Elián González poised to be top Cuban lawmaker decades after Florida deportation

Boy at center of Clinton-era US-Cuba feud called ‘most worthy of Cuban youth’ by government newspaper

When he was six, his terrified face – photographed during a raid by armed immigration officers on his family’s Miami home – became one of the most memorable images of cold war tensions between the US and Cuba.

Now 29, and more than two decades after he was forcibly deported from Florida to his homeland at the direction of the US supreme court, Elián González is poised to become one of Cuba’s most senior lawmakers.