In Elian's case, too, the charges and counter-charges are now about child abuse: whether his Miami relatives, who took him in last November, are turning the boy against his father, or whether his father would treat him more cruelly by taking him back to Cardenas.

ECONOMIST: The pawns of Fidel

Most deep-in-hock countries have no genuinely independent judiciary and treat their citizens capriciously and cruelly.

FORBES: Fact and Comment