On Father's Day, the so-called Cuban 'balserito' Elián González announces that he will be a father

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This was the international battle for the balserito Elián González 1:42

(CNN Spanish) - Elián González, the Cuban boy whose custody case caused diplomatic tensions and attracted intense media coverage, will soon be a father, he announced on Facebook on Sunday.

González, 26, made the announcement on Father's Day and said that his own father, Juan Miguel González, who brought him back from the United States to Cuba, was his inspiration as he prepared to become a father for the first time.

"Soon I will begin to understand what it means to be a father," wrote Elián González on his Facebook page. "But what I know so far is my father and I hope to do as well as he did me."

In a message sent to CNN on Sunday, González said that he and his fiancée expected to have a baby later this summer.

On Thanksgiving Day in 1999, Gonzalez, 5, was found holding on to a tire off the Florida coast. His mother and nine others drowned after the rickety boat they were traveling in capsized while trying to reach the United States from Cuba.

González went to live with relatives in Miami who refused to return him to his father in Cuba. Juan Miguel González said he was unaware of his ex-wife's plan to take the boy on the dangerous trip to the United States.

The case fueled tensions from the Cold War era between the United States and Cuba as González's father and Miami relatives fought in US court for custody of the child. United States immigration officials finally decided that Gonzalez should be returned to the custody of his father, who came to the United States to advocate for the return of his son.

Eventually, armed US federal agents broke into the Miami home where Gonzalez was staying with his uncle to reunite him with his father. A famous photograph of a terrified Gonzalez looking at an armed American agent won a Pulitzer Prize.

Riots broke out in Cuban-American communities in Miami, where many felt that Gonzalez's return to Cuba would bring a propaganda victory to Fidel Castro.

After the United States Supreme Court refused to get involved in the case, the father and son traveled back to Cuba.

González grew mostly out of the spotlight in Cuba. In a 2017 interview, he told CNN that he agreed with what his father had done and that he strongly supported the Cuban government. But he also said he hoped one day to reconcile with his Miami relatives.

Elián González