By Daily Mail Reporter PUBLISHED: 12:34 EST, 8 December 2013 | UPDATED: 03:32 EST, 9 December 2013 Elian Gonzalez, the Cuban boy who survived a perilous raft journey that killed his mother and became a symbol of troubled relations between the United States and Cuba has left the country for the first time since he was a little boy. Gonzalez who turned 20 on Friday  traveled to Quito, Ecuador, as part of a 200-member Cuban delegation to a week-long youth conference there. Gonzalez recently said in an interview published in Cuba's state-run media that his fame continues to follow him in Cuba.
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Elian Gonzalez was returned to Cuba at age 6 after a tragic attempt to get to the U.S.
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He had not left Cuba since then until now; he is going to Ecuador for a youth conference
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'Fidel Castro for me is like a father,' Gonzalez said in a recent interview
'From the moment @placeholder knew of my case, they took to the streets to call for me to be sent back to my country.'