Cuba's Elian Gonzalez now a bearded college graduate
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Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy at the center of a tense international custody battle in 2000 that became a cause celebre on both sides of the Florida Straits, is a college graduate.
Cuban government website Cubadebate says the now 22-year-old Gonzalez received his diploma in industrial engineering from the University of Matanzas.
Cubadebate said Friday that he read a letter from his class to former leader Fidel Castro at the graduation ceremony in which the newly minted professionals promised "to fight from whatever trench the revolution demands."
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The website of the local newspaper Giron published a photograph of Gonzalez with a full beard.
Gonzalez was 5 when he and his mother left Cuba in late 1999 along with others on a boat that eventually sank, killing most of its occupants.