Dear Editor,
...The steps taken by the AAPS on the Elián González matter are most commendable and we hope that AAPS continues to be one of the loud voices of the medical community to appeal to the conscience of the nation in how this was handled by the Clinton Administration.

My name is Alfredo Manrara and my field of work is real estate. My wife is Dr. Lydia Usategui, psychiatrist, who had met the child Elián González and his Miami family --- although she was not Elián's treating physician.

On the day of the raid by federal agents, Lydia was at the González home as described in her article in this issue. I was there accompanying her and, within 10 feet of the home's front door, was thrown by the agents against a fence, sprayed with pepper gas, and witnessed the screaming child being taken right in front of me to the waiting van....

Alfred Manrara, Jr.
(with Dr. Lydia M. Usategui)
Miami, FL

Correspondence originally published in the Medical Sentinel 2000;5(5);149-151. Copyright©2000 Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS).