The seizure of Elian Gonzalez

The two different versions of the same day are reflected in the photographs. Splashed across British front pages yesterday were the dramatic pictures of heavily armed U.S. immigration officers in a predawn raid, removing a clearly terrorized 6-year- old Elian Gonzalez from the custody of his great uncle in Miami. In the eyes of many Cuban exiles in Florida, the photographs in the British press portrayed the true picture: an over-weaning federal government, ready to resort to "Gestapo" tactics, battering down a door with weapons at the ready, to snatch the child.

Yet, in reality, it was the Florida exiles who forced the administration to belatedly adopt its strong-arm tactics. From the moment Elian was released from a U.S. hospital last November into the custody of his great uncle, the exiles have used every resort to keep him in the U.S. and not to return him to his father in Cuba. It was not the federal government, but Cuban exiles who have been breaking the law.

Having faced the exiles down, the establishment is in a much better position to pursue a long overdue renegotiation of its relationship with Cuba. The economic blockade, introduced four decades ago, is not going to end this side of the election, but once Castro goes, stand by for change.

-- The Guardian, London