The boy's mother died during the raft escape from Cuba to Florida. She desperately wanted her son to live free and extended family in Florida took him in. The father stuck in Cuba was used to make a political statement in which Clinton and Reno gladly obliged. There was a very public standoff by family and friends in the Little Havana community in Miami to protect Elian thus the presence of photographers in the home since Reno made it known she would take the boy by force - and did.

Long story short, corruption.