Elian's Miami home still damaged

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MIAMI, April 22 (UPI) -- Five years after federal agents broke into a Miami home to snatch Elian Gonzalez, the house remains as it was, damaged, but serving as a museum to his memory.

The home now includes photographs of all the incidents surrounding the young Cuban's sojourn to the United States. There are display cases full of the little boy's toys, the clothes he wore and a race-car bed the family says was broken by armed Customs agents five years ago Friday, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

In what was a touchy diplomatic incident, the 6-year-old boy was returned to his father in Cuba where he now lives.

"Since this was a historic event, I thought it was necessary to have this as a homage to the community here, for all that they've done," said Delfin Gonzalez, a great-uncle who bought the house and turned it into a museum.

Elian Gonzalez arrived in south Florida on an inner tube after a boat trip from Cuba had taken the life of his mother and others. He was taken in by relatives living in Miami, who fought efforts to return him to his father.