am on that clear night,
the family heard a big pound at the door, a
pound that would change everything. A penny letter Mitz and
(02:33):
this is chess peace. Delian Gonzalez story a production of
Utudo Studios in partnership with Iheartsmichael Tura podcast Network. Before
(02:58):
that faithful night in a pro two thousand, the US
government had been talking with Alians Miami relatives for months.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
There was a lot of negotiation over a long period
of time between people from Washington, DCA and attorneys and
those a whole cast of characters.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
This is Jim Goldman, the Immigration and Naturalization Services director
in charge of Alliant's case. His agency was trying to
figure out how to reunite Alian with his father, but
Alian's Miami relatives wanted the government to agree to certain terms.
The relatives had proposed that a lean and the family
(03:41):
be moved to a neutral place in South Florida, and
there Alian's father, Juamiel could join them and reunite with
the boy. They would all remain under the same groove
until the whole thing was settled.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
I think we owe it to them to government of
room somewhere and let them talk it through and see
if they can come up with a solution to the
problem that they decided.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
This is money. Yes again, one of the lawyers who
represented Elian's Miami relatives, not that.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Some politician or some lawyer or some judge decide, but
let them make the decision.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
According to Money, they were just waiting for the final
sign off from the government.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
Things look like they're going to be okay.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
And then at three am they heard back from the
Attorney General and some of the terms had changed, but
time was running out. You see, Money said that the
Miami lawyers taught the government they would tune Lean over
if they received a court order.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
We understand if a court a judge is telling us
that this is what we have to do, we are
prepared to do it.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Not a problem.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
But the Miami family had already ignored an official order
to turn the child in. Attorney General Janet Reno had
standard the deadline for them to turn Elan in several times. Meanwhile,
Elean at this point had not been seen in public
for days. So the Miami relatives and the government had
different versions of how negotiations were going.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
Every day there would negotiations, negotiations, and negotiations. Nothing seemed
to work.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
While the talks with the family were ongoing, Jim Goldman
was put in charge of developing an operational plan.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
To execute a rescue and recovery operation.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
For three months, his team put together the plan. The
government called it Operation Reunion.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
The basic plan called for us to go to the
door where Alien was being held, knock on the door,
give commands in English and Spanish, identify ourselves and notify
them they were executing a judicial order search Ward and
that wi Wan Alien Gonzales.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
But the big question was with the Land's Miami relatives
and the people around their home resist if so. Jim
had a border patrol tactical unit meant for high risk
situations at the ready.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
We had what's called a breaching team, a team of
agents that had special tools in order to breach a door.
If they did not open the.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Door, Jim would be knocking on the door himself. In
case the Miami family did not cooperate, Jim knew his
team had to act fast, get inside the house, locate
a lian, and get out of there as quickly as possible.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
Mind you, this was a sophisticated process, a.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Plan with more than two hundred and fifty law enforcement
officials from different agencies. The idea was to rush a
lean out of the home and get him in the
air as soon as as possible.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
The plan was to take him from the home to
watch an island where he would be put in a helicopter.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
The helicopter ride would start the process to reunite with
his father. Jim waited for orders from the highest levels
of the US government.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
I think even President Clinton might have been involved in
some capacity. I know that a call came in to
the US Attorney who was sitting with us, and basically
that ignited the final green light.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
The orders came, it was time to execute Operation Reunion.
Jim and his team took off. It was about five
in the morning on April twenty second. Soon he would
be knocking on the door where Alyan State and the
authorities praised themselves for how Alliance relatives might react. Just
(08:23):
after five in the morning, Ramon's Aul Sanchez was camped
outside of Alian's relatives home in Miami. He had been
leading the protest there for weeks.
Speaker 6 (08:32):
I knew that if Alian was sent back, and I
said many times, he's going to be turned into a
fanatic of the Cuban dictator.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Ramon was friends with the lawyers inside the house and
they had told him that negotiations were going well. Manidias.
Remember one of the lawyers said that the mediator told
him that night that Attorny General Duino was happy with
the progress.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
You're going to be happy with what she has to say,
which is the first time I felt like the government
of the United States was on my side. And I said, great,
that's what I want to hear. He said, but don't
go to see you stay up.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Money stayed up waiting for confirmation of an agreement between
the Miami family and the government. He was speaking with
Aaron Puthurst, a renowned Miami lawyer who was standing in
as an unofficial mediator.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
And then finally a very nervous call, very anxious call
from Aaron who says to me, I don't know what's happened.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Money was a stunt. In the week hours of the morning,
they learned the government had changed the neutral location in
Miami to the DC area, a term that last arrow
Ileane's great uncle was not comfortable with.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
You know, I got to get the best reaction from
a client at four in the morning. I said, look,
let's just wait, let's just wait till the morning. Then
he calls me back and he goes, it's worse. You know,
I have five minutes to decide.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Five minutes to decide the family would be willing to
peacefully surrender Ellen. Now, Money couldn't believe it. He woke
up the family and just as he was updating them,
he heard commotion outside where Ramon was talking to other
protesters camped in front of the house.
Speaker 6 (10:31):
Suddenly I see that the people looking, you know, their
eyes got big, looking towards my back. You know, I
was facing them, and like when I look back and
saw them coming, I saw the authorities coming. I mean,
they were all these marshals.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Ramon immediately knew something big was about to happen.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
We're coming great right now.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
He'd been teaching the protesters something he called a human
chain of Salidy, when people hooked their arms together to
make it hard to get through them. He ran to
the front of the house to try to stop the agents.
Speaker 6 (11:09):
Whenever I joined my two hands over my head, that
would signal that we will rush and do the chain.
And I did that. I did the signal, and everybody
rushed the chain. But we didn't have time.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
The federal agents came in too fast.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
And I rushed inside and I stood in the door.
I was expecting for them to hand me a court order,
which is what we in said. Well, the court order
was a rifle. Body hit in my head and they
left to unconscious.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Mary Lacy's was in the house with Elan and other relatives.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
You hear banging all over the door. You don't know
who it is. We didn't know who it was.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
God for Bed.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
We thought it was the Cuban government coming inside my house.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
That big pound at the door was Jim Goldman. Jim
announced himself and his team and that they were executing
a warrant.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
US Immigration special agents opened the door. We have a
surge horn up there, and he.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Says he was outside knocking and he could hear movement
inside the house.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Matters only got worse because they refused to open the door.
As I'm banging on the door and yelling, I could
obviously hear feel and sense them moving barricades up to
the door.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
I couldn't imagine that there was going to be guns
outside and people saying get down or will shoot.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Here is Donato again, the man who rescued Elian and
who showed up at the house that night.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
And the next thing you know, I see Eli on
He's crying and I should have been the last person
that should have had him in my arms. But he
fell right into my arms and I grabbed them and
I held them, and I'm hearing a battering. Ran at
the door and I ran into one of the bedrooms
and it was locked. I ran into another one and
(13:11):
it was locked.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
I had no choice but to breach that door. They
entered to secure the perimeter, to make sure that we
were going to meet armed resistance to make sure that
someone wasn't holding Ilean hostage.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
As Donata tried to find a safer place with Lelyan,
the family lawyer, Money Yes watched the agents storm in,
and all of a.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Sudden, I found myself with a little red dots on
my chest, not knowing what to do, and of course
the tear guys, so all of a sudden, her eyes
all teared up.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Money thought, was this really happening when just a few
hours ago an agreement seemed so close, when Money knew
Janet Reno from her days in Miami politics and had
even supported her before.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
No, there's no way, you know.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
First of all, they know us. I mean, it's like
we could all be dead, right, because it's not even
the intentional act. It's the unintentional act of somebody bursting
into a house holding a machine gun with a figure
on the trigger, Like so many people in a very
very small room, a little push or shelf could be
(14:24):
misinterpreted and shots go off and everybody's dead.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
The house was filled with shouts. Mary Lacy's squeamed at
the agents.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I beg you, please don't let the boy see the guns. Please,
don't give them to you. Please his eyes, mother's death.
Don't let him see this, don't give.
Speaker 7 (14:44):
You the boy.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Meanwhile, Donato panic in the front of the house. He
banked on a bedroom door and Ilian's great uncle Lace
let him in. Remember, Donato says, he was carrying Alian
in his arms, and in the room with them were
Lilian's great aunt and uncle and a news photographer from
the Associated Press, Alan Diaz, who a family friend had
(15:10):
led into the house as the agents rushed in.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
So I'm thinking, I got to protect him. They're going
to kill us, We're all going to die in here.
So I'm trying to look in the closet.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Donato walked into a closet to hide, with a leanne
steel in his arms.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
There, I was leaning up against this closet full of clothes.
I was squatched up against there, and the door bust open,
and there's a federal armed agent with a weapon on me,
and he's saying, give me the kid, give me the
blankety blank kid. And I said no. I said, I'm
(15:48):
not going to give them to you. I said, you're
going to hurt him. I said you have a weapon.
I said, put your weapon down and I'll hand them
to you, and the guy said, give me the kid,
and then he takes his weapon off of me and
he puts it on too.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Alan Diaz, Alan Diaz, the AP photographer.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
She goes, put your camera down, and Alan says no.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
The officer pointed the gun back in the direction of
Donato and you can.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
See this red little laser coming through. It is right
right on us, right on me and Elian.
Speaker 6 (16:18):
And Elian was petrified.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
I mean, can you can't imagine a six year old
waking up on the middle of the night. I'm an
adult and I'm petrified. I remember saying, sir, put it down,
and I guess I'll hand them to you.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Then a woman agent appeared in the room where Donato
held a lean. The armed agents ordered Donato to hand
e lean over to the woman. Donato finally agreed. The
(16:55):
entire time, the photographer, Alan Diaz, took pictures of this.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Then he's just clicking off pictures. I hand over Elion
to the lady and I heard the word bingo, and
I learned later bingo means that they got him, and
they were running out, and I ran out after them,
and I pleaded with the man, can I please go
with you, because he knows me very well. I don't
(17:23):
know where you're taking him.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
The officers fend the Donato off and rushed out, trying
to make their way to a waiting man with a
lion behind the party.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Now you got to imagine there was craziness. All the
love and all the kindness that was outside now has
turned to violence in people's minds because they came there
with pepper spray and with tear gas and with battering rams.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Remember there were dozens of protesters camped outside of Alan's
home and they were leave it. Some of them tried
to prevent the agents from living. The agents used force
to get through the crowd.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
We had to fight our way back to the three cars.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
And they beat these people down, I mean not necessarily,
but their goal was to get eli on and to
get out of there.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Jim says that the protesters outside started throwing objects at
the officers.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
If anybody was going to get hurt, it could have
been all on. They were throwing coolers and chairs, and
that's why it took a lot of agents to keep
the crowd dispersed and away from the vehicles.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
As federal agents rushed to get Elian in the car. Ramon,
the protester who had tried to stop the agents at
the front door, was still on the floor trying to
recover from being hit with a rifle.
Speaker 6 (18:59):
I was scared any conscience, and I saw his two
fee going like that as they rushed out, and I
got up immediately to deal with the people because people
got upset. That was the only moment that there was
up from there that there was filets that I wasn't
able to control.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
The crowd shouted at the agents as they got a
land in the car. You get out now. It was
shortly after five am. It had taken them three minutes
to get inside the house, gravelan and get out. But
those three minutes would be remembered forever by many Cuban
(19:36):
Americans as the moment the US government seemed to betray
its own people on Easter weekend.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
I mean, gotto mighty countries are at war with each other,
they at least honor each other's religious holidays, and here
we weren't even thought of that for American citizens. And
so there was a part of me that just thought,
you know, this can't happen.
Speaker 8 (20:15):
It took three minutes. In three minutes, six year old
Alien Gonzales, dressed in a T shirt, draped in fear,
was gone calculated chaos by heavily armed agents from US
Immigrations who sprayed anyone in their past with pepper straight.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
It was forced met by an.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
That Saturday morning before Eastern Wall to wall coverage of
the raid dominated global TV news.
Speaker 9 (20:43):
April twenty second, two thousand Federal agents raid the Little
Havanah home of the Gonzales family, Elion Is seized.
Speaker 10 (20:51):
It played NonStop on CNN and all these channels.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Alaferer, Cuban American historian.
Speaker 10 (20:57):
And the image that was always shown was that iconic
image of a soldier with a gun and a helmet
pointing a gun at not necessarily at a Leian, but
Leian was being held by one of the fishermen who
had become close to the family.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Remember this was Alan Diaz, the Kuban American photographer with
the AP who was in the room with Donato and
Elian as agents storm in. By the way, Alan Diaz
had gotten close with a family who had agreed to
let him photograph should the raid ever take place. Even
the government knew Alan might be in the house during
Operation Reunion Attorney General Janet Reno said they had nothing
(21:38):
to hide. It's Allan DS's photograph that became part of
the mythmaking of the Elian case. And yet, like much
of this story, there is much more to it than
meets the eye. In the iconic image.
Speaker 10 (21:52):
They're hiding. It looks like in a closet. They're against
the closet and the military guys pointing a gun at them,
and Elian looks avoid.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Those military looking guys were actually Border Patrol agents. In
the photo, one of the agents is in the hallway,
the other in the room with Donato a Alien. Both
agents are wearing olive green combat uniforms, black helmets and
large goggles. They have walkie talkies and they are wearing gloves,
and they are holding big black guns. In the photo,
(22:26):
the agent in the room points the gun in the
direction of Donato a Alien. Donato is holding Alien his
forearm between the boy and the gun. All three of
them have their mouths open, seemingly shouting or crying, But
the Lion's face is the most memorable. His eyes squinted
in terror, like when you flinch bracing for something to
(22:49):
hit you, his eyebrows furrowing shock and his mouth hangs
as if he's shrieking in panic. His tender age is
so obvious in this picture. He's a terrified little boy
with a grown man pointing a gun in his direction.
This photo was instantly seared in American consciousness.
Speaker 7 (23:15):
I think most of us were taken aback by the
pictures in the press.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
This is Petrometo. He served as Assistant Secretary of State
for the Western Hemisphere at the time.
Speaker 7 (23:25):
It gives you a moment in time. It doesn't mean
that that's the way the whole raid took place. It
doesn't mean that Elean was screaming and yelling the whole time.
But that snapshot, that one snapshot, was what was plastered
all over the international press.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Other photos of the raid surfaced, like the one where
the female agent carries Alyan to the car trying to
avert protesters. The agent wincess as she tries to avoid
being hit, and Alyan is crying hysterically, his face scrunched
in horror onto the agent in his plat boxer underwear
(24:03):
and a white T shirt. This photo spread resentment against
Janet Reno, Bill Clinton and his Democratic administration.
Speaker 11 (24:13):
The image was shocking. It was an intense image. I
think there are a few images ingrained in my mind
as someone who was my age, and I think the
twin hours, and I think Elliott I.
Speaker 12 (24:26):
Knew that he had been severely traumatized when his other
perished and the other people on the boat perished, and
I realized he was being taken away in the dark
of night from in effect, the new mother figure in
his life, Mighty Slaicius, And it was done in a
terrifying way.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Ala Ferrer, the Cuan American historian Tulla's an anecdote that
shows how much people blamed Attorney General Janet Reno. Do
you remember how your mother reacted to the raid?
Speaker 10 (25:03):
Oh, she was. She used to read the newspaper all
the time, then Wibel Harald and there was a front
page picture in one day of Janet Reno, and she
took her scissors, her sewing scissors, and tore out the
eyes of Janet Reno. That's how she felt. I mean,
she was just and she you know, my mother was
a lovely, funny, warm, warm woman, but she was so
(25:28):
angry and it was just such an emotional, visceral response
to the raid.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
But Attorney General Janet Reno said the operation was a success.
Speaker 9 (25:41):
Juan Miguel Gonzalez wants to be with his son and
that will happen now. Law enforcement personnel were on the scene,
were authorized too, and did make the final call as
to win to enter the Gonzales home because this was
a very carefully timed law enforcement operation.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
But her words meant nothing to Allian's family and to
most Miami Cubans, because Reno had been raised in Miami.
They thought she would have no better. They saw her
as a trader, and not just her, the entire government
and especially the Democrats who were in power.
Speaker 13 (26:20):
And you know what, Jennerno, even though if it would
have been three minutes or thirty seconds, it happened, and
the harm was done, and I was done to a
kid that's been through a lot. And I am ashamed
that the president allowed something like this because he has
a family.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Even in Cuba. The raid cost Shark. Here is her
red Gardiners, the journalists who lived in Cuba at the time.
Speaker 14 (26:46):
I also remember the people in the streets, and I
was wondering myself, as a teenage Cuban, why the FBI
is fighting there its own people. Doesn't all America think
the same way?
Speaker 1 (27:02):
It wasn't the FBI that removed Ilian from the home,
by the way, but the point stood. Even Cubans in
Cuba were surprised by the US government. The raid was
an unusual moment for Cuba and the United States. For
once Havana and Washington agreed on something. The US had done,
(27:26):
something that aligned with the interests of the Kuban government.
The US had acted against Cuban exiles on American soil,
a group that had long been welcomed and protected by
the US government. But to six year old Elean on
a helicopter with federal agents, those politics were irrelevant.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
I recall Elien being in the helicopter and gie, I mean,
what six year old child wouldn't be overwhelmed being in
a helicopter above a city like Miami, which is like glowing.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
It was twilight at this point, and Elian looked out
the window over Miami, the city lights contrasting with the
dark ocean waters.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
He was like kind of overwhelmed, not in fear, but
just like in amazement.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Jim and Elian flew to Homestead Air Force Space just
outside of Miami. That's where a medical treeash unit evaluated
Elian once he was cleared, Jim and Elian boarded a
Leer jet to go to Andrews Air Force Space outside
of Washington, d C, where Elian would finally be reunited
(28:50):
with his father.
Speaker 5 (28:52):
We made small talk with him. We had some, you know,
kid items that he could occupy himself with. It's a
couple hours flight Andrews Air Force Base.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Recently I read a New York Times article about this flight.
The psychiatrist who was with Lean in the flight at
one point could not remember the Spanish word for a stepmother,
so he told Lean that he was going to see
his papa and his mama. When Elean heard the word mama,
his face changed, tension surfacing in his eyes, and then
(29:32):
Elean sat there quietly. He didn't cry, just like he
didn't cry when he was found alone at sea.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
He looked out the window the whole time.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Here was Alean surviving another storm, and after that storm
(30:15):
would come the server lining Elian would finally be with
his dad.
Speaker 15 (30:20):
It was truly a sincere reunion, but they would still
be stuck in the US as Alien's Miami relatives tried
to get the Supreme Court underside.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
That's next week, Chess Peace the Lian Gonzales Story is
a production of Utuda Studios in partnership with Iheartsmichael Tura
podcast Network. This show is written and reported by me
Pennilei Ramirez with Maria Garcia, Nicole Rothwell and Tasha Sandoba.
(30:57):
Our editor is Maria Garcia, additional editing by Marlon Bishop
or Senior producer is Nicole Rodwell. Our associate producers are
Tasha Sandoval and Elisabeth Loental Torres. Sound designed by Jacob
Rosati with help from Stephanie Levo, and our intern is
Evelin Fajardo Alvarez. Our senior production manager is Jessica Elis,
(31:21):
with production supports from Nancy Trujillo, Francis Poon and LOLIMR Marquez.
Mixing by Stephanie Levo, Julia Caruso and j J Coruvin.
Fat checking by Media Bautista. Scoring and musical creation by
Jaco Rosati and Stephanie Levo and credits music from Los
Aceros Or. Executive producers are Marlon Bishop and Maria Garcia.
(31:46):
Legal review by Neil Rossini. Huturo Media was founded by Mariainojosa.
For more podcasts, listen to the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts
or wherever you listen to your favorite show. Ampeny Later, Mills,
see you in the next episode. Now see youth episode.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Yeah h
April twenty one, two thousand, was a sunny day in Miami.
Thames were in the mid eighties, not a drop of rain,
and it was the start of Easter weekend. Protesters were
still outside Aliant's relatives home, but despite the commotion outside,
Elian's cousin Mary Lacy's tried to keep things normal inside.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
We were in the house with his little cousin making
Easter eggs that we were supposed to find today in
my backyard.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
There were at least eight relatives inside the home, including
two other children besides Elian.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Now this is a house full of people. When I
say a house full, was a small, little home, not
a slow home.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
This is the Nato dal rimple. Remember the man who
rescued the liam from the ocean. He'd become pretty close
with the family and he would go to their house
practically every day. And this night, thanks Seamed come.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
I have a couple of little Cuban coffees with some people,
and they were praying very peacefully.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
While the family hung out in the front of the house.
There were lawyers in the back room negotiating with the government,
trying to find a way to keep Elian in the US,
and with the Miami family. One of the lawyers, Money Das,
said that good Friday, during the day, we were told.
Speaker 4 (01:23):
Point blank, this agreement is acceptable to the Attorney General.
It was faxed to her office because she wanted to
see a facts of it. We have basically told the
media that it looks like we're done. It looks like we.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
Have a deal.
Speaker 1 (01:43):
The moon rose that they turned into April twenty second.
Elean was restless that night.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
And his words to me were, I love you Allah,
I said, I love you too. And the other words
he said to my father was I am very scared.
Something's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Something did happen. Just after five am on that clear night,
the family heard a big pound at the door, a
pound that would change everything. A penny letter Mitz and
(02:33):
this is chess peace. Delian Gonzalez story a production of
Utudo Studios in partnership with Iheartsmichael Tura podcast Network. Before
(02:58):
that faithful night in a pro two thousand, the US
government had been talking with Alians Miami relatives for months.
Speaker 5 (03:06):
There was a lot of negotiation over a long period
of time between people from Washington, DCA and attorneys and
those a whole cast of characters.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
This is Jim Goldman, the Immigration and Naturalization Services director
in charge of Alliant's case. His agency was trying to
figure out how to reunite Alian with his father, but
Alian's Miami relatives wanted the government to agree to certain terms.
The relatives had proposed that a lean and the family
(03:41):
be moved to a neutral place in South Florida, and
there Alian's father, Juamiel could join them and reunite with
the boy. They would all remain under the same groove
until the whole thing was settled.
Speaker 4 (03:55):
I think we owe it to them to government of
room somewhere and let them talk it through and see
if they can come up with a solution to the
problem that they decided.
Speaker 1 (04:04):
This is money. Yes again, one of the lawyers who
represented Elian's Miami relatives, not that.
Speaker 4 (04:11):
Some politician or some lawyer or some judge decide, but
let them make the decision.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
According to Money, they were just waiting for the final
sign off from the government.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
Things look like they're going to be okay.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
And then at three am they heard back from the
Attorney General and some of the terms had changed, but
time was running out. You see, Money said that the
Miami lawyers taught the government they would tune Lean over
if they received a court order.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
We understand if a court a judge is telling us
that this is what we have to do, we are
prepared to do it.
Speaker 5 (04:53):
Not a problem.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
But the Miami family had already ignored an official order
to turn the child in. Attorney General Janet Reno had
standard the deadline for them to turn Elan in several times. Meanwhile,
Elean at this point had not been seen in public
for days. So the Miami relatives and the government had
different versions of how negotiations were going.
Speaker 5 (05:17):
Every day there would negotiations, negotiations, and negotiations. Nothing seemed
to work.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
While the talks with the family were ongoing, Jim Goldman
was put in charge of developing an operational plan.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
To execute a rescue and recovery operation.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
For three months, his team put together the plan. The
government called it Operation Reunion.
Speaker 5 (05:46):
The basic plan called for us to go to the
door where Alien was being held, knock on the door,
give commands in English and Spanish, identify ourselves and notify
them they were executing a judicial order search Ward and
that wi Wan Alien Gonzales.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
But the big question was with the Land's Miami relatives
and the people around their home resist if so. Jim
had a border patrol tactical unit meant for high risk
situations at the ready.
Speaker 5 (06:21):
We had what's called a breaching team, a team of
agents that had special tools in order to breach a door.
If they did not open the.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Door, Jim would be knocking on the door himself. In
case the Miami family did not cooperate, Jim knew his
team had to act fast, get inside the house, locate
a lian, and get out of there as quickly as possible.
Speaker 5 (06:44):
Mind you, this was a sophisticated process, a.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Plan with more than two hundred and fifty law enforcement
officials from different agencies. The idea was to rush a
lean out of the home and get him in the
air as soon as as possible.
Speaker 5 (07:01):
The plan was to take him from the home to
watch an island where he would be put in a helicopter.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
The helicopter ride would start the process to reunite with
his father. Jim waited for orders from the highest levels
of the US government.
Speaker 5 (07:17):
I think even President Clinton might have been involved in
some capacity. I know that a call came in to
the US Attorney who was sitting with us, and basically
that ignited the final green light.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
The orders came, it was time to execute Operation Reunion.
Jim and his team took off. It was about five
in the morning on April twenty second. Soon he would
be knocking on the door where Alyan State and the
authorities praised themselves for how Alliance relatives might react. Just
(08:23):
after five in the morning, Ramon's Aul Sanchez was camped
outside of Alian's relatives home in Miami. He had been
leading the protest there for weeks.
Speaker 6 (08:32):
I knew that if Alian was sent back, and I
said many times, he's going to be turned into a
fanatic of the Cuban dictator.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
Ramon was friends with the lawyers inside the house and
they had told him that negotiations were going well. Manidias.
Remember one of the lawyers said that the mediator told
him that night that Attorny General Duino was happy with
the progress.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
You're going to be happy with what she has to say,
which is the first time I felt like the government
of the United States was on my side. And I said, great,
that's what I want to hear. He said, but don't
go to see you stay up.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Money stayed up waiting for confirmation of an agreement between
the Miami family and the government. He was speaking with
Aaron Puthurst, a renowned Miami lawyer who was standing in
as an unofficial mediator.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
And then finally a very nervous call, very anxious call
from Aaron who says to me, I don't know what's happened.
Speaker 1 (09:41):
Money was a stunt. In the week hours of the morning,
they learned the government had changed the neutral location in
Miami to the DC area, a term that last arrow
Ileane's great uncle was not comfortable with.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
You know, I got to get the best reaction from
a client at four in the morning. I said, look,
let's just wait, let's just wait till the morning. Then
he calls me back and he goes, it's worse. You know,
I have five minutes to decide.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Five minutes to decide the family would be willing to
peacefully surrender Ellen. Now, Money couldn't believe it. He woke
up the family and just as he was updating them,
he heard commotion outside where Ramon was talking to other
protesters camped in front of the house.
Speaker 6 (10:31):
Suddenly I see that the people looking, you know, their
eyes got big, looking towards my back. You know, I
was facing them, and like when I look back and
saw them coming, I saw the authorities coming. I mean,
they were all these marshals.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Ramon immediately knew something big was about to happen.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
We're coming great right now.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
He'd been teaching the protesters something he called a human
chain of Salidy, when people hooked their arms together to
make it hard to get through them. He ran to
the front of the house to try to stop the agents.
Speaker 6 (11:09):
Whenever I joined my two hands over my head, that
would signal that we will rush and do the chain.
And I did that. I did the signal, and everybody
rushed the chain. But we didn't have time.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
The federal agents came in too fast.
Speaker 6 (11:25):
And I rushed inside and I stood in the door.
I was expecting for them to hand me a court order,
which is what we in said. Well, the court order
was a rifle. Body hit in my head and they
left to unconscious.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
Mary Lacy's was in the house with Elan and other relatives.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
You hear banging all over the door. You don't know
who it is. We didn't know who it was.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
God for Bed.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
We thought it was the Cuban government coming inside my house.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
That big pound at the door was Jim Goldman. Jim
announced himself and his team and that they were executing
a warrant.
Speaker 5 (12:08):
US Immigration special agents opened the door. We have a
surge horn up there, and he.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Says he was outside knocking and he could hear movement
inside the house.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Matters only got worse because they refused to open the door.
As I'm banging on the door and yelling, I could
obviously hear feel and sense them moving barricades up to
the door.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
I couldn't imagine that there was going to be guns
outside and people saying get down or will shoot.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Here is Donato again, the man who rescued Elian and
who showed up at the house that night.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
And the next thing you know, I see Eli on
He's crying and I should have been the last person
that should have had him in my arms. But he
fell right into my arms and I grabbed them and
I held them, and I'm hearing a battering. Ran at
the door and I ran into one of the bedrooms
and it was locked. I ran into another one and
(13:11):
it was locked.
Speaker 5 (13:12):
I had no choice but to breach that door. They
entered to secure the perimeter, to make sure that we
were going to meet armed resistance to make sure that
someone wasn't holding Ilean hostage.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
As Donata tried to find a safer place with Lelyan,
the family lawyer, Money Yes watched the agents storm in,
and all of a.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Sudden, I found myself with a little red dots on
my chest, not knowing what to do, and of course
the tear guys, so all of a sudden, her eyes
all teared up.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
Money thought, was this really happening when just a few
hours ago an agreement seemed so close, when Money knew
Janet Reno from her days in Miami politics and had
even supported her before.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
No, there's no way, you know.
Speaker 4 (14:03):
First of all, they know us. I mean, it's like
we could all be dead, right, because it's not even
the intentional act. It's the unintentional act of somebody bursting
into a house holding a machine gun with a figure
on the trigger, Like so many people in a very
very small room, a little push or shelf could be
(14:24):
misinterpreted and shots go off and everybody's dead.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
The house was filled with shouts. Mary Lacy's squeamed at
the agents.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I beg you, please don't let the boy see the guns. Please,
don't give them to you. Please his eyes, mother's death.
Don't let him see this, don't give.
Speaker 7 (14:44):
You the boy.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Meanwhile, Donato panic in the front of the house. He
banked on a bedroom door and Ilian's great uncle Lace
let him in. Remember, Donato says, he was carrying Alian
in his arms, and in the room with them were
Lilian's great aunt and uncle and a news photographer from
the Associated Press, Alan Diaz, who a family friend had
(15:10):
led into the house as the agents rushed in.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
So I'm thinking, I got to protect him. They're going
to kill us, We're all going to die in here.
So I'm trying to look in the closet.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Donato walked into a closet to hide, with a leanne
steel in his arms.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
There, I was leaning up against this closet full of clothes.
I was squatched up against there, and the door bust open,
and there's a federal armed agent with a weapon on me,
and he's saying, give me the kid, give me the
blankety blank kid. And I said no. I said, I'm
(15:48):
not going to give them to you. I said, you're
going to hurt him. I said you have a weapon.
I said, put your weapon down and I'll hand them
to you, and the guy said, give me the kid,
and then he takes his weapon off of me and
he puts it on too.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
Alan Diaz, Alan Diaz, the AP photographer.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
She goes, put your camera down, and Alan says no.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
The officer pointed the gun back in the direction of
Donato and you can.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
See this red little laser coming through. It is right
right on us, right on me and Elian.
Speaker 6 (16:18):
And Elian was petrified.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
I mean, can you can't imagine a six year old
waking up on the middle of the night. I'm an
adult and I'm petrified. I remember saying, sir, put it down,
and I guess I'll hand them to you.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
Then a woman agent appeared in the room where Donato
held a lean. The armed agents ordered Donato to hand
e lean over to the woman. Donato finally agreed. The
(16:55):
entire time, the photographer, Alan Diaz, took pictures of this.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Then he's just clicking off pictures. I hand over Elion
to the lady and I heard the word bingo, and
I learned later bingo means that they got him, and
they were running out, and I ran out after them,
and I pleaded with the man, can I please go
with you, because he knows me very well. I don't
(17:23):
know where you're taking him.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
The officers fend the Donato off and rushed out, trying
to make their way to a waiting man with a
lion behind the party.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Now you got to imagine there was craziness. All the
love and all the kindness that was outside now has
turned to violence in people's minds because they came there
with pepper spray and with tear gas and with battering rams.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
Remember there were dozens of protesters camped outside of Alan's
home and they were leave it. Some of them tried
to prevent the agents from living. The agents used force
to get through the crowd.
Speaker 5 (18:14):
We had to fight our way back to the three cars.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
And they beat these people down, I mean not necessarily,
but their goal was to get eli on and to
get out of there.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Jim says that the protesters outside started throwing objects at
the officers.
Speaker 5 (18:31):
If anybody was going to get hurt, it could have
been all on. They were throwing coolers and chairs, and
that's why it took a lot of agents to keep
the crowd dispersed and away from the vehicles.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
As federal agents rushed to get Elian in the car. Ramon,
the protester who had tried to stop the agents at
the front door, was still on the floor trying to
recover from being hit with a rifle.
Speaker 6 (18:59):
I was scared any conscience, and I saw his two
fee going like that as they rushed out, and I
got up immediately to deal with the people because people
got upset. That was the only moment that there was
up from there that there was filets that I wasn't
able to control.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
The crowd shouted at the agents as they got a
land in the car. You get out now. It was
shortly after five am. It had taken them three minutes
to get inside the house, gravelan and get out. But
those three minutes would be remembered forever by many Cuban
(19:36):
Americans as the moment the US government seemed to betray
its own people on Easter weekend.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
I mean, gotto mighty countries are at war with each other,
they at least honor each other's religious holidays, and here
we weren't even thought of that for American citizens. And
so there was a part of me that just thought,
you know, this can't happen.
Speaker 8 (20:15):
It took three minutes. In three minutes, six year old
Alien Gonzales, dressed in a T shirt, draped in fear,
was gone calculated chaos by heavily armed agents from US
Immigrations who sprayed anyone in their past with pepper straight.
Speaker 5 (20:32):
It was forced met by an.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
That Saturday morning before Eastern Wall to wall coverage of
the raid dominated global TV news.
Speaker 9 (20:43):
April twenty second, two thousand Federal agents raid the Little
Havanah home of the Gonzales family, Elion Is seized.
Speaker 10 (20:51):
It played NonStop on CNN and all these channels.
Speaker 1 (20:55):
Alaferer, Cuban American historian.
Speaker 10 (20:57):
And the image that was always shown was that iconic
image of a soldier with a gun and a helmet
pointing a gun at not necessarily at a Leian, but
Leian was being held by one of the fishermen who
had become close to the family.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Remember this was Alan Diaz, the Kuban American photographer with
the AP who was in the room with Donato and
Elian as agents storm in. By the way, Alan Diaz
had gotten close with a family who had agreed to
let him photograph should the raid ever take place. Even
the government knew Alan might be in the house during
Operation Reunion Attorney General Janet Reno said they had nothing
(21:38):
to hide. It's Allan DS's photograph that became part of
the mythmaking of the Elian case. And yet, like much
of this story, there is much more to it than
meets the eye. In the iconic image.
Speaker 10 (21:52):
They're hiding. It looks like in a closet. They're against
the closet and the military guys pointing a gun at them,
and Elian looks avoid.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Those military looking guys were actually Border Patrol agents. In
the photo, one of the agents is in the hallway,
the other in the room with Donato a Alien. Both
agents are wearing olive green combat uniforms, black helmets and
large goggles. They have walkie talkies and they are wearing gloves,
and they are holding big black guns. In the photo,
(22:26):
the agent in the room points the gun in the
direction of Donato a Alien. Donato is holding Alien his
forearm between the boy and the gun. All three of
them have their mouths open, seemingly shouting or crying, But
the Lion's face is the most memorable. His eyes squinted
in terror, like when you flinch bracing for something to
(22:49):
hit you, his eyebrows furrowing shock and his mouth hangs
as if he's shrieking in panic. His tender age is
so obvious in this picture. He's a terrified little boy
with a grown man pointing a gun in his direction.
This photo was instantly seared in American consciousness.
Speaker 7 (23:15):
I think most of us were taken aback by the
pictures in the press.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
This is Petrometo. He served as Assistant Secretary of State
for the Western Hemisphere at the time.
Speaker 7 (23:25):
It gives you a moment in time. It doesn't mean
that that's the way the whole raid took place. It
doesn't mean that Elean was screaming and yelling the whole time.
But that snapshot, that one snapshot, was what was plastered
all over the international press.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Other photos of the raid surfaced, like the one where
the female agent carries Alyan to the car trying to
avert protesters. The agent wincess as she tries to avoid
being hit, and Alyan is crying hysterically, his face scrunched
in horror onto the agent in his plat boxer underwear
(24:03):
and a white T shirt. This photo spread resentment against
Janet Reno, Bill Clinton and his Democratic administration.
Speaker 11 (24:13):
The image was shocking. It was an intense image. I
think there are a few images ingrained in my mind
as someone who was my age, and I think the
twin hours, and I think Elliott I.
Speaker 12 (24:26):
Knew that he had been severely traumatized when his other
perished and the other people on the boat perished, and
I realized he was being taken away in the dark
of night from in effect, the new mother figure in
his life, Mighty Slaicius, And it was done in a
terrifying way.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Ala Ferrer, the Cuan American historian Tulla's an anecdote that
shows how much people blamed Attorney General Janet Reno. Do
you remember how your mother reacted to the raid?
Speaker 10 (25:03):
Oh, she was. She used to read the newspaper all
the time, then Wibel Harald and there was a front
page picture in one day of Janet Reno, and she
took her scissors, her sewing scissors, and tore out the
eyes of Janet Reno. That's how she felt. I mean,
she was just and she you know, my mother was
a lovely, funny, warm, warm woman, but she was so
(25:28):
angry and it was just such an emotional, visceral response
to the raid.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
But Attorney General Janet Reno said the operation was a success.
Speaker 9 (25:41):
Juan Miguel Gonzalez wants to be with his son and
that will happen now. Law enforcement personnel were on the scene,
were authorized too, and did make the final call as
to win to enter the Gonzales home because this was
a very carefully timed law enforcement operation.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
But her words meant nothing to Allian's family and to
most Miami Cubans, because Reno had been raised in Miami.
They thought she would have no better. They saw her
as a trader, and not just her, the entire government
and especially the Democrats who were in power.
Speaker 13 (26:20):
And you know what, Jennerno, even though if it would
have been three minutes or thirty seconds, it happened, and
the harm was done, and I was done to a
kid that's been through a lot. And I am ashamed
that the president allowed something like this because he has
a family.
Speaker 1 (26:39):
Even in Cuba. The raid cost Shark. Here is her
red Gardiners, the journalists who lived in Cuba at the time.
Speaker 14 (26:46):
I also remember the people in the streets, and I
was wondering myself, as a teenage Cuban, why the FBI
is fighting there its own people. Doesn't all America think
the same way?
Speaker 1 (27:02):
It wasn't the FBI that removed Ilian from the home,
by the way, but the point stood. Even Cubans in
Cuba were surprised by the US government. The raid was
an unusual moment for Cuba and the United States. For
once Havana and Washington agreed on something. The US had done,
(27:26):
something that aligned with the interests of the Kuban government.
The US had acted against Cuban exiles on American soil,
a group that had long been welcomed and protected by
the US government. But to six year old Elean on
a helicopter with federal agents, those politics were irrelevant.
Speaker 5 (27:50):
I recall Elien being in the helicopter and gie, I mean,
what six year old child wouldn't be overwhelmed being in
a helicopter above a city like Miami, which is like glowing.
Speaker 1 (28:08):
It was twilight at this point, and Elian looked out
the window over Miami, the city lights contrasting with the
dark ocean waters.
Speaker 5 (28:19):
He was like kind of overwhelmed, not in fear, but
just like in amazement.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Jim and Elian flew to Homestead Air Force Space just
outside of Miami. That's where a medical treeash unit evaluated
Elian once he was cleared, Jim and Elian boarded a
Leer jet to go to Andrews Air Force Space outside
of Washington, d C, where Elian would finally be reunited
(28:50):
with his father.
Speaker 5 (28:52):
We made small talk with him. We had some, you know,
kid items that he could occupy himself with. It's a
couple hours flight Andrews Air Force Base.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
Recently I read a New York Times article about this flight.
The psychiatrist who was with Lean in the flight at
one point could not remember the Spanish word for a stepmother,
so he told Lean that he was going to see
his papa and his mama. When Elean heard the word mama,
his face changed, tension surfacing in his eyes, and then
(29:32):
Elean sat there quietly. He didn't cry, just like he
didn't cry when he was found alone at sea.
Speaker 5 (29:41):
He looked out the window the whole time.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Here was Alean surviving another storm, and after that storm
(30:15):
would come the server lining Elian would finally be with
his dad.
Speaker 15 (30:20):
It was truly a sincere reunion, but they would still
be stuck in the US as Alien's Miami relatives tried
to get the Supreme Court underside.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
That's next week, Chess Peace the Lian Gonzales Story is
a production of Utuda Studios in partnership with Iheartsmichael Tura
podcast Network. This show is written and reported by me
Pennilei Ramirez with Maria Garcia, Nicole Rothwell and Tasha Sandoba.
(30:57):
Our editor is Maria Garcia, additional editing by Marlon Bishop
or Senior producer is Nicole Rodwell. Our associate producers are
Tasha Sandoval and Elisabeth Loental Torres. Sound designed by Jacob
Rosati with help from Stephanie Levo, and our intern is
Evelin Fajardo Alvarez. Our senior production manager is Jessica Elis,
(31:21):
with production supports from Nancy Trujillo, Francis Poon and LOLIMR Marquez.
Mixing by Stephanie Levo, Julia Caruso and j J Coruvin.
Fat checking by Media Bautista. Scoring and musical creation by
Jaco Rosati and Stephanie Levo and credits music from Los
Aceros Or. Executive producers are Marlon Bishop and Maria Garcia.
(31:46):
Legal review by Neil Rossini. Huturo Media was founded by Mariainojosa.
For more podcasts, listen to the iHeartRadio app Apple podcasts
or wherever you listen to your favorite show. Ampeny Later, Mills,
see you in the next episode. Now see youth episode.
Speaker 3 (32:05):
Yeah h
Host
Peniley Ramírez
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com